RON HENGGELER

August 3, 2015
The Panama Pacific International Exposition 100 Year Anniversary

2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), the World’s Fair celebrating the completion of the Panama Canal and showcasing San Francisco’s recovery from the devastation of the 1906 earthquake and fire and its emergence as a global city. While physical remains of the fair are few, it is fortunate that some buildings and decorative elements have been preserved in the Bay area. I recently discovered this narrated film that shows very rare footage of the Fair. The film is 25 minutes long and I highly recommend watching it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGXSkTOnw-A

The story of the PPIE, officially nicknamed the "Jewel City," began more than two decades before it opened, and surprisingly gained momentum following the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906. San Francisco leaders’ first thought, as they surveyed the nearly four square miles of shattered masonry and charred wood left by the disaster, was to rebuild. Their second thought was to throw a giant celebration and invite the world to come. Perhaps a judicious course would have been to delay or cancel the world’s fair the city had contemplated since 1891, but San Francisco—steep, brash, wayward San Francisco—was never known for its prudence.

This text respectfully taken from: "An Introduction to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition," excerpted from San Francisco’s Jewel City: the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, © 2015 by Laura A. Ackley, all rights reserved. http://www.ppie100.org/history/

The San Francisco Ferry Building

The numerals 1915 are installed on the tower of the Ferry Building in figures 11 feet, 6 inches high. The four numbers together are 27 feet long. The 240-foot tower is illuminated at night in white lights, exactly as it appeared during the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.The lights and the numbers were originally installed on the Ferry tower to celebrate the 1915 exposition, and they have been reinstalled to mark the 100th anniversary of the fair.

Detail of the tower of the San Francisco Ferry Building

The Panama–Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) was a world's fair held in San Francisco, in the United States, between February 20 and December 4 in 1915. Its ostensible purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely seen in the city as an opportunity to showcase its recovery from the 1906 earthquake. The fair was constructed on a 635 acre site in San Francisco, along the northern shore now known as the Marina District.

Constructed from temporary materials (primarily staff, a combination of plaster and burlap fiber), almost all the fair's various buildings and attractions were pulled down in late 1915. Intended to fall into pieces at the close of the fair (reportedly because the architect believed every great city needed ruins), the only surviving building on the Exposition grounds, Bernard Maybeck's Palace of Fine Arts remained in place, slowly falling into disrepair (although the hall used to display painting and sculpture during the Fair was repurposed as a garage for jeeps during World War 11 The Palace, including the colonnade with its signature weeping women and rotunda dome, was completely reconstructed in the 1960s and a seismic retrofit was completed in early 2009.

Detail of the dome of the Palace of Fine Arts

The video containing rare footage of the Fair is 25 minutes long and I highly recommend watching it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGXSkTOnw-A

Watery reflections in the Lagoon at of the Palace of Fine Arts

An enormous mural painted on canvas hanging in the Wilsey Court in the de Young Museum. The mural is to be a part of an upcoming exhibition titled:

Jewel City: Art from San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition

October 17, 2015 – January 10, 2016

The year 2015 marks the centennial of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), the San Francisco world’s fair that celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal and the city’s reconstruction following the great earthquake of 1906. The grand exposition covered 76 city blocks and boasted national and international pavilions showcasing innovation, industry, and the arts. At the heart of the PPIE was one of the most ambitious art exhibitions ever presented in the United States, encompassing more than 11,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, and photographs, in addition to a significant array of public murals and monuments. To mark this anniversary, Jewel City will revisit this vital moment in the inauguration of San Francisco as the West Coast’s cultural epicenter. The landmark exhibition at the de Young will reassemble more than 200 works by major American and European artists, most of which were on display at this defining event.

For more on the mural that is on display at the de Young Museum, read Carl Nolte's article.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/1915-fair-s-huge-mural-sees-the-light-after-6405611.php

The mural shown in the previous photo hung inside this arch that led one to the Tower of Jewels.

For more on the mural that is on display at the de Young Museum, read Carl Nolte's article.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/1915-fair-s-huge-mural-sees-the-light-after-6405611.php

The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

In the crowd, a child might be standing shoulder to shoulder with an actual gold rush forty-niner, a Civil War veteran, or a survivor of the Donner Party. And that same child would be transfixed by the images on her home television set sixty-four years later as she watched a man walk on the moon. The span of history witnessed by visitors to the 1915 Exposition reveals an era of astounding change. An examination of this event—perhaps the last in the original era of great world’s fairs—offers a kaleidoscope of culture and progress. The Exposition’s highs and lows echo into the twenty-first century.

Watery reflections in the Lagoon at of the Palace of Fine Arts

In name, the celebration commemorated the United States’ completion of the Panama Canal. More importantly to the city, and to California, it was intended to replace in the eyes of the world the image of a destroyed San Francisco. Organizers hoped the international exposition would increase tourism, settlement, and investment, and spur development and cement the Golden State as a trade gateway between Europe and Asia through the newly opened waterway.

Woman standing amid the Panama Canal Exhibit on the Zone 1915

My photo of a photo that is on display at the California Historical Society's show City Rising, San Francisco and the 1915 World's Fair

Detail of an enormous mural painted on canvas hanging in the Wilsey Court in the De Young Museum. The mural is to be a part of an upcoming exhibition titled:

Jewel City: Art from San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition

October 17, 2015 – January 10, 2016

For more on the mural that is on display at the de Young Museum, read Carl Nolte's article.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/1915-fair-s-huge-mural-sees-the-light-after-6405611.php

Detail of an enormous mural painted on canvas hanging in the Wilsey Court in the De Young Museum. The mural is to be a part of an upcoming exhibition titled:

Jewel City: Art from San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition

October 17, 2015 – January 10, 2016

For more abou the mural that is on display at the de Young Museum, read Carl Nolte's article.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/1915-fair-s-huge-mural-sees-the-light-after-6405611.php

Detail of an enormous mural painted on canvas hanging in the Wilsey Court in the De Young Museum. The mural is to be a part of an upcoming exhibition titled:

Jewel City: Art from San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition

October 17, 2015 – January 10, 2016

For more abou the mural that is on display at the de Young Museum, read Carl Nolte's article.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/1915-fair-s-huge-mural-sees-the-light-after-6405611.php

Palace of Horticulture from the Court of Four Seasons 1915

My photo of a photo by Willand Worden, from the show PORTALS OF THE PAST at the de Young

The city’s audacity was rewarded when the subsequent years of intense labor culminated in the triumphant 1915 opening of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. "Just think of what they have done!" said Current Opinion magazine. "San Francisco nine years ago was in ruins. To-day it is rebuilt; and…they have brought into being at the same time this superb International Exposition…." The PPIE aspired to present no less than "a microcosm so nearly complete that if all the world were destroyed except the 635 acres of land within the Exposition gates, the material basis of the life of today could have been reproduced from the exemplifications of the arts, inventions and industries there exhibited," stated the Fair’s official history. Essentially, the Exposition attempted to "curate the planet," a concept that seems grandiose and naïve by modern standards, yet was magnificent in its aspiration.

The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

The Panama-Pacific International Exposition was unique among world's fairs in that it could be surveyed in its entirety from the hillside to the south of the fairgrounds, as depicted in this diorama on display, and in countless panoramic photographs, illustrations, and paintings. This model, which shows approximately one third of the fairgrounds, was expertly crafted, with the grounds tipped slightly upward and the buildings foreshortened to exaggerate the viewers elevated vantage point. It was originally exhibited at the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition and displayed for years at the Presidio Army Museum with a nearly 8-foot-tall painted backdrop. It has been brought out of storage on Treasure Island for this exhibition.

The model is on display at the California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street in San Francisco. It is part of an exhibit titled:

City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World's Fair (PPIE)

The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

Giant Typewriter in the Underwood Typewriter Factory Booth in the Palace of Liberal Arts. 1915

My photo of a photo that is on display at the California Historical Society's show City Rising, San Francisco and the 1915 World's Fair

The Joy Zone 1915

Among the exhibits at the Exposition was the C. P. Huntington, the first steam locomotive purchased by Southern Pacific Railroad; the locomotive is now on static display at the California State railroad Museum in Sacramento. A telephone line was also established to New York so people across the continent could hear the Pacific Ocean. The Liberty Bell traveled by train on a nationwide tour from Pennsylvania to attend the exposition. After that trip, the Liberty Bell returned to Philadelphia and has not made any further journeys since.

My photo of a photo that is on display at the California Historical Society's show City Rising, San Francisco and the 1915 World's Fair

Detail of the model of the Panama Pacific International Exposition on display at the California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street in San Francisco. It is part of an exhibit titled :

City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World's Fair (PPIE)

February 22, 2015 to January 3, 2016

This Fair provided a lens through which to view the discoveries, celebrities, politics, arts, and zeitgeist of the era. Visitors could watch the assembly of a pair of Levi’s jeans or a brand new Ford, take in an avant-garde art display or listen to a speech by Teddy Roosevelt.

They could see a temple molded entirely from soap or a tiny rosebush made of gems—or butter. When tired of riding around a six-acre replica Grand Canyon or a five-acre model of the Panama Canal, attendees could ascend nearly three hundred feet into the sky in a "house" attached to a steel arm. If the midway did not attract, they could enjoy a daily rotation of bands, parades, pageants, and headlining entertainers, including bandmaster John Philip Sousa, renowned composer Camille Saint-Saëns, and flamboyant dancer La Loïe Fuller.

This video containing rare footage of the Fair is 25 minutes long and I highly recommend watching it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGXSkTOnw-A

The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

Reflection in the Lagoon at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

The Tower of Jewels 1915

Worden was at the height of his career at the time of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), the 1915 world’s fair held in San Francisco. As one of the exposition’s official photographers, he captured its spectacular architectural and sculptural creations by day and night. Art from the PPIE, including approximately 250 works by major American and European artists, is the focus of the exhibition at the de Young, Jewel City: Art from San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition, opening October 17, 2015.

My photo of a photo by Willand Worden, from the show PORTALS OF THE PAST at the de Young

A Novagem

The Tower of Jewels, which rose to 435 feet and was covered with over 100,000 cut glass Novagems. The 3⁄4 to 2 inch colored "gems" sparkled in sunlight throughout the day and were illuminated by over 50 powerful electrical searchlights at night.

The Nations of the West 1914

My photo of a photo by Willand Worden, from the show PORTALS OF THE PAST at the de Young

The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

The video containing rare footage of the Fair is 25 minutes long and I highly recommend watching it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGXSkTOnw-A

Even as the PPIE strove to present the finest of mankind’s products and achievements—a "comprehensive and representative contemporary record of the progress and condition of the human race," according to its director of exhibits—the Exposition also unintentionally exposed the evils of the era. Prurient shows and racist material were on display adjacent to booths offering delicacies, handicrafts, or the latest technologies. Radium, touted during the Fair as a source of bountiful clean power, eventually was proven lethal. The Palace of Education and Social Economy presented public health programs designed to improve quality of life around the world, but at least one ideology—eugenics—promoted what are now widely considered human rights abuses. And overshadowing every aspect of the PPIE was the Great War then engulfing half the globe.

My photo of a photo that is on display at the California Historical Society's show City Rising, San Francisco and the 1915 World's Fair

Detail of the Elephant Fountain in Sausalito.

The famous ‘Court of the Universe’ complex at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Expo was designed by William B. Faville, from Sausalito. Faville commissioned twelve full-size African Gray elephants, decked in finery, to be produced by the well-known ‘McKim, Mead & White’ design firm in New York City for his ‘Court of the Universe’ complex. At the conclusion of the 1915 San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the Expo displays were destroyed to make room for more post-earthquake rebuilding efforts in San Francisco. William B. Faville could not bare the thought of his beautiful flagpole elephants being destroyed, so he used his position to ferry his favorite two elephants and one beautiful fountain across the San Francisco Bay to his Sausalito home. The triangle-shaped park: Vina del Mar, in Sausalito, holds the 1915 Faville treasures.

The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

A Powwow of Blackfeet Indians staged by the Great Northern railway and Glaciel National Park, 1915

The fair's representation of native Americans conformed to the historical narrative about the inevitable triumph of pioneers in conquering the Western Frontier. Indian tribes appeared in the Joy Zone and other areas of the grounds for the entertainment of fairgoers.

My photo of a photo that is on display at the California Historical Society's show City Rising, San Francisco and the 1915 World's Fair

The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

Japanese Pavilion and Gardens, 1915

On February 24,1915 the Japanese Pavilion of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition was dedicated. In San Francisco's Jewel City, historian Laura Ackley writes: During the ceremony, Exposition president Charles C. Moore’s daughter, Josephine, pulled a silken cord and released water into a stream running through the country’s site. The winding waterway coursed under delicate arched bridges before tumbling down a cataract and into a miniature lake. Japan’s buildings, with latticed windows and curving eaves, were set within nearly four acres of manicured gardens and meandering paths. The Kinkaku-ji Temple, or Golden Pavilion of Kyoto, was the model for the largest structure in the compound, which included stone pagodas, two public teahouses, and a small sctures the tea ceremony.

My photo of a photo that is on display at the California Historical Society's show City Rising, San Francisco and the 1915 World's Fair

The Nations of the East 1914

My photo of a photo by Willand Worden, from the show PORTALS OF THE PAST at the de Young

The Lagoon of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

RACISM ON THE ZONE

While many of the ethnically themes attractions presented respectful, though sometimes inauthentic, portraits of foreign cultures, others were overly racist. Grotesquely exaggerated depictions of African tribesmen formed the exteriors of two attractions. Inside, patrons tried to knock the hats off figures representing foreign countries by throwing balls at them.

My photo of a photo that is on display at the California Historical Society's show City Rising, San Francisco and the 1915 World's Fair

The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

The video containing rare footage of the Fair is 25 minutes long and I highly recommend watching it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGXSkTOnw-A

Tower of Jewels, also known as the Tower of the Sun, was the central building at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition the 1915 world's fair held in San Francisco.

Designed by architect Thomas Hastings, of the firm of Carrere and hastings, the combination triumphal arch-and-tower was 435 feet (132.59 m) tall. It was covered with more than 100,000 Novagems, cut glass "jewels" that sparkled in the sunlight, and were illuminated at night by more than fifty spotlights. Originally named just The Tower, the "appellation 'of Jewels' became an addition to the original title, after the tower was thus gorgeously arrayed."

Box Set of Four Novagems 1915

My photo of a photo that is on display at the California Historical Society's show City Rising, San Francisco and the 1915 World's Fair

Festival Hall 1915

My photo of a photo that is on display at the California Historical Society's show City Rising, San Francisco and the 1915 World's Fair

Mesembryanthemum Hedge 1915

Our generation thinks that we created the green wall. However, 100 years ago, the "mesembryanthemum hedge" at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition was twenty feet high and 1150 feet long and far surpasses any current day green wall I've ever seen or heard about.

The hedge ran west from the Fillmore Street gate past the Scott Street Entrance and then an additional block south on Divisadero - "A wall of delicate and tender green...pink blossoms of dazzling metallic brilliance..."

My photo of a photo that is on display at the California Historical Society's show City Rising, San Francisco and the 1915 World's Fair

The Tower of Jewels

My photo of a photo that is on display at the California Historical Society's show City Rising, San Francisco and the 1915 World's Fair

Marines and The Giant Scintillator 1915

My photo of a photo that is on display at the California Historical Society's show City Rising, San Francisco and the 1915 World's Fair

The film is 25 minutes long and I highly recommend watching it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGXSkTOnw-A

Court of Four Seasons at Night 1915

My photo of a photo by Willand Worden, from the show PORTALS OF THE PAST at the de Young

ILLUMINATING THE FAIR

An extravagant show of colorful lights shot across building facades and danced in the sky above the exposition. Rejecting the standard practice of "outline lighting", which traced the contours of buildings with rows of bulbs, Walter D'Arcy Ryan of the General Electric Company forever changed architectural illumination with his innovative scheme. The most spectacular effects came from the installation of forty-eight giant spotlights sitting atop a miniature Morro Castle on the waterfront. Called the Great Scintillator, it was manned by Marines who moved the spotlights to project changing colors and patterns on the canvas of fog that rolled in from the Golden Gate. When the weather failed to cooperate, tubes hidden in flagpoles pumped smoke and steam from a locomotive engine into the sky. Bursts of steam that shot through the beams mimicked fireworks during celebrations.Ryan also designed an electric kaleidoscope inside the glass dome of the Palace of Horticulture and lit the palaces, courts, and Joy Zone in novel ways. This synthesis of art and technology cost an estimated $52,000, about $1.23 million today.

My photo of a photo that is on display at the California Historical Society's show City Rising, San Francisco and the 1915 World's Fair

Detail of the model of the Panama Pacific International Exposition on display at the California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street in San Francisco. It is part of an exhibit titled :

City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World's Fair (PPIE)

February 22, 2015 to January 3, 2016

My photo of a poster that is on display at the California Historical Society's show City Rising, San Francisco and the 1915 World's Fair

Watery reflections in the Lagoon of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

Detail of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

Detail of the model of the Panama Pacific International Exposition on display at the California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street in San Francisco. It is part of an exhibit titled :

City Rising: San Francisco and the 1915 World's Fair (PPIE)

February 22, 2015 to January 3, 2016

The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

The video containing rare footage of the Fair is 25 minutes long and I highly recommend watching it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGXSkTOnw-A

The End of the Trail 1914

My photo of a photo by Willand Worden, from the show PORTALS OF THE PAST at the de Young

The Trail of the End, Illuminations marking the end of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition 1915

The exposition closed on December 4, 1915, a day of commemorative events that concluded with fireworks trailing from pilot Art Smith's "aeroplane".Over the next year, the grounds were mostly cleared of all evidence of the fair. Even water, power, and gas lines were removed so that land could be returned to owners in restored condition. Building were either sold for scrap or moved to other locations. A number of repurposed buildings, as well as murals and architectural elements survive today. Only the beloved Palace of fine Arts--rebuild and restored-- remains in its original location. Preservation efforts, substantially underwritten by Phoebe Apperson Hearst, began even before the fair closed.

My photo of a photo that is on display at the California Historical Society's show City Rising, San Francisco and the 1915 World's Fair

The video containing rare footage of the Fair is 25 minutes long and I highly recommend watching it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGXSkTOnw-A

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RON HENGGELER

August 3, 2015 The Panama Pacific International Exposition 100 Year Anniversary

Newsletters Index: 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006

Photography Index | Graphics Index | History Index

Home | Gallery | About Me | Links | Contact

August 3, 2015
The Panama Pacific International Exposition 100 Year Anniversary