Fairs and Expositions

World’s fairs and the smaller expositions which mimicked them were held in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (P.P.I.E.) celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal and celebrated the rebirth of its host city, San Francisco, after the devastating 1906 earthquake and fires. San Diego held a smaller fair, the Panama-California Exposition, the same year. San Francisco continued the world’s fair tradition in 1939 with the Golden Gate International Exposition (G.G.I.E.), built on the man-made Treasure Island in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. Unlike the earlier world’s fairs which usually employed classical motifs, the G.G.I.E. buildings were an interesting mix of modernism and Aztec and Mayan motifs.

The Fairs and Expositions collection consists of drawings, photographs, postcards, and publications that document a variety of fairs and expositions nationwide. The bulk of the material is from the two California World’s fairs: the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915 and the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939. Some material on other world’s fairs and smaller expositions, such as the Panama-California Exposition, is also included.