Before the Midwinter: part 7
“Little Peachling” Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Japanese items one could see on exhibit at the 1871 fair included pictures representing life and customs, numerous types of silk, clothing, embroidered table covers, umbrellas made of oil paper, lanterns, basketwork, bronze sculptures, fancy flower vases, fancy and common dinner and serving ware, figurines, samurai swords, and bamboo window blinds. The newspaper reporters were particularly impressed with the inlaid cabinets with gold and silver mountings, lacquer work trays and furniture and painted scenes from a Japanese folktale that depicted the story of Little Peachling – a hero who was born from a peach.[1]
The Chinese exhibit organized by Dr. MacGowan suffered a bit of a setback. Not only were some of the cases late, many of them were damaged in transport and their contents broken. Nevertheless, fair visitors saw beautiful satins and silks, embroidery pieces that astounded, silk cocoons, enameled ware, tiger and goat skins, fireworks, fruits, ornaments made of ivory and silver, and an exquisitely carved shrine.[2]
Mexico put in an appearance;[3] Australia, New Zealand, and Polynesia also provided small exhibits including some pint tins of Australian meats provided by the Australian Meat Company in Melbourne – a pioneer in the food canning industry. There also were bottles of Colonial whiskey and gin and a few casks of Tooth’s Ale, No. 3 from Kent’s Brewery in Sydney. The House of Representatives of New Zealand appears to have ignored the request to participate; [4] however, the Thames Mechanics’ Institute (Auckland) sent a gilded pyramid that was 3.5 x 9 feet in size that represented the amount of gold extracted from the Thames gold fields worth some £1.5 million.[5] Another participant displayed his or her personal collection of Polynesian shell jewelry and needlework.[6]
The 1871 fair was the largest one yet hosted by the Mechanics’ Institute with over 1000 exhibitors. Gold and silver medals were given as awards to the best products of each industrial category which came with beautifully detailed certificates that were large enough to frame. Third place winners received a wondrously illustrated “Diploma” and those in fourth place were honorably mentioned. No awards appear to have been bestowed upon the foreign exhibitors. This is likely because the makers of the individual products on display were not present at the fair or even identified by name. Over $3000 was set aside as awards for research essays on twenty-two assigned topics related to California industry but merely five writers satisfied the judging committee’s requirements and received prizes. Dr. MacGowan, though his essays were on subjects not requested, received $200 for his five essays on that explained various products of China “to encourage contributions from China and Japan in the future.”[7]
The 1871 fair was the second known time that Japan had exhibited in a foreign land – the first known being the Paris Exposition of 1867. The Japanese Commissioners who attended the fair, led by Junjiro Hosokawa, would remain in California for the next several months to inspect the state’s resources. They eventually traveled throughout the United States, and sent home samples of American grains, vegetable seeds, nursery stock, and agricultural tools and implements.
Harbor of Nagasaki by Thomas Houseworth. Image courtesy of Sothebys. Houseworth had several views of Japanese locales such as this photo of Nagasaki’s harbor and a whole album of Chinese vistas on display at the 1871 fair.
When the fair closed after its 29th day, there was an air of regret. It was the last fair that the Institute would be able to host for awhile as the term was up for the use of Union Square, donated by the City. The Pavilion would have to be torn down due to a recent institutional reorganization that forbade the Institute from borrowing money or incurring debts for any such purpose as the holding of Fairs[8]. Within weeks, the whole of the Pavilion and its contents including 694 chairs, 13 doors, 10,000 feet of water and gas pipe, 42 lamp globes, sundry tools and machinery, 12 spittoons, 16 water closets and seven looking glasses were for sale[9].
Some of the gentlemen who had traveled with the Japanese contribution to the fair decided to stay on as permanent residents, and establish a mercantile firm in San Francisco. “With this object in view, they leased a store in the Masonic Temple, No. 1 Montgomery street.” This action, the Bulletin advised, meant that “they mean business,”[10] and “they are with progress socially and commercially....it is not the first Japanese firm that has established itself in the city, but is the only one with abundant means for doing business on a large scale.”[11] The Bulletin was pleased that the firm would not deal in knick-knacks but in “staple products of Japan, such as tea, coal, flax, wax, etc.”[12]
The maintenance and encouragement of relations with Asia continued to be a concern of Hallidie’s and a few months later, when the Iwakura mission arrived in San Francisco in January 1872, he was quick to invite “these distinguished gentlemen to meet some of the leading citizens representing the industrial interests of this state”[13] at the Mechanics’ Institute. Had the Institute been able to afford the land to build a permanent fair pavilion, it is likely that another international fair would have been attempted.
The Legacy of the Mechanics’ Institute’s Industrial Exhibitions
The Mechanics’ Institute took a hiatus from fair hosting until 1874 when it leased a chunk of land on 8th Street between Mission and Market Streets from Mr. Andrew McCreery. From then on, it would continue to host fairs nearly every year until 1899. In 1882, the exhibition building was moved to the block of land that now contains the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium – kitty corner to City Hall. This building hosted fifteen industrial fairs as well as many civic and cultural events. It was nearly 170,000 square feet – or nearly four acres big – and it could hold over 10,000 people at one time.
The Pavilion was a popular venue for large events like dances, political rallies, ice and roller-skating, and indoor and outdoor bicycle races until 1906. While the building survived the earthquake and was briefly used as a hospital, it burned in the subsequent fire. Almost immediately after the rubble from the disaster was cleared away, the City started eyeing the property as they wished to create a “civic center” complex of buildings which was to include the new City Hall and a municipal auditorium. At first Mechanics’ was against this idea because it wanted to rebuild its Pavilion and host fairs again. But in June 1909 an accord was reached and it leased the land to the city. Three years later, it was sold for $700,000 and the era of the Mechanics’ Institute industrial exhibitions was officially over.
The Mechanics’ Institute’s fairs were born during a time when most products available in California were shipped at great cost from the eastern states or imported from foreign nations. The fairs capitalized on the community’s desire to encourage “Home Industry” –products made locally by resident talent and from California’s natural resources – and to satisfy curiosity about breaking technologies and how they would revolutionize society at large. The fairs reflected the cosmopolitan fabric of the San Francisco Bay Area and honored craftsmanship, skill, and ingenuity. They were a manifestation of what, today, we consider to be quintessential “San Francisco” traits: optimism, creativity, and the plucky courage to innovate the answers to our region’s problems. The spirit of them lives on largely unconsciously, in today’s Maker Faires, and organizations like SFMade who help sustain the local economy by encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation[14].
The two international fairs of the Mechanics’ Institute were successful as exciting ventures for the citizens of San Francisco and California at large to enjoy, but failures as true World’s Fairs. The reasons for their failure are myriad, but boil down to California’s status as a relatively new industrial presence of the United States, the lack of diplomatic and trade relations between the Mechanics’ Institute and the invited countries, the lack of support from California and the federal government, and the state’s location on the Pacific seaboard. Nevertheless, the attempts to engage the countries of the Pacific Rim for a bit of friendly competition, cultural exposure, and industrial exchange laid the seeds for improved international relations and trade and whetted the public’s appetite for larger, multi-attraction, and international experiences like that of the Midwinter Fair in 1894, the Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915, and the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939-1940.
…
[1] Mechanics’ Institute, A Visitor’s Guide and a Catalogue of the Eighth Industrial Exhibition of the Mechanics’ Institute of San Francisco, August 1871, A. Bowman & Co., Page 228.
[2] Ibid
[3] “Opening of the Institute Fair”, Pacific Rural Press, August 12, 1871, page 88.
[4] New Zealand Parliamentary Debates, First Session of the Fifth Parliament, Legislative Council and House of Representatives, Volume 10, 14 August to 28 September, 1871. G. Didsbury, Government Printer, House of Representatives, Wednesday August 23, 1871, page 110. question regarding New Zealand’s response to the invitation to participate in the “San Francisco Exhibition” posed by Mr. Harrison. Retrieved from Google Books, November 2, 2018.
The Industrial Fair Evening Gazette. The official daily paper of the fair, August 14, 1871 p. 8 Written by reporters from the Call, S.F. Sutherland and Thomas Newcomb
[5] “The Fair”, San Francisco Chronicle, August 17, 1871, Page 3.
[6] The Industrial Fair Evening Gazette. The official daily paper of the fair, August 17, 1871 p. 1
Written by reporters from the Call, S.F. Sutherland and Thomas Newcomb
[7] Henry L. Davis and A.S. Hallidie, “Report on Cash Premiums”, Report of the Eighth Industrial Exhibition of the Mechanics’ Institute, Cosmopolitan Printing Company, 1872, Page 148.
[8] Report of the Board of Managers of the Ninth Industrial Exhibition of the Mechanics’ Institute of the City of San Francisco; 1874; C.W. Gordon, page 1.
[9] Andrew Smith Hallidie, “Important to Builders, Contractors, and Others...”, San Francisco Chronicle, September 30, 1871, page 2.
[10] “Among the Debris”, San Francisco Bulletin, September 12, 1871, Page 3.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Andrew Smith Hallidie to Charles Wolcott Brooks, January 27, 1872, Mechanics’ Institute Archives.
[14] See SFMade.org for more information about this non-profit.
