THE BALLOON MAN

World's fairs: The Times-Picayune covers 175 years of New Orleans history

An aerial view of the 1984 Louisiana World's Fair, showing the riverfront and gondola.

By John Pope, The Times-Picayune

fROM:The Times-Picayune

Thursday, February 02, 2012

In 1884 and 1984, New Orleans was host to world’s fairs. Although they were a century apart, the two expositions had several elements in common: They dazzled. They drew crowds. And they lost money. The first fair, on the site of a former plantation, was dubbed the World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first shipment of U.S. cotton to England. When it opened — two weeks late — on Dec. 16, 1884, the city was “decorated as she never was before,” a newspaper proclaimed.
The main building, which covered 33 acres, was the biggest roofed structure in the United States. The fair also featured the world’s biggest greenhouse, named Horticultural Hall. It was the only building to be used after the fair closed, deep in debt, in May 1885. It was destroyed by a 1915 hurricane.
State Treasurer Edward Burke, who had been the fair’s director general, was charged with forgery and fraud and fled the country with nearly $1.8 million, which accounted for most of the exposition’s budget.

Follow A teal-clad pelican was the main logo of the world's fair.The second world’s fair, whose theme was “The World of Rivers — Fresh Waters as a Source of Life,” was held on 82 acres along the Mississippi River on a site that had been cleared of warehouses and wharves.read more:http://www.nola.com/175years/index.ssf/2012/02/worlds_fairs_the_times-picayun.html