Prelude to a Century: The 1904 St. Louis World's Fair

No single event in the history of St. Louis shines as brightly as the 1904 World's Fair. Forest Park was transformed into a magnificent Ivory City of immense palaces and dramatic vistas. Cascades and fountains splashed and bubbled. Giant engines hummed, powering a million electric lights turning night into magic. Twenty million visitors passed through its gates to witness wonderous displays of the technological achievements of humankind.In this spectacular coffee-table volume, Patrick Murphy takes us beyond the mere sights and sounds of the fair, to wander into the minds of those who attended. His stories are those of an earlier generation as they stood on the brink of a new century, hoping that the future would bring endless blessings. Murphy helps us appreciate how the fair was a product of its time both in noble aspirations and base prejudices; exhibits featuring flying machines, automobiles, enormous turbines, and wireless telegraphy stood beside display villages exhibiting indigenous people from around the world as if they were in a zoo.Murphy's storytelling puts us smack dab in the middle of the Fair, amid its sights, sounds, and smells. We're part of the crowd. If the past is a different country, Prelude to a Century is the perfect traveler's guide to a monumental event that continues to resonate with history lovers.