Welcome to a whirlwind tour of the panamapacific International Exposition. Thank you so much to the California Historical society for hosting tonights event and especially adam, jason, and the director, and to lillian for putting together this lovely event. Also thanks to c. H. S. For copublishing my book. You can see why i felt the book had found its home when i spoke to malcolm. If youd like to hear about other events, you can sign up on my mailing list which i will have after the show. Also, we are going to publish them on the site. If you want to hear about other topics, please sign up. Tonight i will be presenting a brief introduction to the great worlds fair held in 1915 also known as the ppie. I hope you will enjoy the stories i selected tonight. First, i will give you a little background on the fair, why and how it came to be built, and then we will take a short tour of the grounds before peering into a few of the exhibits and finishing off with a jaunt down the midway. Afterwards, i will be happy to take questions. Here we have rueben brooks hale , founder of the Hale Brothers department stores. He first suggested San Francisco host 1915 worlds fair in january of 1904. He wrote, the occasion could be advertised as the opening of San Francisco as the center of trade for the Pacific Ocean or in commemoration of the completion of the panama canal. This was a highly optimistic prediction considering the french government had spent 23 years trying to build the canal and failed. For the next two years after 1904, planning for the fair proceeded slowly because there was plenty of time. Then this happened. On april 18, 1906, fate threw a huge wrench into the works. Todays seismologists calculate the great quake at 92 7. 8. Subsequent fires raged for three days. It is estimated 3000 people died and 500 million of property was lost. This would be about 12. 3 billion today. However the great men of the , city saw the exposition as a possible linchpin of the recovery effort. As the wreckage was cleared away and reconstruction commenced they revived the idea for the fair less than nine months after the cataclysm. As rebuilding progressed through 1910, San Francisco engaged in new orleans in an intense congressional battle for federal endorsement for a worlds fair. After defeating new orleans in early 1911, San Francisco had to decide where to place the exposition. Everyone in the city had his favorite site. All of the local fraternal organizations, clubs, and improvement districts weighed in. As the official historian of the fair wrote, the curious fact developed that each organization seemed in favor of the site nearest it. [laughter] one editorial cartoon suggested building the exposition on a giant truck and moving it around the city to each site on a different day of the week. The three most popular suggested sites were lake merced, the western portion of Golden Gate Park, and harbor view, which is known as the marina today. After a number of proposals , including this one, which encompassed 1800 acres spread over harbor view, the district the richmond district, and Golden Gate Park, harbor view alone was finally selected. The harbor view site was a natural amphitheater of 600 acres. Lombard street on the south, the presidio on the east and west. The site posed unique challenges. About 70 acres were waterlogged. All this area here had been partitioned and sold years previous under the assumption that they would one day be filled. The lots were protected by a seawall. But at high tide, lay as much as 20 feet underwater. The first step for the site was to clear structures off the site in preparation for the dredging and filling operation. Owners of the land could keep their structures and move or demolish them or sell them to the Exposition Company. The Exposition Company bought only the building and leased the land. On april 13, 1912, the exposition president fired up John Mcmillan and the filling of the water lots began. Next came the design of the fair. The Exposition Company hired city planning expert Edward Bennett to prepare a block plan for the exposition. The layout of the exhibit palaces differed significantly from previous american worlds fairs. While the expositions at chicago, buffalo, and st. Louis had striven for a unified appearance, they still consisted of individual buildings set within a plan. In San Francisco, a system of palaces and courts was devised in which eight central palaces were similar in plan and differed only in the facade detail. They were separated by grand courts each designed by a , different architect. Lewis polk said, in general outline, they are to blend together. It is to be one grand palace as the orientals build them spreading over the area at , harbor view colonnade after colonnade, dome after doan, arch dome, arch after arch penetrated by avenues, flanked by gardens, and aladdins alice aladdins palace facing the azure harbor and mountains beyond. This compact scheme had advantages because as we all know, the mild california climate can be not so mild. This walled citadel provided shelter from wind and fog. At previous large worlds fairs, visitors had visitors have become exhausted by the great distances between the buildings which were as much as 400 feet apart. Here they were more closely spaced at about 150 feet. All of the structures were timberframed with the exception of the tower of jewels, the gallery portion of the palace of fine arts, and the dome of the palace of horticulture. It was steel. Most of the lumber arrived by ship to the exposition. Single horses dragged trucks with planks to the building sites. Here you can see a horse pulling lumber in the lower lefthand side of the slide. You can see the scale with which they were building in timber. In addition to the architecture, the ppie featured a number of notable new Design Elements including the landscaping, color plan, and illumination. The color plan was novel. Chicagos columbian exposition of 19 1893 was popularly termed the white city. Subsequent fairs largely conformed to its precedent. The ppies director of color, a wellknown illustrator envisioned a city of ivory and warm, orientals hues. In addition to ivory, his color scheme included great, orange, oxidized copper green, cerulean blue, and tones of pompeian red. Every area was required to conform to his palette by going right down to the guards uniform. The bottoms of the pools were painted blue. The murals reflected his choices. Even the road surfaces were treated with roasted beach sand to create a pinkish color. John mclaren, superintendent of Golden Gate Park was enlisted as , chief of landscape early in the planning process. He worked closely with the architects to achieve stunning landscape effects. Two years prior to the exposition, he built six greenhouses in the presidio and cultivated the plants that would adorn the grounds. More than one million bulbs were planted. The flowers in the part tears parterres were changed three times over the course of the exposition so they were always in bloom and coordinated with the color scheme. This is two postcards of the same view of the tower of jewels showing entirely different types of plantings. Another notable feature of the grounds was the immense hedge fence that ran for four city blocks from the fillmore street gate to the scott street main entrance seen here. It was grown in boxes and then affixed to a vertical framework. The hedge was eight feet thick and 20 feet high. It rose in 36foot arches of the main entrance of the fair. This beautiful color picture is from donna huggins. Walter darcy ryan was appointed chief of illumination. His spectacular lighting effects included the tower of jewels and the mosquito fleet of spotlights on the tops of palaces each focused on an individual flag or piece of sculpture. Ryan popularized this idea of indirect lighting which changed the standard for architectural illumination permanently. The exclamation point was the tower of jewels. 435 feet high, 43 stories, it dominated the skyline. Described by one writer as quote, italian renaissance with , byzantine modifications designed to suggest an aztec tower, it is no wonder critics were and will do less ambivalent about the tower of jewels. The building had seven tiers culminating in a sphere and was framed in more than 1400 tons of structural steel. Most memorable were the gems. Ryan ordered 102,000 of these twoinch diameter austrian glass jewels to be hung on the building. They came in colors, diamond ruby, aquamarine, and jonquil. Because they were mounted on hooks, they had, quote, easy play in the air currents causing them to glimmer and scintillate in the day and shine at night. Now, lets go on a two or of the fair. We will go from west to east. We will visit some representative structures in each area. At the far western end, about 287 acres of the presidio were used. To the east lay the palace of fine arts. The eight main central palaces were similar in structure. In the South Gardens were the palace of horticulture and the Festival Hall. Flanking the eastern end of the palace block was the gigantic palace of machinery. Towards the southern end, the midway started extending seven blocks east and terminating at van ness avenue. The area of the presidio extended west of the racetrack which we can see here. , structures included the livestock exhibits and athletic fields. Part of the palace of fine arts and the state and international pavilions. 27 states and territories and 21 foreign nations constructed buildings for the fair. Fortunately for you, im only going to discuss three. [laughter] first of all, the oregon building, which was a rustic version of the parthenon. Its outer colonnade consisted of 48 huge douglas fir columns, the same number as the outer colonnade of the parthenon in athens and the same as the number of u. S. States in 1915. The fiveacre California Building was the largest state pavilion ever built for next four and exposition. For an exposition. Its west housed Administrative Offices while the eastern wing showcased five acres of exhibits from all 58 california counties. Of the 21 foreign pavilions, the example i will use today is the pavilion of the netherlands. The netherlands pavilion was not meant to evoke historical dutch buildings, as many of the foreign pavilions did, but rather modern architectural concepts. Personally i think it is a strong portent of art deco in its lines even though it was yet a decade away. The sole ppie building is beloved but has interesting stories to tell. In august of 1912, the Architectural Commission of the fair reviewed early plans for all of the palaces. They were especially impressed with the lovely charcoal sketches of the palace of fine arts and congratulated architect willis polk on the design. Willis polk said the drawings were by his friend Bernard Maybeck and maybeck ought to be engaged to finish the design. The commission agreed wholeheartedly. The palace cost about 630,000 to build. The elegiac character was said to have been inspired by the painting the isle of the dead. On its site was an existing brackish lagoon regarded as a nuisance until maybeck transmuted it into an asset. The curved gallery was one of the few structures built of steel. This was not because of structural necessity but because of the Fire Insurance requirements for the palace. For the art that was going to come into the palace. The eight main palaces were designed by william saville. These were the palaces of food products, known as the palace of nibbling arts the palace of , education, architecture, transportation, manufacturing, mines, and liberal arts. On the western line were two of the concave half domes and these faced the lagoon of the palace of fine arts. You can imagine now youre not going to be looking at a row of very lucky homeowners, with this but this facade. In the South Gardens on the west side, stood the extravagant palace of horticulture. Its glass dome was larger than that of the pantheon. The dome was often likened to an opal. The other building in the south garden was the Festival Hall. The 4000foot auditorium housed a new organ and many prominent organists of the day entertained throughout 1915. The Central Court of the universe was inspired the by the massive oval piazza at st. Peters basilica in rome. This piazza measured more than 700 feet long and 520 feet wide. Looking down from its current curved cornice were 90 star maiden sculptures by sterling calder. While petite in appearance, each was actually six feet tall. 60 novagems adorned her crown. The caption of this slide provides an excellent summary of the enormity. This is the view looking south along one of the three great knaves of the palace of machinery. These reached 75 feet wide and 101 feet high through the entire length of the building which is 968 feet. This building is nearly 1000 feet long. The structure is the largest wooden building in the world containing more than 38 million cubical feet of space. The midway of the ppie was the joy zone. It comprised about 65 acres. It was 100 feet wide. The division of concessions to create the facades express what was offered inside, ideally a person could identify the type of attraction without reading any signage. This resulted in a quirky, chaotic, and fantastical mix of sculpted building fronts. Historian todd said it was the great amusement street with its golden buddha, tall suffragette, and twin soldiers, its chinese pagoda, the giant holding back the waters of the dayton flood its cliffs and crags of the grand canyon, and neptune and his seahorses. The whole scene had a grand and imposing aspect in spite of its necessary garishness. I will point out how quickly it was built. 1913. Here it was with almost nothing constructed. A celebration was held for the groundbreaking of the palace of machinery. By may, the main vaults were rising. On december 30, Lincoln Beachey flew his airplane through the palace in the worlds first indoor airplane flight. About a year before opening day, you can see the palace of machinery is almost complete while the forms of the other palaces are coming along. Here is the view from the west. There are no visible signs of Festival Hall or tower of jewels. The palace of fine arts is a muddy pit. You can see the form of the lagoon taking shape. Finally here is a series of , panoramas that illustrates the evolution of the exposition. Once these palaces were completed, it was left only to fill them. The palaces were filled with the latest in technological achievements, something stressed by management which only gave , awards for articles developed over the prior 10 years. Lets take a look at a few of the thousands of exciting new developments illustrated at the ppie. First of all, airplanes. As we know, the Wright BrothersFirst Successful flight at kitty hawk was in december 1903 so airplanes were not a factor at the 1904 saint louis exposition. Thus the ppie was the first , International Exposition with airplanes as a major component. Tragically, Lincoln Beachey was killed at the fair on march 14 when he attempted an upside down flight. The strain of the maneuver caused the wings to shear off sending him into the bay. After some discussions, they returned with art smith highlighting. He dazzled crowds with his start flying including death spirals and night flights lit by fires on the canvas wings. This is closing night. The original sun maid raisin girl who posed for the famous picture on the box was lorraine collett. She went up in a plane and tossed raisins to the crowd. Ordinary citizens could enjoy perhaps their first ride in a plane. Take a look at the name of this concessionaire. For 10, you could take a 10minute flight from the harbor over the presidio, sausalito and alcatraz before landing. The correct pronunciation is Something Like lockheed. Oh. The two brothers used the 4000 profit they made at the fair to refound the lockheed corporation. Souvenir portraits you can have involved airplanes. Before 1915, you could not telephone the east coast. The first transcontinental phone call took place between phone Company Offices in new york and San Francisco. In new york was Alexander Graham bell. In San Francisco was thomas watson, who received bells very first telephone transmission 38 years earlier. The related transcontinental telephone call theater became one of the most popular exhibits at the fair. Description read, here you one enter a Little Theater and sit for half an hour. For the first 10 minutes, you hear a lecture on the development of the telephone. For the next 15 minutes, you watch Motion Pictures of the building of the transcontinental telephone line. Then you take a pair of receivers from the back of the seat in front of you and put them to your ears and new york is switched on the line. A boy in the new york office reads the headlines from the afternoon papers, describes the weather conditions, and switches on the phonograph and you hear canned music by telephone over a wire 3400 miles long. It is a thrilling sensation, especially to anyone who has just traveled from the Atlantic Coast to be carried back in an instant to a place from which he has traveled five days and nights by train to San Francisco. I think we can all contemplate how much Telephone Technology has changed in the span of our own lives and understand how visitors to this exhibit felt. Another display that your big that drew big crowds was the 14ton giant typewriter. This behemoth moved slowly but fascinated onlookers. Daily news was typed on the typewriter. The bulletin shown in this picture reads liverpool, may 7, the lusitania with a heavy passenger list of americans was torpedoed and sunk off the irish coast this afternoon. The star of the show in the palace of transportation was a working Ford Assembly line. It signified a real sea change in the mode of personal travel. Automobiles had increased hugely since the 1904 exhibition and the Assembly Line concept was also developing rapidly. The first finished model t rolled off the line within four minutes of the opening of the exposition. Cars moved down the line at about 15 inches a minute. Each car started as an empty chassis pulled by a chain. Everything including wheels, engine, transmission, interior , windshield, and top were attached. Gas was added and the car drove off the line under its own power. Here is a days consignment of 18 cars completed each day. The finished cars drove to the local ford distributor and were shipped all over the country. The model mine attracted more than 4 million visitors during the exposition. That is a little less than one in four people who came to the fair that saw the exhibit. Passengers stepped into an elevator cage and were told they were going to descend a few hundred feet. The cage would shake, air would rush up, the rock walls would pass by. But this was illusory. They would exit at the same level. After witnessing demonstrations of current Mining Technology visitors entered a darkened room at which you may look at real specimens of radium. Because that is a good idea. [laughter] and see the palpitating rays of this most marvelous of recent physical discoveries, the infinitely energetic element that perpetually emanates power without loss of its capacity. In 1915, radium was a wonder material with tremendous potential. Now we know radium is incredibly dangerous. It is treated as calcium by the body and can mutate bone cells and cause cancer. Handling has been blamed for marie curies premature death. Another captivating exhibit in the palace of mines was a complete 11,000 square foot model post office. A visitor standing on the elevated gallery could drop a piece of mail into a chute and watch it travel all the way to the outbound mail pouch were or the General Delivery window. They received a special cancellation as seen on this postcard. A card mailed at the station was readied at the General Delivery window within three minutes with an appointment to meet friends to be made. One could mail himself a picnic lunch by parcel post in the evening and pick it up at the exposition the next day. Day. After examining all of these exhibits, i think we deserve to have a little fun. The ppie planned an extensive Entertainment Program to keep the fair fresh and interesting for locals and draw far away visitors to see the marquee acts. Two of the most famous were John Philip Sousa and the composer. Composer saintsaens. The piece was a melange of two pieces and was performed by an orchestra of 80, the military band, 300 voices, plus pipe organ and piano. Here is a snippet. Sousa also wrote a special composition for the fair, the pathfinder of panama. Shall we listen . I must say as an alumna of the university of california marching band, that is my favorite. [laughter] other stars of the ppie included a dancer, la loie fuller and her troupe. She received top billing over saintsaens. She is a fascinating character and influenced San Francisco history. She started as marie louise fuller from illinois but became an important figure in dance and stage lighting. Her first innovation was a voluminous garment of white silk which she moved using long wands. Here is a short video of her in her heyday. She had stopped dancing by the time of the ppie. This was colorized later. She is considered a pioneer of the aesthetic dance. Later, she pioneered special stages where she would dance on a glass plate lit by colored light arrangements. Her talent included the art of an actress, writer, and electrician. A sculptor said her creation would live forever. After she retired from dancing she and her troupe traveled the world. This is who performed at the ppie. Here they are in front of the pavilion. I think they are not really dancing. Maybe they are taking a nap. La loie encouraged the rich Society Matron to start collecting sculpture which led to the creation of the palace of the legion of honor. The dancer influenced the fabric of San Francisco. Lets finish our tour with fun on the joy zone. The most profitable attraction was the working model of the panama canal which could accommodate 1200 visitors at a time. It consisted of 144 cars that circled a track. One magazine described it as we describe it we see ourselves on a moving platform on the model of the canal which lies in a depression 20 feet below us. A duplex telephone receiver is hanging on a hook in front of our chair. We remove it and place it over our ear so that we may hear the lecture that describes the points of interest along the canal. Miniature ships travel, trains run along the tracks bordering the canal. The steamers drop hausers. Housers. Towlines are magically attached to them and engines tow them. The secret lies in the application of electromagnets moved about on tracks placed beneath the model on the route of the working model above. The panama canal model took in over 338,000, but it cost about 500,000 to build. Despite its huge success, it still lost money. For the final attraction, lets take a ride on the arrow scope aeroscope. The aeroscope operated like a counter weighted bridge. The concrete counterweight tipped the scales at 380 tons. The whole apparatus weighed 700 tons. The Passenger Car could carry 120 people on two levels. The differences in weight for each carload were balanced by water tanks. It was so perfectly balanced it only took two 11horsepower motors to lift the arm into the air. The entire machine was mounted on a turntable enabling the arm to describe a great helix as it ascended. Each trip was about 10 minutes long, about 3. 5 spent in the ascent. From the top, visitors could see seven counties. Im sure that among this erudite audience, we know what else joseph b. Strauss might have designed. [laughter] yes. You work there. That is not fair. He was the chief engineer for the golden gate bridge. So i hope you have enjoyed your , whirlwind tour of the ppie. [applause] thank you. I will have my mailing list if youre interested in further lectures. You can go to the ppie 100 website. Jason assures me well put the other appearances up there. Once again, thank you so much to California Historical for hosting. [applause] sunday afternoon at 4 00 eastern, join us for reel america. This weekend, a challenge to democracy, documenting the Living Conditions of japaneseamericans held in arkansas and wyoming internment camps during world war ii. That is tomorrow at work p. M. Eastern at 4 p. M. Eastern. This sunday, dr. Francis jensen francews s jensen. The cause and effect of consequences, of actions, are not very clear to them because the frontal lobe is not at the ready. They are not readily accessible. The connections cannot be made quickly for splitsecond decisionmaking. Also dont forget, a lot of the hormones are changing in the body of young men and women, and the brain has not seen these yet in life until you hit teenaged years. The brain is trying to learn how to respond to these new hormones that are rolling around, locking onto receptors and synapses of different types. They are trying to sort of trial and error. This contributes to this roller coaster kind of experience that we watch as parents. Sunday night at 8 p. M. Eastern and pacific on q a. You are watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend, on cspan3. To join the conversation, like us on facebook. Up up next panel of historians and Museum Professionals talk about challenges in presenting womens history to a nonacademic audience. They make recommendations and discuss upcoming projects. This roundtable was part of the american historical Associations Annual meeting and is about two hours. Them our first president offer speaker is president and ceo of the society. Under her guidance the society is reinvigorating its