Jump to Navigation  Cool Things - World's Fair Window  "The
Louisiana Purchase Exposition is well worth seeing. All big
shows are worth seeing, and this one is immense, the biggest
thing of the kind ever attempted." New York Times, June 20, 1904
Window from Kansas building, 1904 world's fair.  In St. Louis,
1904 was a year to celebrate. A hundred years before, the United
States had acquired the central portion of the continent from
France in the Louisiana Purchase. St. Louisians wanted to show
the world that they were a real city, not a lawless cow town.
They also wished to display the cultural and economic
advancements made in the West since the Purchase.
Representatives from each of the fifteen Purchase states agreed,
and decided that a World's Fair would be a fitting
commemoration. After receiving money from the U.S. Congress, the
representatives began planning the seven-month-long event in
1900. When it opened four years later, the Louisiana Purchase
Exhibition would allow people to experience parts to t