Pages from history
The Exhibition of
Hope and Joy
Vitali Vitaliev dusts off some pages from the 1900
Universal Exhibition in Paris
ne of the undisputed
gems of my ever-
growing collection of
antiquarian guide-books
is the compact brick-red volume
of 1900 L’Exposition et Paris au
Vingtieme Siecle – Guide to the 1900
Universal Exhibition and to Paris in
the 20th Century, published by the
famous women’s clothes retailer Bon
Marche.
Apart from describing the main
areas and sights of the French
capital, the book – as the publishers
announce proudly on its cover -
contains “175 engravings and 9
coloured (sic) maps”.
An unexpected surprise is
hiding behind the back flap, right
underneath the foldable map of 1900
Paris: a somewhat battered, yet still
perfectly usable, tape measure! The
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Issue 2 2020
choosy turn-of-the-century Paris
shoppers were thrilled to find it, I am
sure.
Leafing through the slightly
faded pages of that book, looking
at the maps and touching the tape
measure never fail to take me on
a journey back in time to the year
1900, when Europe and the USA
were still recovering from prolonged
economic depression and the arts,
technology and architecture were
on the rise. It was a time of ground-
breaking inventions and artistic
masterpieces, many of which came to
be represented at the 1900 Universal
Exhibition.
It was also a time of hope, destined
to be shattered 14 years later by the
outbreak of the First World War.
In the year 1900 the world was full
of optimism, and that was strongly
Above: Aerial view
of the Universal
Exhibition, Library
of Congress’s Prints
and Photographs
division
felt on all the 216 hectares and in
all the 33 official pavilions of the
Universal Exhibition, opened on
14 April 1900 by Emile Loubet, the
President of France.
Donning our imaginary 1900
exhibition visitor attire (gentlemen
– bowler hats and Norfolk jackets;
ladies – puffed blouses and fluted
skirts), let us take a quick tour of the
show’s main highlights.
The Eiffel Tower, first displayed
during the previous Paris Exhibition
of 1889 (to mark the centennial of the
French Revolution) stole the show
again in 1900: prominent on the
vast exhibition grounds, it was – for
the first time ever – painted bright
golden yellow, a mesmerising sight,
according to witnesses. Just like the
spectacular Alexander III Bridge,
connecting Les Invalides with the
Champs-Elysees, specially built for the
1900 Exhibition.
Lucky visitors (and there were
over 50m of them for the duration of
the Exhibition – from 14 April to 12
November, 1900) could not help being
captivated by a huge Ferris wheel
by the Palace of Electricity and fitted
with five thousand multi-coloured
incandescent lamps. There they could
w w w.exhibitionworld.co.uk