Visiting Seattle... and Going Back to 1909 and 1962

It's always a great pleasure to visit Seattle. Last weekend, I was in Seattle for a symposium about the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition at the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI).

The 1909 A-Y-P isn't well known, particularly outside of Seattle, so it was a great opportunity to learn more about this small world's fair and, in my own mind, fill in the gap between 1904 St. Louis and 1915 San Francisco. The expo was on the site of the University of Washington campus. Not much of the original architecture is left from 1909, but the basic layout of the campus is a legacy of the Olmsted Brothers. The A-Y-P attracted 4 million visitors and claimed to have been the first world's fair to turn a profit. It was the Pacific Northwest's first world's fair. Seattle later hosted the 1962 Century 21 Exposition, Spokane hosted Expo 74, and Vancouver hosted Expo 86.

If you consider Edmonton or Calgary to be in the Pacific Northwest, you could say that Expo 2017 could very well be the fifth expo in that region.

Attendees seem to be attracted to the symposium for a variety of reasons. Some were primarily interested in world's fairs, but I think most were interested in Seattle history, landscape architecture, and the arts and crafts movement. Speaking with some of the attendees that weren't familiar with the whole breadth of world's fair history, some were not aware that they were still held, a situation I've mentioned before in this blog.

I took a few photos at the Museum of History and Industry as well as the University of Washington campus:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/expomuseum/sets/72157619709861329/

The five speakers and the campus tour were excellent.

Saturday, Leland Roth of the University of Oregon in Eugene spoke about the world's fair that preceded the A-Y-P, covering the era 1851 to 1904. He focused mostly on the architectural aspects of the fairs. Landscape historian David Streatfield spoke about the City Beautiful movement and how the A-Y-P related to that. Brooks Kolb spoke about the Olmsted Brothers, the landscape designers behind the fair.

Sunday's portion of the symposium featured Michael Herschenson, who spoke mostly of the A-Y-P in the context of Seattle, and the University of Washington. Historian Gray Brechin, for me, highlighted the symposium talking about the 1909 A-Y-P in the context of other West Coast fairs and how they reflect the social and political aspirations of their times and locations. Mr. Brechin jokingly said he hoped San Francisco wouldn't get another exposition given that big wars always seem to follow them. Here, I disagree. I'm willing to risk a 2020 World's Fair.

I thought the panel discussion was particularly interesting and it was here that we heard the only mention of world's fairs as a living, continuing medium.

Going back to when I first visiting Seattle when I was 19 and traveling to Vancouver for Expo 86, I make at least one pilgrimage to Seattle Center, the legacy site of the 1962 Century 21 Exposition.

I took photos of the site, naturally:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/expomuseum/sets/72157620084208405/

I'm always pleased by the site and how its used by the public.

Everyone knows the Space Needle, of course, and most folks discover the Pacific Science Center, originally the United States Science Exhibit from the 1962 fair. The monorail still runs, even after a few problems a few years ago when they managed to run them into each other. It's always a thrill to ride the monorail, imagining what it was like to ride it 47 years ago.

The Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum are now on the site, as well, with the Alweg Monorail running through it.

With plans to refresh the site in the coming years, I keep thinking some sort of world's fair museum (such as, perhaps, an ExpoMuseum, eh?) would make a great and appropriate addition. I was pleased to discover the Center House (the Food Circus during the fair) had, in one corner, a small World's Fair Gallery, showing images and memorabilia from the Century 21. If anyone knows about who is behind this exhibit, please let me know. I'm hoping it expands beyond its current single exhibit. In the aforementioned Flickr set, I've included photos of the exhibit.

2012 will mark the 50th anniversary of the Century 21 Exposition and I suspect they'll be far more interest in this anniversary in Seattle. I can't wait to go back for events surrounding that celebration. It will even be worth the trip from Yeosu, Korea, host of Expo 2012!