From Connecticut at the World's Fair (1904) is this photograph of a Connecticut state band at the then-administrative building for the St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
Connecticut Building at the 1904 World's Fair, 1904
From Connecticut at the World's Fair, Report of the Commissioners from Connecticut to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, 1904.
The Connecticut General Assembly voted $100,000 for the exposition, divided up as follows:
Exhibits:
Education -- $7,500
Shell-fish -- $1,000
Farm products -- $7,000
Pomological (fruits -- primarily apples and walnuts) -- $4,000
Dairy -- $2,500
Tobacco -- $1,500
Horticulture -- $3,000
Ceremonies and Dedication Week Festival -- $25,000
Connecticut Building -- $30,000
Furnishings -- $7,500
Commission expenses -- $3,000
Sundries (other items) -- $2,500
Building maintenance -- $2,500
If the entire building cost $30,000, then the $1,000 exhibit on shellfish must have been quite the show.
Custom House and Post Office, 1878
From The Pictorial Guide to St. Louis (1878) by Camille Dry is this sketch of the old custom house for St. Louis, located at Olive and Third streets (parts of which are visible in other images on the site). Old Custom House was demolished in the 1930s as part of the Jeffersonal National Expansion Memorial.
Washington University in St. Louis, 1879
From Switzler's Illustrated History of Missouri (1879) is this sketch of the original Washington University in downtown St. Louis.
Mounds in Forest Park, 1903
From The Cahokia and Surrounding Mounds by David Bushnell (1904) is this stunning set of photographs of the Native American mounds originally located in Forest Park. The mound shown above, 3.5 feet high and 55 feet in diameter and noted as Mound F on the map below, was one of several demolished during the preparations for the World's Fair. Evidence of human remains was found in several (but not all of the mounds). Given the lack of vegetation, it seems likely that slumping occurred to a number of the mounds (as most were under 5 feet high).Bushnell writes that the photographs were taken at the ridge of the bluff in the park, near a bend in the River Des Peres. According to a map of the area from 1897 and 1903, that bend became the western corner of the waterway formed as part of Post-Dispatch Lake (the pool of water at the bottom of Art Hill). Bushnell stated that a set of small, low-lying mounds dotted the landscape near the river, while a set of taller mounds stood atop Art Hill. See map below for Bushnell's sketch of the locations of the mounds:
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