Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission Part 44

CONNECTICUT.

The legislature of Connecticut appropriated $100,000 for the partic.i.p.ation of that State at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The following commissioners were appointed by the governor of Connecticut, according to an act of the legislature pa.s.sed April 2, 1903:

Frank L. Wilc.o.x, president: Charles Phelps, vice-president; J.A. Vail, secretary-treasurer; Edgar J. Dolittle, Isaac W. Birdseye, Phelps Montgomery, Mrs. Louis R. Cheney, Mrs. George H. Knight, Miss Anne H.

Chappell. National commissioners: Frederick Betts, Mrs. John M.

Holcombe. Resident commissioner, Hobart Brinsmade.

The Connecticut State Building was intended to represent colonial design. In its main exterior features it was a replica of the Sigourney mansion in Hartford, built about 1820 by Charles Sigourney, whose wife Lydia Huntley Sigourney, was highly regarded as a poet in her time. In later years it was the home of Lieut. Governor Julius Catlin. The architect of the Connecticut building was Edward T. Hapgood, of Hartford. The interior plan was designed to combine colonial ideas with modern requirements, which were carried out to such extent as to make it one of the most attractive and homelike structures on the exposition grounds. It was erected by The H. Wales Lines Company, of Meriden, Conn., at a cost of about $31,000, and official inspectors p.r.o.nounced it the best-built edifice at the exposition. The walls of the rooms on the first floor and the upper hall were hung with five different designs of exquisite silk tapestry, the gift of the Cheney Brothers, of South Manchester. These added a "finis.h.i.+ng touch" that found no comparison elsewhere on the grounds. The furnis.h.i.+ng of the building was in excellent harmony with its colonial design. Highboys and lowboys, Chippendale, Hepplewhite and Windsor chairs, Sheraton and thousand-legged tables, flax wheels and warming pans were a.s.sociated with canopied high-post bedsteads, while corner cupboards revealed rare copper-l.u.s.ter china of almost untold value. As a colonial exhibit it was unique, and had it been entered in compet.i.tion for reward would most surely have been given the grand prize. The souvenir catalogue issued by the Connecticut commission contains a list of 514 articles, most of them loaned from various Connecticut homesteads. The catalogue also contains a list of oil paintings and water colors, all by Connecticut artists, which embellished the walls of the building, the selection being made by Charles Noel Flagg, of Hartford, chosen by the commission for that service.

The collective exhibits of Connecticut were in the following-named departments: Education, farm products, tobacco, dairy, horticulture (including pomology), herbarium, public parks and residential grounds (photographs), and sh.e.l.lfish. The grounds surrounding the Connecticut Building form part of the State horticultural exhibit.

On account of the limited appropriation it was necessary to abandon the live exhibit of Connecticut in the Fish and Game Building. With the limited amount of stock which the oystermen had, owing to the lack of "set" for a number of years, they considered it a detriment to advertise, and it was only through a regard for the commission that any of the larger cultivators would contribute to the exhibit.

The exhibit was advantageously placed in the center of the Forest, Fish, and Game Building and attracted a great deal of attention from visitors and will undoubtedly prove of material advantage to an immense State industry.

On one side of the booth the strictly State exhibit was placed, showing in the cases the oysters of all ages, their enemies, and various curiosities in growth and development. Over the cases were maps of the oyster grounds, with photographs showing the oyster houses, docks, and steamers. On the opposite side were individual displays of several of the larger cultivators.

Connecticut made a good display. Fifty-eight different specimens of nuts attracted much attention, many of the varieties shown now growing in the West and South, and being seen for the first time by many of the visitors.

Much interest was manifested in flint (Yankee) corn, as it was called by people of the West and South, and many samples were given to people from all parts of the United States and to some from foreign countries.

Samples of gra.s.s taken from a field yielding 121 tons to the acre far surpa.s.sed any yield of alfalfa claimed from the rich soil of California or any other Western State.

Exhibit of tobacco leaf and the continuous and frequent favorable comment demonstrated clearly that its reputation as a State growing fine quality of wrapper leaf is confined to no small area.

Connecticut has the credit of being the only New England State which made any dairy exhibit, and in this exposition Connecticut did what she has never before attempted. An entry was made for the permanent exhibit as well as for the b.u.t.ter sent for scoring. The lower part of this s.p.a.ce was filled with packages of b.u.t.ter, both tubs and prints, handsomely arranged so as to make an artistic display.

This was surmounted with a form like a large open book, on one page of which was the coat of arms, and the other the Charter Oak, both made from the b.u.t.ter from Connecticut and from true models.

The coat of arms and the Charter Oak were exact reproductions.

These s.p.a.ces were kept at low temperature by refrigeration, and the exhibit lasted until the end of the fair.

Connecticut was the first State to have her exhibit completed.

About 775 square feet was a.s.signed to Connecticut in Horticultural Building, and some time before the opening of the exposition, this s.p.a.ce was fitted with tables and other needed appliances. The s.p.a.ce a.s.signed came within the section where only low installation was allowed. As a result, those in charge were enabled to install the exhibit at much less expense than antic.i.p.ated, which accounts for much of the unexpended portion of the appropriation set apart for this display. The location was very desirable, being open, airy, and very accessible from all parts of the hall.

The exhibit was opened the first day of the fair and was one of the very few that had the tables fully occupied the opening day of the exposition. The display, mostly of apples, but including pears and cranberries, was kept up from stock in storage, using from 5 to 10 barrels per week until about July 15, when the first apples of 1904 and some small fruits were available. Soon after that regular supplies were sent forward, but not until September 15 was the storage stock fully disposed of and the tables wholly filled with fruit of 1904 and kept in that condition until the close of the exposition, making the exhibit of great credit to the State, and the only one from New England.

During the season all cultivated fruits grown in the State, except blackberries and raspberries, were shown, even the so-called tender or perishable fruits being sent in large lots, and usually arriving in very satisfactory condition. It was expected, at first, that apples and pears would const.i.tute the exhibit, but a trial s.h.i.+pment convinced the committee that it was perfectly feasible to send the finer fruits, and this was continued as long as they were to be obtained.

In horticulture, Connecticut, after careful consideration, decided to make only so much of the exhibit of living plants as was needed for the decoration of the grounds around the Connecticut Building. This was done apparently to the satisfaction of those interested in the fair and to the pleasure of people who visited the exposition, for uniformly it was spoken of as being one of the best planted and decorated grounds around any State building.

The collection of the herbarium was most successful. The botanists of the State gave a great deal of gratuitous labor that it might be completed. It was exhibited on revolving screens, the first attempt ever made to so exhibit the flora of a State. It was so arranged that every specimen was readily available for examination and study. This exhibit, after the close of the fair, was presented to Trinity College, Hartford, at the request of the college authorities, they paying all expenses of its return and agreeing to give it suitable location for exhibition in their Natural Science Building, where it can be seen and studied by all interested.

The parks and public grounds of the State were well represented by photographs, as were also the private grounds. These photographs have been returned to Hartford and are now stored in the capitol, awaiting final disposition.

In school-garden work Connecticut was a leader, having one of the best equipped school gardens in the country. Believing that a knowledge of what this State has done in this work should be known and recognized at the fair, a committee was created to arrange for a school garden and conduct the same during the World's Fair, and their work was most excellent.

GEORGIA.

_Members of Georgia commission_.--Governor J.M. Terrell, ex officio chairman; O.B. Stevens, commissioner of agriculture; Col. Dudley M.

Hughes, commissioner-general; Glasc.o.c.k Barrett, a.s.sistant commissioner-general; Hugh V. Was.h.i.+ngton, vice-commissioner-general; F.

B. Gordon, commissioner; H.H. Tift, commissioner. Advisory board: John M. Egan, Col. P.A. Stovall, E.L. Rainey, I.P. c.o.c.ke, Dr. L.H.

Chappell, Harry Fisher, Oliver Porter, Dr. J.H. Turner, W.J. Kinkaid, A.H. Shaver, W.J. Neal, Dr. T.H. Baker, McAlpine Thornton, James M.

Smith, Dr. J.F. Erwin, H.M. Franklin, E.B. Hook, Col. J.F. De Lacy, W.S. Humphries, John A. Cobb, R.C. McIntosh, James B. Gaston.

Situated on one of the main avenues of the exposition, known as "The Trail," and immediately north of Virginia and opposite Tennessee and Ohio, was a replica of the home of the late Gen. John B. Gordon at Kirkwood, near Atlanta, erected by the Georgia State commission as the official headquarters of Georgia. The building was paid for by a fund raised by public subscription, at an approximate cost of $16,000. The house was furnished entirely with Georgian manufactures. The cost of furnis.h.i.+ng the building was approximately $3,000.

Although the appropriation made by the State of Georgia was only $30,000, the amount was largely increased by popular subscription from counties and cities. The $30,000 appropriated by the legislature was designated as a basis for increasing the State's museum.

Owing to the lateness of the date that the work of preparing for the exposition was begun--October, 1903--Georgia did not make so complete and comprehensive an exhibit of her natural, educational, and manufacturing advantages as she would otherwise have made.

In the Forestry, Fish, and Game, Georgia contributed a very fine exhibit, at a cost of $3,500, of which much the larger part was composed of Georgia pine. In this department there was a complete exhibit of naval stores, beginning at the pine tree, showing in detail the different methods of boxing, gathering the crude products, tools used, distillation, turpentine, different grades of resin, and its different by-products. This was donated by the Board of Trade of Savannah, Ga., at an approximate cost of $2,000.

In the Agricultural Building, one of the most interesting exhibits contributed by Georgia was that of the manufacture of the celebrated Georgia cane sirup, which was demonstrated by two negro women serving waffles and sirup from a miniature log cabin. Sirup and cabin and expenses were donated by the Georgia Sirup Growers' a.s.sociation, and cost approximately $1,700. There was also a complete display of sea-island cotton in bales and types, together with threads and the various cloths manufactured from same, the cost of installation and maintenance being $2,400.

Possibly the most interesting and complete exhibit made by Georgia at the fair was the display of its cotton industry. This consisted of a pyramid containing cotton-seed hulls, meal linters, crude oil, surrounded by commercial packages of meal and hulls, refined oils and lard compounds manufactured from cotton seed. The material and maintenance cost $12,000. An exhibit of cotton products showing in detail cotton seed, cotton on the stalk and in bales, cotton-seed oils, crude and refined, and oil products, lard compounds, food cooked with cotton-seed oils, and cotton-seed hulls and meals for cattle feeding showed some of the many uses to which the cotton plant can be put. The most interesting display in this connection was that of a fountain flowing cotton-seed oil and surrounded by illuminated columns containing manufactured products of oils, such as soaps, etc. This display cost $10,000.

Georgia being to a certain extent a tobacco State, samples of the "weed"

indigenous to the State and said to be equal to the very best Cuba and Sumatra tobaccos were shown in the raw leaf and in cases. The exhibit cost approximately $2,900.

In the block immediately adjoining the cotton exhibit were displayed 86 commercial packages of forage gra.s.ses donated by farmers throughout the State, valued at $500; an exhibit of the silk industry, valued at $400; wheat, oats, field peas of seventy-odd varieties, rye, rice, barley, flour, bran, peanuts, pecan nuts, corn meal, and all of the varied agricultural exhibits. These were donated by farmers of Georgia. The freight, installation, and care of them was provided by public subscription. The cost of installation, freights, and care, including the proper show cases and gla.s.s containers, which belonged to the State museum, was estimated, in addition to the amounts enumerated above, at $12,000. Besides the above items, nearly every city of importance made appropriations to cover expenses of having prepared for distribution books and pamphlets calling the attention of the public to the many advantages of their several localities, at an estimated cost of $10,000.

Subsequently the Georgia commission to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition donated the entire furnis.h.i.+ngs of the State building to the Georgia Industrial Home at Macon, Ga., the only nonsectarian orphanage in the State.

The resolution creating the appropriation for the installation and exhibit of Georgia products, which was approved August 17, 1903, provided--

That the sum of thirty thousand dollars should be appropriated, to be expended in collecting and permanently preserving specimens of minerals, granite, clays, kaolin, marble, iron, and such other minerals and precious stones as may abound in or are found within the State; to further collect specimens of the field and forest, mills and mines, orchards and vineyards of this State, and such other matters and things pertaining to the character and the productiveness of the soils of Georgia; that when the specimens aforesaid were collected they should be deposited in the State museum, there to be safely kept and displayed; and that the exhibit thus collected should be displayed at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis, Missouri.

IDAHO.

_Members of Idaho commission_.--Gov. J.T. Morrison; James E. Steele, president; R.W. McBride, vice-president; Mrs. W.H. Mansfield, secretary; Martin J. Wessels, Idaho section Forestry Building; Dr. Harold J. Read; Clarence B. Hurtt, executive commissioner; Miss Anne Sonna; Miss Genevieve Vollmer.

Idaho was represented by a State building and by exhibits in four of the great exhibit palaces of the exposition. The building was situated upon the elevated ground east of the Palace of Agriculture, and the surroundings made it one of the most attractive spots of the exposition.

The Idaho Building was not big or imposing, but there were few State buildings on the World's Fair grounds that excited more interest or inquiry. The building was a bungalow with an open court, in which were gra.s.s and bright flowers. The structure, which was 60 feet square, was but 1 story high and contained ten rooms. The roof was of red tile and the exterior of cream-colored staff. The interior finish served to show the utility of Idaho woods for this particular use. Transparencies and mounted photographs ill.u.s.trated the vast forest resources of the State.

Around the court a row of heavy columns supported the overhanging roof, and a wide cloister behind the columns, paved with brick, afforded a charming resting place. At the close of the exposition the building was sold to a citizen of Texas, who is to have it reerected on his ranch, and it will still bear the name of "Idaho."

The exhibits of the State were shown in the departments of Education, Mining, Agriculture, and Horticulture. The State appropriation for the World's Fair was $25,000.

While not boasting a large acreage under cultivation, Idaho was a compet.i.tor at the World's Fair with the best of her sisters in the quality of her field products. The exhibit in the Palace of Agriculture was impartially chosen and fairly represented all parts of the State where agricultural interests have a foothold. In the exhibit were 47 varieties of wheat, 41 varieties of oats, 32 varieties of flax--the only specimen of white flaxseed known to exist, from the farm of Alonzo McWillis, of Rosetta, who received a gold medal for his exhibit. Wheat was shown weighing 62 to 64 pounds to the bushel in comparison with the standard of 60 pounds. Idaho barley weighs 53 to 54 pounds to the bushel, while the standard is but 48. A bunch of alfalfa of the second cutting was received early in October and was more than 6 feet high.

Displays of beans of many varieties, peas, corn, alfalfa, and clover seed all indicated the resourcefulness of Idaho soil.

It was not practicable to show Idaho melons, strawberries, and small fruits in fresh condition, but a display with a showy array of canned fruits and dried fruits of favorite sorts attracted attention. Idaho potatoes of the 5-pound cla.s.s were a part of the exhibit, along with turnips, carrots, parsnips, onions, and other vegetables. There was a small showing also of popcorn, sweet corn, and the field varieties.

The effort to make a complete fruit exhibit on behalf of Idaho had its justification in the wide advertising its fruit and agricultural lands would receive from an effective presentation of the products of the many fine orchards of the State. The exhibit contained many surprises, such as the soft-sh.e.l.l almonds. Idaho's grape display was a surprise to many of the States. In the exhibit were about a dozen varieties that are new in this country, the vines of which were brought from Persia and other eastern Mediterranean countries. Among these were the Hunisa, a dark grape which is regarded as a distinct gain to the Pacific slope grape-growing interests because of its fine flavor and sweetness and good keeping qualities.