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.

Before the Midwinter: part 6

U.S. Diplomatic Minister Charles Egbert De Long (1832-1876)

Hallidie was pleased with how the ’69 fair turned out but still stewed about how the Mechanics’ Institute could best capitalize on the escalating trade network with Asia. In 1871, a juicy opportunity would arise. His friend Horace Dunn had meanwhile become Assistant to the Consul of Japan, Charles Wolcott Brooks. Dunn and Brooks had a lot in common, both fascinated by Japan and interested in developing commercial trade.[i] Dunn, over the past two years had used the Pacific Mail Steamship Company’s service to travel frequently throughout Asia and was growing his network of contacts with Asian businesspeople.

As Dunn was on his way to Yokohama to meet with the U.S. Diplomatic Minister Charles De Long, Hallidie asked him to invite the Japanese Government and the region’s principal merchants to participate in the upcoming fair and have them send them a full exhibit of its raw and manufactured goods. Dunn was also tasked with alerting Japan to California goods available for import that could be had more cheaply than those from Europe. 

Hallidie also put in a word with Dr. Daniel MacGowan, a missionary and hospital organizer in Ningpo, China to connect with business leaders and merchants there. MacGowan had been in and out of China and Japan since 1843.[ii] He had returned to the States to serve as a surgeon for the Union in the Civil War, and then spent the later 1860’s bouncing around China, Japan, the States, and Europe on a mission to bring telegraphic technology to China.[iii] As Hallidie was then the principal manufacturer of telegraph cables in the Western states, it is likely the two men had a cordial relationship.

The Japanese Are Coming

In May of 1871, Hallidie received positive news from Horace Dunn. He wrote that the Japanese Government was warm to participating in the fair and the local merchants were eager to send stock worth tens of thousands of dollars. “Judging from the quality of the wares exhibited by these parties and the anxiety to obtain information regarding the Industrial Exhibition, I judge that the display if made by them would for beauty and value far eclipse any yet made in the US if not in Europe.”[iv] Dunn warned Hallidie that some of the merchants were sending over $30,000 worth of stock and to be prepared because some of the articles were very large.[v]

In response, Hallidie enlarged the Union Square Pavilion by 20,000 feet; so now the building was approximately 100,000 square feet. He opened up the south wing’s ceiling and roofed it over with canvas so to as to permit the flourishing of a giant garden.  The Japanese exhibit was to occupy its own wing at the extreme west end of the Pavilion.[vi] The Pacific Mail Steamship Company had again “liberally offered to carry the articles to be exhibited from Japan and China free of charge.”[vii] It was also hoped that the resident Japanese and Chinese merchants would “lend a helping hand” to ensure that the event was a success.[viii]

In mid-July, Horace Dunn returned triumphantly from Japan with over 50 tons of goods.[ix] It would take four weeks to properly arrange the material for exhibit. Dunn also brought with him nine Commissioners headed by Junjiro Hosokawa from the Japanese Department of Agriculture.

Junjiro Hosokawa, Commissioner of Agriculture in Japan. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The fair opened at noon on August 8, 1871 with a festive musical performance by Schmidt & Schlott’s band and a group of public school children. Afterwards, with Junjiro Hosokawa and the other “Special Commissioners” from Japan by his side, Andrew Smith Hallidie delivered an impassioned speech, that foretold a time when California “will not only be able to sustain herself, but able also to supply other nations with the substantial results of her skill and manufacturing ability.”[x] Pausing to spread his arms wide, he said, “Looking around us, in this edifice filled with the suggestion of peaceful industry with the products of man’s ever-restless brain, it would seem that “man’s inhumanity to man” [sic] was forgotten in that higher hope of peace on earth and good-will...California possesses the key to the trade of the Pacific, which nothing but blind stupidity can lose to her....A broad, liberal and conscientious line of conduct, honesty of thought and action to all alike without distinction of color or race, are essential to our prosperity as a community of a people.”[xi]

…

[i] Charles Wolcott Brooks would serve the Japanese government over 18 years, “six years as Commercial Agent and twelve years as Consul”. Charles Lanman, The Japanese in America, Longmans, London, 1872. Page 24-25.

[ii] Lane R. Earns, “The American Medical Presence in Nagasaki, 1858-1922”, Crossroads: a Journal of Nagasaki History and Culture, Autumn 1997. Available online at http://www.uwosh.edu/home_pages/faculty_staff/earns/home.html See also Marilyn Laura Bowman, James Legge and the Chinese Classics, FriesenPress, 2016.

[iii] “Projected Lines of Telegraph in the Celestial Empire”, Daily Alta California, July 15, 1866, page 2.

[iv] “Japan at the Mechanics’ Institute Fair”, San Francisco Bulletin, June 9, 1871. Includes reprinted letter from Dunn to Hallidie dated May 23, 1871.

[v] Ibid

[vi] 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 225.

[vii] Andrew Smith Hallidie, “President’s Report for  the quarter ending February 28, 1871” Minutes of the Board of Trustees of the Mechanics’ Institute, Volume 3, 1869-1874, page 191.

[viii] Ibid.

[ix] “The Mechanics’ Fair: Fifth Evening”, Daily Alta California, Volume 23, Number 7813, 13 August 1871, Page 1

[x] Mechanics’ Institute, Report of the Eighth Industrial Exhibition of the Mechanics’ Institute, Cosmopolitan Printing Company, 1872, page 24.

[xi] Ibid.

Before the Midwinter: part 4

Detail of Horace Durrie Dunn from a poster that showed all the “Regular Republican nominees” of 1881. Image courtesy of the California State Library.

Mr. Dunn was a bit of a workaholic. His day job was serving as the State Commissioner of Immigration. He was however an expert on horticulture and was able to indulge this interest while moonlighting as a reporter for the San Francisco Bulletin. His regular beat was covering the actions of the State Agricultural Society. Six month earlier, in the course of his official duties, he had become friendly with the Japanese embassy that had arrived on the Colorado. He arranged with them an exchange of California fruit trees, vines, plants, and vegetable seeds for those in Japan – an act that would launch his personal import and export business of agricultural products to and from Asia. At the time of this meeting on August 1, he was nearly finished compiling an extensive report on the agricultural resources of California for the U.S. Commissioners of Agriculture.[i] Dunn was perfectly aware of what California could do agriculturally and through his burgeoning business relationships with foreign powers, was alert to what they were interested in importing.

At that meeting it is likely that Hallidie, Dunn, and Warren first speculated about the possibility of a World’s Fair because a few months later, the notion was reported in the Daily Alta that a "grand Fair in which all the people of the Pacific would be represented has been taken up by the Mechanics' Institute…. efforts will be made to give it, as far as possible, an international character. For this purpose it is in contemplation to invite China, Japan, the Hawaiian Islands, Society Islands, Australia, and the Republics of the Pacific to send specimens of their products and manufacturers for exhibition.”[ii]

The Mining and Scientific Press also brought it up on November 30, stating that “in order to carry out [the international portion] of the programme [sic], it will be necessary to secure the assistance and cooperation of both Congress and the State Legislature.... Some kind of official character must be given to the enterprise, or it would be in vain to look for cooperation from the ceremonial nationalities of Eastern Asia. One of the principal objects of the international character proposed, is to bring into commercial and social relations the various nationalities in this part of the world, especially those with whom we have just opened steam communication, and with whom we hope, ere long, to be in telegraphic communication as well.”[iii]

Thus encouraged, the Mechanics’ Institute outlined its preliminary plans for an international fair in a December 1867 meeting of the Board where they drafted a resolution stating “that we the mechanics of California acting by the authority in us invested under our corporate powers as an Institute so now take the initiative and proclaim to the world that we will hold an industrial exposition in this the Golden city of the world [in] a.d. 1871 which we most earnestly hope may become truly international in its character.”[iv] The Institute was more conservative when they announced their plans to the public however, stating that it had resolved to hold an industrial exhibition “on a much larger scale than was ever before attempted on this coast.”[v]

A few months later in March, Hallidie assumed the presidency of the Mechanics’ Institute and immediately sprang into action. He followed up on the media’s call for State support of the World’s Fair venture with a plea to the Legislature to make an appropriation to the Institute: “We ask at your hands the sum of $20,000 to be used for premiums for the two Industrial Exhibitions proposed to be held by the Mechanics’ Institute during 1868 and 1869.”[vi] Citing the successes of the past Mechanics’ Institute fairs to the state’s economy and the need for financial help to provide prizes other than medals and diplomas to help encourage “new enterprises of manufacture and industry and innovation,”[vii] Hallidie had the support of the Mechanics’ new slate of trustees. The request seemed impossible to deny – but it was indeed refused.

…

[i] Horace D. Dunn, “California - Her Agricultural Resources, originally written for the Commissioner of Agriculture (United States)”, Transactions of the State Agricultural Society during the years 1866-1867, (Sacramento, CA), p.507-542

[ii] Daily Alta California, October 19, 1867, Page 2.

[iii] Mining and Scientific Press, November 30, 1867, Page 337

[iv] Draft of a resolution by the Mechanics’ Institute, Henry F. Williams Papers 1848-1911, BANC MSS 73/82 c, Box 6, Folder 6, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

[v] “Sixth Industrial Exhibition”, San Francisco Bulletin, December 7, 1867, Page 2.

[vi] “The Mechanics’ Institute: Appeal to the State for Aid for the Fairs of 1868 and 1869”, Daily Alta California, March 15, 1868, page 1.

[vii] ibid

Before the Midwinter: part 3

The first pavilion of the Mechanics’ Institute located on Montgomery Street between Post and Kearny. Image courtesy of the Mechanics’ Institute Archives.

            The Mechanics’ Institute, a pioneering library and vocational training center now located on San Francisco’s Post Street,[i] was founded in December of 1854 during the thick of the economic slump that gripped the state after the production of mined gold slowed. The Institute aimed to provide under-employed gold miners, artisans, those skilled in trade and crafts, and their respective families with social and learning opportunities that would enable them to get new jobs and invigorate the economy.

            It had been in the fair business since 1856, first managing the mechanical department of the third State Fair in San José with Warren’s backing; and then pulling off its own fair the following year on land leant for the purpose by James Lick on Montgomery Street between Post, Sutter, and Kearny. This fair was hosted in September 1857 and housed in an 18,000 square foot building – then the largest structure in the whole State. At the fair, one could see an astounding array of California’s natural resources, invention, and ingenuity including four examples of billiard tables, cabinets filled with curiosities, samples of the state's minerals, a bountiful display of the finest flowers, fruits and vegetables; two fire engines, fancy articles such as needlework, fabrics and laces, and art — from the Nahl brothers, William Jewitt, and many others.[ii] It was similar to the State’s fairs but with an emphasis on breaking technologies and local talent.

            The fair had about 10,000 visitors - roughly 25% of the adult San Francisco population at the time. It was such a remarkable success that it set the pattern for virtually all of the following Mechanics’ Institute fairs: opening ceremonies marked with a welcome from the Institute’s president, a rousing speech by a local personality about the state of California’s industry, nightly musical concerts, an elaborate award ceremony, cash prizes for research conducted on various areas of technical innovation, an all night dance party, and a donation from the fair’s proceeds to a local charity.  Ultimately there would be thirty more fairs which served as vehicles for the promotion of locally made products and as income and publicity generators for the Institute. The profits from ticket sales supported the Institute’s library, free lectures, and vocational classes until the last fair was held in 1899.

Portrait of Andrew Smith Hallidie from the San Francisco Centennial Celebration of 1876. Image courtesy of the California State Library.

            Hallidie buttoned up his waistcoat and ran his hand through his thicket of brown curls. It was time to go. Leaving his office he headed up Clay Street and made a left on Montgomery. As his heels thudded upon the sidewalk, Hallidie tried to quiet his mind that was still awhirl from his “flying trip through the Old World”[iii] where he had visited family in London and attended the International Exposition in Paris.  As he walked, his feelings turned to the wonderful things he had seen abroad. His childhood stomping grounds; the shops and manufactories, mines and quarries, railways and watercourses, churches and theaters[iv] had all matured so much in the last fifteen years to make the place nearly unrecognizable. London’s incredible and growing transportation network was particularly awe inspiring as he remembered well “the crash and jam of carriages and people that used to occur every day on Fleet Street.”[v]

            Hallidie was the state’s premier wire rope manufacturer and bridge builder. In a few years he would develop the technology to transform San Francisco’s own transportation network: the cable car. A force of thoughtful energy, he had been involved with the Mechanics’ Institute since 1860, and began his first term on the board as a vice-president in 1864. Since then he had served on various committees including the one that purchased the Institute’s Post Street property in 1866. A regular reader of the California Farmer, there is no doubt that Hallidie read Warren’s July call for a world’s fair.[vi]

            The implications of such an event on California’s growth, the Mechanics’ Institute’s success, and his own as an entrepreneur surely tinged his thoughts as he made his way to meet with a contingent of Mechanics’ colleagues and a committee from the Agricultural Society on August 1, 1867. The agenda was to discuss the parameters of the Institute’s support of the upcoming State Fair scheduled for that September. Hallidie, and his friend, Horace Dunn who served as the Corresponding Secretary for the Institute, were assigned to help promote the fair amongst the business community of San Francisco and facilitate the exhibition of mechanical products.[vii]

…

[i] The Mechanics’ Institute has had several locations in its 164 years. First occupying rooms in Sam Brannan’s Express Building on Montgomery at California, it moved a few times before purchasing the lot it currently occupies at 57 Post Street (between Montgomery and Kearny) in 1866.

[ii] Report of the First Industrial Exhibition of the Mechanics’ Institute, San Francisco, Franklin Office, 1858. The Mechanics’ Institute kept records in the form of a published report for most of their exhibitions that detailed the finances, exhibitors, items displayed, and the awards that were given within each class. These documents are not without their flaws and are best compared with newspaper coverage of the fairs.

[iii] Andrew Smith Hallidie, “Letter from London”, Mining and Scientific Press, volume 14; Issue 25; June22, 1867, page 386. Hallidie attended the Paris International Exposition in late spring of 1867 and wrote extensive articles about his impressions of it for Mining and Scientific Press.

[iv] ibid

[v] ibid

[vi] The California Farmer was a voluble advocate of the Mechanics’ Institute’s endeavors. Hallidie advertised his services in the California Farmer and his exploits related to his business and volunteer commitments were also regularly featured.

[vii] “State Agricultural Fair”, San Francisco Bulletin, August 2, 1867, page 2.

Before the Midwinter: part 2

Colonel James Lloyd Lafayette Warren, publisher of the California Farmer and Journal of Useful Sciences. Image courtesy of the California State Library.

Colonel Warren settled his wiry frame behind the crowded desk that overlooked Clay Street. He spread out and pored over the daily papers. As he paged through the stack, clipping this or that article with a pair of heavy scissors, he noticed the telegraphic dispatch that announced to the Commissioner General of the American Commission to the Paris Universal Exposition that, “out of the 524 [American] exhibitors at Paris there have been awards in favor of 262, including 4 grand prizes, 17 gold, 62 silver and 103 bronze medals…and 79 exhibitors honorably mentioned.”[i]  Though the California contributions had been roundly criticized as small and poorly managed,[ii] this was an astounding victory for the nation. Warren inked his pen and furiously jotted notes.

            An inveterate collector of curios, books, stamps, coins, and just about everything else, Warren was a compulsive reader and thinker with a restless spirit.  His favorite cause, which colored the pages of the journal he had published since January 1854, the California Farmer and Journal of Useful Sciences, was the promotion of his adopted state’s bountiful natural resources. In the California Farmer’s issue of July 11, 1867, with his characteristic zeal, Warren congratulated the nation on its efforts at the Paris Exposition and declared that it was critical for California’s success as an industrial leader of the Pacific to claim the World’s Fair for 1871; “Providence with her unerring signs, tell us that the next World's Fair should be held in CALIFORNIA [sic]. Does anyone doubt our capacity…as a state to accomplish this?  ...our own self interests demand this to be done, if we wish to build up our own State and the Pacific Coast.”[iii]

            For Warren the signs that a World’s Fair was possible were the impending finish of the transcontinental railroad, the new transportation lines to China and Japan that would result in “tens of millions of dollars” in trade, and the lucrative acquisition of Alaska, which would prove a “great value to our country and also to the Pacific of millions in trade annually.” He believed that between July, 1867 and 1871, ”the whole trade of the world will have changed its course and the "Golden Gate" of San Francisco Bay will have become the real Golden Gate of Commerce.”[iv]

            Warren was not all talk; he had an impressive record of feats since he settled in California in 1849. He was the founder and owner of Warren & Co., a firm that specialized in fruit trees, seeds, and agricultural implements. From its San Francisco headquarters he published the weekly California Farmer.  He also was an experienced fair planner. In 1852 he had designed the state’s first agricultural and cattle show– a privately funded venture that excited the farming and business communities so much that it led to the formation of the State Agricultural Society (the progenitor of the California department of Food and Agriculture). The Agricultural Society in turn produced the first State Fair with Warren’s help in October 1854 held in Musical Hall on Bush Street.[v] Born in 1805, Warren had the vigor of someone much younger. A World’s Fair for California was a project he could throw himself into as long as he had the support of allies who shared his dreams. One of those allies was the Mechanics’ Institute.

…

[i] Sacramento Daily Union, June 27, 1867, page 2.

[ii] Andrew Smith Hallidie, “The Universal Exposition”, Mining and Scientific Press, 14:20 (June 29, 1867), Page 402.

[iii] “one-man agricultural pressure group” comes from Bean, Walton E., “James Warren and the Beginnings of Agricultural Institutions in California” Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Dec. 1944), pp. 361-375.

“The World’s Fair in 1871”, California Farmer and Journal of Useful Sciences, July 11, 1867, Page 4.

[iv] “The World’s Fair in 1871”, California Farmer and Journal of Useful Sciences, July 11, 1867, Page 4.

[v] “Grand Agricultural and Horticultural Fair of the California State Agricultural Society”, California Farmer and Journal of Useful Sciences, September 28, 1854, Page 97.

Before the Midwinter: the Mechanics’ Institute’s “Pacific Rim” Industrial Exhibitions of 1869 and 1871

The Pavilion of the Mechanics’ Institute at Union Square. Image courtesy of the Mechanics’ Institute Archives.

This is part one of an article that was published in The Argonaut: Journal of the San Francisco Historical Society, Summer 2019, v30, no 1.

Lai Yong carefully hung his second portrait on the wall of the picture gallery and stepped back to admire how they looked. The subjects, a Chinese man and woman in traditional garb, gazed back at him with slight smiles playing on their lips. It was a few days before the opening of the 1869 Industrial Exhibition, the seventh hosted by the Mechanics’ Institute of San Francisco. The Pavilion at Union Square was loud with the clamor of saws, hammers, and shouts as other exhibitors hurried to construct their booths.  The picture gallery was one of three spaces set aside to show the talent of San Francisco’s burgeoning art community. Lai Yong cleared away the paintings’ wrappings and with them under his arm, ducked his head into the adjoining photograph gallery to admire what was presented there, before he strolled further down the arcade. Everything from locally made wire to wine was staged to entice fairgoers, potential customers and judges responsible for awarding the coveted gold and silver medals to the best in each category. This was Yong’s first public exhibition of his work since arriving three years earlier from China where he had studied portraiture under the master Chay Hin. He was eager to promote himself and attract new clients to his small studio on Clay Street.[i]

It is not certain how Yong found out about the Exhibition – perhaps he noticed an advertisement in one of the city’s papers or had been solicited by a fair manager when they canvassed the city. Or perhaps he had attended the previous year’s fair.  He might have decided to exhibit this time because he had heard that this year’s fair, that of 1869, was special because China, Japan, and most of the countries of the Pacific Rim had been invited. It was the first attempt in California to host an international exhibition.

…

The California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894 is described as the state’s first World’s Fair. But there were many fairs before the Midwinter that attempted to involve multiple countries. Those attempts include the fairs held in 1869 and 1871 organized by the Mechanics’ Institute of San Francisco. Both fairs were efforts to engage countries, especially those on the Pacific Rim; to foster international communication, trade, and to develop San Francisco’s worldwide reputation as a center of industry and culture.

Talk of California, especially San Francisco, as the potential site of a World’s Fair started after the success of New York’s Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in 1853, but at that time, California was too young a state and too far away from the rest of the world for the idea to be feasible. That distance however was getting smaller every day as work on the local and long-distance railroads continued at a feverish pace and engines and steam-powered ships grew cheaper to build and more efficient.

Congress, eager to improve the mail service and capitalize on trade with Asia in February of 1865, passed an act to authorize the establishment of ocean mail-steamship service to Asia. Advertising in cities such as Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and San Francisco, Congress called for proposals from relevant companies to serve as contractors to carry the mails of the United States between San Francisco “and some port or ports in the Chinese empire, touching at Honolulu, in the Sandwich Islands, and one or more ports in Japan, by means of a monthly line of first-class American sea-going steamships.” The contract was to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company which immediately commenced building four side-wheel steamships with the deadline of starting service by the 1st of January 1867.[1]

A view of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company docks at foot of Brannan Street. The ship in the foreground is the SS Senator, and behind is the SS Colorado. Image courtesy of the Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley.

As the date approached, the state-of-the-art vessels weren’t quite ready. Unwilling to risk delay, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company employed its then fleetest ship, the SS Colorado, which on its first run made a record setting trip to Yokohama in twenty-two days. Its return to San Francisco on March 20 brought 178 passengers, including two representatives and their assistants from the Japanese government, along with a full hold of tea, opium, silk, seaweed, cuttlefish and firecrackers.[2] Eventually monthly trips were made to Yokohama, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. The route led to an immediate influx of Japanese and Chinese immigrants and opened up extraordinary new trade vistas that titillated business leaders about what was to come.

Meanwhile, California readied its contribution to the International Exposition in Paris set to open the following week on April 1, 1867. Several civic leaders planned to attend and those who did returned with their minds full of glorious stories and future promise. Everyone who could not afford the trip to Paris eagerly read the telegraphed accounts that arrived in San Francisco about six weeks late.  The Daily Alta California advised, “If the Government of the United States is wise it will profit by this French example, and take steps for the inauguration of a “World’s Fair” in this country…and not later than the summer of 1869.”[3]

The combination of the success of the China line and the excitement surrounding the Paris Exposition set business leaders and newspaper editors in San Francisco on fire. Among those whose imaginations were aroused to action were James Warren, Andrew Hallidie, Horace Dunn, and the Mechanics’ Institute.

…

[i] Lai Yong took out several advertisements in the Daily Alta California starting in September 1866 until December of that year. Evidence of his participation in the 1869 fair includes mention in: 1) Mechanics’ Institute, Report of the Board of Managers of the Seventh Industrial Exhibition of the Mechanics' Institute, San Francisco, 1869, page 71.; 2) Advertisement. San Francisco Chronicle, September 24, 1869, page 3.

[1] An Act to authorize the Establishment of Ocean Mail-Steamship Service between the United States and China, United States, Statutes at Large Thirty-Eighth Congress, Session II, Chapter 37, Page 430. Retrieved from Library of Congress, February 26, 2019. The Pacific Mail Steamship contract is detailed in Sacramento Daily Union, August 31, 1865, Page 2

[2] Daily Alta California, March 21, 1867, Page 1. “Arrival of the Colorado”, Mining and Scientific Press, March 23, 1867, Page 1.

[3] “The Paris Exposition: a Hint to this Country”, Daily Alta California, March 27, 1867, Page 2.