The of 1889 (), better known in English as the 1889 Paris Exposition, was a
world's fair
A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition, is a large global exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specific site for a perio ...
held in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
,
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, from 6 May to 31 October 1889. It was the
fifth of ten major expositions held in the city between 1855 and 1937. It attracted more than thirty-two million visitors. The most famous structure created for the exposition, and still remaining, is the
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889.
Locally nicknamed "''La dame de fe ...
.
Organization
The exposition was held to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the
Storming of the Bastille
The Storming of the Bastille ( ), which occurred in Paris, France, on 14 July 1789, was an act of political violence by revolutionary insurgents who attempted to storm and seize control of the medieval armoury, fortress, and political prison k ...
, which marked the beginning of
French Revolution, and was also seen as a way to stimulate the economy and pull France out of an economic recession. The exposition attracted 61,722 official exhibitors, of whom twenty-five thousand were from outside of France.
Admission price
Admission to the exposition cost forty centimes, at a time when the price of an "economy" plate of meat and vegetables in a Paris cafe was ten centimes. Visitors paid an additional price for several of the exposition's most popular attractions. Climbing the Eiffel Tower cost five Francs; admission to the popular panoramas, theatres and concerts was one franc. Visitors from the French provinces could buy a ticket which included the train fare and entry into the exposition. The total cost of exposition was 41,500,000 francs, while income was 49,500,000 francs. It was the last of the Paris world's fairs to make a profit.
National participation and boycotts
The countries that officially participated in the exposition were
Andorra
Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra, is a Sovereignty, sovereign landlocked country on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees in Southwestern Europe, Andorra–France border, bordered by France to the north and Spain to A ...
,
Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
,
Bolivia
Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...
,
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
,
Costa Rica
Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...
, the
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...
,
Ecuador
Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...
, the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
,
Greece
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
,
Guatemala
Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...
,
Haiti
Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...
,
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
,
Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
,
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
,
Morocco
Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...
,
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
,
Monaco,
Nicaragua
Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
,
Paraguay
Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...
,
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
, Saint-Martin,
El Salvador
El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...
,
Serbia
, image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg
, national_motto =
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg
, national_anthem = ()
, image_map =
, map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...
,
Siam, the
South African Republic,
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
,
Uruguay
Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...
and
Venezuela
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
. The British dominions of
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
and
Tasmania
Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...
also took part.
Because of the theme of the exposition, celebrating the overthrow of the French monarchy, nearly all European countries with monarchies officially boycotted the exposition. The boycotting nations were
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
,
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...
,
Belgium
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
,
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
, the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
,
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
, the
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
,
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...
,
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
and
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
.
Nonetheless, many citizens and companies from those countries participated, and a number of countries had their participation entirely funded by private sponsors. They included Germany and
Alsace-Lorraine, Austria-Hungary, Belgium,
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
,
Denmark
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
, Spain, the United Kingdom and its colonies,
Haiti
Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...
, Italy,
Luxembourg
Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...
, the Netherlands,
Peru
Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
, Portugal,
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
, Russia,
Finland
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
and Sweden.
Exposition sites
The exposition occupied two large sites. The main site was on
Champs de Mars on the Left Bank, which had been the parade ground of the
Ecole Militaire, and had been occupied by the
1878 Universal Exposition. This was the site of the major part of the exposition, including the
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889.
Locally nicknamed "''La dame de fe ...
, Palace of Machines, and the Palaces of Fine Arts and Liberal Arts. The exposition extended across the Seine to the right bank, to the
Trocadero Palace, which had been built on the heights for the 1878 Exposition. The slope from the Trocadero Palace down to the Seine was filled with terrace, fountains, gardens and horticultural exhibits.
A separate, smaller site was located on the esplanade of
Les Invalides, which hosted the pavilions of the French colonies. This section featured a large assortment of outdoor restaurants and cafes with foods from Indochina, North Africa, and other cuisines from around the world. The colonial pavilions conveyed the multiculturalism of France's colonies, the largest of them being the Palais Central des Colonies, designed by
Stephen Sauvestre, who notably contributed to the design of the Eiffel Tower.
In addition to the architectural displays of France's colonies, the exposition showcased a construction of villages inhabited by natives of the colonies, to be observed by viewers,
such as a ''village nègre'' where 400 people were displayed. The colonized people had their daily lives displayed for the exposition visitors, which made some of them uncomfortable.
Samba Lawbé Thiam, a jeweler from Senegal who was part of the 1889 Exposition, said the following:
"We are very humiliated to be exhibited this way, in huts like savages; these straw and mud huts do not give an idea of Senegal. In Senegal ... we have large buildings, railroad stations, railroads; we light them with electricity. The Bureau of Hygiene does not tolerate the construction of this type of hovel. Those
xisting onesthat fall into disrepair are not replaced."
The incorporation of indigenous colonized individuals as a "
human zoo" in the exposition was intended to be an educational element and was a popular attraction, but has also historically been framed as an exploitative and patronizing display of colonized people without their consent.
This colonial section of the exposition was linked to the Champs de Mars site by a corridor of pavilions along the left Bank. This corridor, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, also featured a display called "The History of Human Habitation", with model houses depicting the history of domestic architecture, designed with much imagination by
Charles Garnier, architect of the
Paris Opera.
There were twenty-two different entrances to the exposition, around its perimeter. They were open from 8 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. for the major exhibits and palaces, and until 11:00 in the evening for the illuminated greens and restaurants. The major ceremonial entrance was located at Les Invalides consisting of two tall pylons with colorful ornament, like giant candelabras.
Views of the Exposition
File:Revista de la Exposición Universal de París, 1889 537199 (3784839428).jpg, The main entrance of the exposition
File:CLC 528 - PARIS - Galerie des Machines.JPG, Postcard of trams stopping at the Galerie des Machines, at the edge of the exposition
File:Tour Eiffel 3b40739.jpg, Exposition seen from a balloon (1889)
File:Flickr - …trialsanderrors - Paris Exposition, view from ground level of the Eiffel tower with Parisians promenading, 1889.jpg, View under the Eiffel Tower toward the Central Dome
File:La Tour Eiffel from North of the Trocadero, 1889 - Flickr 14382709664.jpg, View of exposition from Trocadero
File:Street view, looking toward Palais des Invalides, showing pavilions on L'Esplanade des Invalides, Paris Exposition, 1889.jpg, Pavilions on the Esplanade des Invalides, with Les Invalides in the background
File:Exposition Universal, 1889, Paris, France.jpg, View of the Central Dome
Structures
The Eiffel Tower
The
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889.
Locally nicknamed "''La dame de fe ...
, built especially for the exposition, was the tallest structure in the world at the time. A competition to build what was simply called "A tower of three hundred meters" with a base one hundred meters wide, was announced in 1886. It was won by the construction firm of
Gustave Eiffel, which had recently built the iron frame of the
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of French Thir ...
. The Eiffel firm had advance knowledge of the project and, beginning in 1884, had already designed a tower exactly to those dimensions. The structural design was created by two Eiffel engineers, Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier, who along with Eiffel himself, received the patent for the plan. An Eiffel architect, Stephen Sauvestre, designed the curving form and decoration which gave the tower its distinctive appearance. Eiffel was granted exclusive rights for twenty years to operate the tower and its restaurants and viewing platforms. A site next to the River was chosen, despite the infiltration of river water, since that land was owned by the City of Paris, and the tower could be kept in place after the exposition was completed.
The construction lasted two years, two months and five days, and involved five hundred workers, who assembled eighteen thousand iron pieces, each of five meters and carefully numbered, which had been made at a factory in
Levallois-Perret, a Paris suburb. Speaking of the tower construction workers, the son-in-law of Eiffel, declared, "no soldier on the battle field deserved better mention than these humble toilers, who, will never go down in history." During the exposition, no one other than construction personnel were allowed higher than the second viewing platform.
In the first week of the exposition, 29,922 persons climbed the tower to the viewing platform, though the elevators were not yet in service, and they had to climb by a narrow winding stairway.
By the time the exposition finished, after 173 days, 1,968,287 persons had ascended the tower.
When the exposition ended, the tower was used for a time as a weather station. In 1904, Eiffel proposed to the French military that a radio transmitter, designed by the pioneer radio engineer
Edouard Branly, be placed on the third level. In 1909, when Eiffel's concession formally ended, it was decided to preserve the Tower permanently.
File:Construction tour eiffel5.JPG, The tower under construction a year before the opening (1888)
File:Les escaliers de la Tour Eiffel, au-dessus de la deuxième plate-forme, 1889.jpg, Stairway to the viewing level
File:Gustave Eiffel posant au sommet de la tour.jpg, Gustave Eiffel (left) posing on the stairway of his tower
File:Eiffel-Otis lift-poyet.jpg, The Otis elevators that carried visitors up the north and south legs of the tower
File:View of Exposition Universelle from Eiffel Tower, Paris, 1889.jpg, View of the Seine and the exposition from the Eiffel Tower
File:Georges Garen embrasement tour Eiffel.jpg, Chromolithograph by George Garen of the Eiffel Tower illuminations (1889)
The Gallery of Machines
A second monumental building on the site was the
Galerie des machines, by the architect
Ferdinand Dutert and engineer
Victor Contamin, which had originally been built for the
1878 Universal Exposition. It was a huge iron and glass structure which contained the industrial displays. It occupied the entire width of the exposition site, the land between the avenue de la Bourdonnais and the present avenue de Suffren, and covered 77,000 square meters, with 34,700 square meters of glass windows. At 111 meters, the Gallery covered the longest interior space in the world at the time, It cost 7,430,000 Francs, or seven times the cost of the Eiffel Tower. It was later used again at the
1900 Universal Exposition and then destroyed in 1910.
The Gallery of Machines used a system of hinged arches (like a series of bridge spans placed not end-to-end but parallel) made of steel or iron. Although often described as being constructed of steel, it was actually made of iron.
File:Interior of exhibition building, Exposition Universal, Paris, France.jpg, Interior of the Galerie des machines (1889)
File:Béroud - Le dôme central de la galerie des machines à l'exposition universelle de 1889 - P2314 - Musée Carnavalet (cropped).jpg, Interior of the central dome of the Galerie des machines, by Louis Béroud (1889)
Science and technology
One important goal of the exposition was to present the latest in science and technology.
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...
visited the exposition to visit a pavilion devoted to his recent inventions, including an improved phonograph with clearer sound quality.
Another new technology that was promoted at the exposition was the safety elevator, developed by a new American company,
Otis Elevator. Otis built the elevators carrying passengers up the legs of the Eiffel Tower to the first level. When journalists expressed concern about the safety of the elevators, Otis technicians filled one elevator with three thousand kilograms of lead, simulating passengers, and then, with journalists from around the world watching, cut the cable with an axe. The elevator's fall was halted ten feet above the ground by the Otis safety brakes.
There were pavilions especially devoted to the telephone and to electricity, and others devoted to maritime navigation, and another, the Palais de Guerre or Palace of War, to developments in military technology, such as naval artillery.
Prefabricated metal housing was another technology that appeared at the exposition. Gustave Eiffel developed a series of houses with roof and walls of galvanised steel, and wooden interiors, which could be rapidly put together or taken apart, largely for use in French colony of Indochina. Some of them served as ticket booths at the 1889 exposition; one of these old booths, now used as a shelter for hikers, can now be found in the Forest of
Dampierre.
File:Le phonographe Edison, à la section des États-Unis.jpg, Edison phonograph demonstrated at the exposition
File:La Tour Eiffel. Détails de la construction et du fonctionnement des ascenseurs Otis.jpg, Otis Elevators carrying passengers up the legs of the Eiffel Tower
File:Revista de la Exposición Universal de París, 1889 537183 (3784838148).jpg, Exhibit of naval artillery in the Palace of War
File:American Bell Telephone Co. and Western Electric Co., Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1889 LCCN00649968.tif, Exhibit of Bell Telephone and the Western Electric Company at the exposition
File:Dampierre 78 Maison de Fer3.jpg, The "Iron House", a prefabricated galvanized steel house designed by Gustave Eiffel, used as a ticket booth in the exposition, now a park shelter in Dampierre
The Palaces of Fine Arts and Liberal Arts
Other major buildings included the Palaces of Liberal and Fine Arts, each with a richly decorated dome, facing each other across a garden and reflecting pool between the Eiffel Tower and the Palace of Machines. Both were designed by
Jean-Camille Formigé with a similar plan. Both buildings had modern iron frames abundance of glass, but were completely covered with colorful ceramic tiles and sculpted decoration.
The exposition included a building by the Paris architect
Pierre-Henri Picq. This was an elaborate iron and glass structure decorated with ceramic tiles in a Byzantine-Egyptian-Romanesque style. After the exposition the building was shipped to
Fort de France and reassembled there, the work being completed by 1893. Known as the Schœlcher Library, initially it contained the 10,000 books that
Victor Schœlcher had donated to the island. Today, it houses over 250,000 books and an ethnographic museum, and stands as a tribute to the man it is named after who led the movement to abolish slavery in
Martinique
Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...
.
File:Les charpentes des Palais des beaux-arts et des arts libéraux au Champ-de-Mars.jpg, The Palaces of Fine Arts and Liberal Arts under construction, both designed by Jean-Camille Formigé
File:Gezicht in tentoonstellingszaal van de Wereldtentoonstelling van 1889 in Parijs Exposition Universelle de 1889 (titel op object), RP-F-F16653.jpg, Interior of the Palace of Fine Arts by Jean-Camille Formigé
File:Exposition Universal, 1900, Paris, France-LCCN2001698574.jpg, The Palace of Fine Arts
File:Le Palais des arts libéraux, Vue en perspective de l'ensemble des galeries.jpg, Interior of the Palace of Liberal Arts
File:Interior of Paris Exposition building showing two balloons LCCN2002717992.tif, Interior of the Palace of Liberal Arts, with balloons
Fountains
The exposition featured numerous fountains and reflecting pools, particularly in the mall that ran between the Eiffel Tower and the Palace of Machines. The largest fountain, near the Eiffel Tower, was entitled "The City of Paris enlightens the world with its torch." The fountain was designed by
Jean-Camille Formigé, who designed the nearby Palaces of Fine Arts and Liberal Arts. The other major fountain, not far away, was "The Five Parts of the World", illustrating the continents. It was designed by Francis de Saint-Vidal.
File:Fountain Coutan and the Central Dome, Paris Exposition, 1889.jpg, The Coutan Fountain and central dome
The "Street of Cairo" and exotic habitations
The Rue de Caire ("Street of Cairo") was a popular attraction designed to recreate the architecture and street life of
Cairo
Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
. It provided a striking contrast to the very modern Palace of Machines, next to it. It was the idea of Baron Delort Gléon, an art collector and specialist in Egyptian art, with financial support from Charles De Lesseps, the head of the Egyptian committee for the exposition, and son of Ferdinand De Lesseps, the builder of the
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...
. It was a winding street, with buildings at odd angles, and featured, among other buildings, a minaret, two mosques, a school and two ornamental gateways. The doors, windows, and architectural fittings and decoration were real, imported from demolished buildings in Cairo. The street was populated by real Egyptians in costumes, including musicians, belly dancers, artists, craftsmen, and vendors of various Egyptian foods and delicacies.
The exposition featured several other examples of picturesque habitations and villages from around the world, including a Javanese village and recreated houses of villages from Senegal, Benin, and other colonies, with costumed residents.
File:La rue du Caire. Avenue de Suffren - Champ-de-Mars.jpg, The "Cairo Street"
File:Village Javanais, Paris Exposition, 1889 (14197136787).jpg, Javanese Village
File:Revista de la Exposición Universal de París, 1889 "Choza lapona" (3784013953).jpg, The Finnish Lapland village
File:Habitation d'Afrique Centrale.jpg, Central African habitation
File:Une fête de nuit à l'exposition coloniale de l'esplanade des Invalides - Le défilé du cortège.jpg, Parade of soldiers, musicians and performers from the French colonies
The Pavilions of the participating nations and special industries
The Pavilions of the participating nations were located along the edge of the Champ de Mars. The Latin American nations had particularly colorful and lavish structures.
The Pavilion of Argentina was one of the largest and most decorative pavilions in the exposition. It was designed by the French architect
Albert Ballu, who won the 1887 design competition. It covered 1,600 square meters, and was fifty meters high, topped by five iron and glass cupolas and surrounded by a frieze of mosaics, ceramics and coloured glass ornaments. After the exposition closed, it was taken apart and shipped to
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
, where it stood until it was dismantled in 1952.
In addition to the nations, there were pavilions of specialized industries, such as the Suez Canal company, the pavilion of the Transatlantic steamship company, the telephone and electricity pavilions, and the Pavilions of gas and oil. The Palace of Food Products was a very large and ornate structure, presenting French food and wine products. One of its highlights was an enormous sculpted wooden barrel from
Champagne Mercier that could hold 200,000 bottles of champagne.
File:Pabellon-argentino plazasmartin 1900.jpg, The Pavilion of Argentina, winner of the contest for best national pavilion
File:Pabellón chileno en la Exposición Universal de París de 1889-cropped.jpg, Pavilion of Chile (Current Museo Artequin)
File:Pavilion of Brazil, Paris Exposition, 1889 LCCN92520980.jpg, Pavilion of Brazil
File:Paris Exposition train 1889.jpg, Pavilion of Algeria, with the exposition train
File:Revista de la Exposición Universal de París, 1889 537046 (3784010239).jpg, Pavilion of Persia
File:Pavilion of India, Paris Exposition, 1889.jpg, Pavilion of India
File:Pavilion of Siam, Paris Exposition, 1889.jpg, Pavilion of Siam
File:Pavilion of Mexico. Paris World Exhibition 1889 (23261199303).jpg, Pavilion of Mexico based on Mesoamerican architecture and including reliefs of Aztec tlatoanis by Jesús Fructuoso Contreras
File:Pavilion of Nicaragua and base of the Eiffel Tower, Paris Exposition, 1889.jpg, Pavilion of Nicaragua
File:¨Pavillon des îles Hawaï - Exposition universelle Paris 1889.jpg, Pavilion of the Hawaiian Islands
File:Pavilion of the Suez Canal Company, Paris Exposition, 1889.jpg, Pavilion of the Suez Canal Company, in Egyptian style
File:Le palais des produits alimentaires, Exposition universelle 1889.jpg, The Palace of Food Products
File:Epernay fass mercier side view.jpg, A gigantic oak barrel with a capacity of 200,000 bottles of champagne was a feature of the Champagne Mercier exhibit at the food and wine pavilion.
Charles Garnier's ''History of Habitation''
An unusual display was the "History of Habitation", designed by
Charles Garnier, the architect of the
Paris opera house named for him. He was then 61 and had designed very few other major projects since the Opera. Although he had also signed a petition, along with other prominent writers and artists, that denounced the Eiffel Tower as an atrocity, he agreed to design a series of houses to illustrate the history of human habitation. The houses, separated by gardens, were placed close to the Eiffel Tower on a narrow strip of land along Quai D'Orsay and the banks of the Seine.
The houses were arranged by century and by continent, beginning with Garnier's idea of prehistoric dwellings and huts, through the Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and other early civilizations, through the Middle Ages and Renaissance to the modern then houses from Japan, and China and the homes of Eskimos, and dwellings from Africa, Japan, China and Lapland, and dwellings of Native Americans, Aztecs and Incas. The dwellings were designed by Garnier with more imagination than strict historical accuracy, but they were picturesque and very popular. The Roman House had a special function, as the residence of the President of France when he visited the exposition.
File:Revista de la Exposición Universal de París, 1889 "Casa egipcia" (3784820432).jpg, The Egyptian House of the History of Habitation, by Charles Garnier
File:Revista de la Exposición Universal de París, 1889 537073 (3784014313).jpg, The Aztec House and Incan House by Charles Garnier
File:Revista de la Exposición Universal de París, 1889 537049 (3784820368).jpg, The Roman House and the Gallo-Roman House, by Charles Garnier
Other buildings
Many smaller but picturesque buildings were included within or adjacent to the exposition. The architect
Hector Guimard
Hector Guimard (, 10 March 1867 – 20 May 1942) was a French architect and designer, and a prominent figure of the Art Nouveau style. He achieved early fame with his design for the Castel Beranger, the first Art Nouveau apartment building i ...
, then just twenty-two years old, built his first two buildings for the exposition; The cafe-restaurant Au Grand Neptune at 148 Quai Louis-Bleriot (Paris 16th arrondissement), and a small Pavillon of Electricity for an electrician named Ferdinand de Boyéres, located just outside the exposition site at avenue de Suffren. The Pavilion of electricity was demolished immediately after the exposition, and the cafe was torn down in 1910.
Music and entertainment
The exposition itself included several large theatres for concerts and spectacles, including one for the dancers of Les Follies Parisiens. A separate theatre presented the music and dance of the French colonies in Indochina. Operas and concerts were also given in the grand hall of the Trocadero Palace.
* The
Opéra Comique
''Opéra comique'' (; plural: ''opéras comiques'') is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged from the popular ''opéras comiques en vaudevilles'' of the Théâtre de la foire, Fair Theatres of St Germain and S ...
premiered on 14 May 1889 with a work specially composed for that event:
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are ''Manon'' (1884 ...
's ''
Esclarmonde'' (debuting American
soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...
Sybil Sanderson).
* The
Barnum and Bailey Circus performed during the exposition in the Salle des Fetes of the Palais des Machines.
* At the exposition, the French composer
Claude Debussy first heard
Javanese gamelan
Gamelan (; ; , ; ) is the traditional musical ensemble, ensemble music of the Javanese people, Javanese, Sundanese people, Sundanese, and Balinese people, Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussion instrument, per ...
music, performed by an ensemble from Java. This influenced some of his later compositions.
*
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov conducted concerts of Russian music by the
Mighty Five, introducing them to Paris.
Outside the exposition, other theatres and venues presented a range of spectacles including
Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West Show, with the sharpshooter
Annie Oakley.
File:Revista de la Exposición Universal de París, 1889 537044 (3784819630).jpg, A Dervish dance in an exposition cafe
File:Rosa Bonheur - Portrait de Col. William F. Cody.jpg, Buffalo Bill Cody, painted in 1889 by Rosa Bonheur
Transportation – the miniature train
Transport around the exposition was partly provided by the 3 kilometre (1.9 mi) gauge
Decauville railway at Exposition Universelle. The exposition railroad was reported to have carried 6,342,446 visitors in just six months of operation. Some of the locomotives used on this line later saw service on the
Chemins de fer du Calvados and the
Diégo Suarez Decauville railway.
[Suzanne Reutt]
''Histoire: A toute vapeur dans la campagne : les locos de Diego Suarez (2)''.
25 July 2012.
Notable visitors and special events
Celebrities and dignitaries from around the world visited the exposition.
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...
, with his wife and daughter, visited the exposition on August 14, 1889, his third day in France, to visit the exhibit where his improved
phonograph was being demonstrated. He also ascended to the viewing platform of the Eiffel Tower, where he was met by a group of
Sioux Indians who were at the exposition to perform in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. He returned to the Eiffel Tower later in his visit (Sept 10), where he was hosted for a lunch in Eiffel's private apartment on the Tower, along with the composer
Charles Gounod (despite Gounod's earlier opposition to the Tower.
Other prominent visitors included the Shah of Persia
Nasereddin Shah, Prince of Wales (the future
Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until Death and state funeral of Edward VII, his death in 1910.
The second child ...
) and his wife,
Princess Alexandra; artists
Antoni Gaudi,
James McNeill Whistler
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter in oils and watercolor, and printmaker, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral a ...
,
Edvard Munch,
Rosa Bonheur and
Paul Gauguin; U.S. journalist and diplomat
Whitelaw Reid; author
Henry James; Filipino patriots
José Rizal
José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda (, ; June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896) was a Filipino nationalist, writer and polymath active at the end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. He is popularly considered a na ...
and
Marcelo H. del Pilar; and inventor
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla (;["Tesla"](_blank)
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 10 July 1856 – 7 ...
.
A central attraction in the French section was the
Imperial Diamond, at the time the largest diamond in the world.
The Mexican pavilion featured a model of an exotic (for Europeans)
Aztec
The Aztecs ( ) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the Post-Classic stage, post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central ...
temple, a "combination of archeology, history, architecture, and technology."
The presentation of
Joseph Farcot's steam engine, that had already won a prize in 1878.
Statistics
* Expenses: 41,500,000
Francs
* Receipts: 49,500,000 Francs
* Visitors: 32,250,297
* Exhibitors: over 61,722, of whom 55% were French
* Countries represented: 35
Legacy
Most of the buildings were on military land or city-owned park land, and they were demolished shortly after the exposition closed. The most notable survivor was the
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889.
Locally nicknamed "''La dame de fe ...
, which had been deliberately built on Paris city-owned land, to avoid demolition.
The Exhibition included a building by the Paris architect Pierre-Henri Picq. This was an elaborate iron and glass structure decorated with ceramic tiles in a Byzantine-Egyptian-Romanesque style. After the exposition, the building was shipped to
Fort-de-France
Fort-de-France (, , ; ) is a Communes of France, commune and the capital city of Martinique, an overseas department and region of France located in the Caribbean.
History
Before it was ceded to France by Spain in 1635, the area of Fort-de-Fra ...
in
Martinique
Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...
and reassembled there, the work being completed by 1893. Known as the Schœlcher Library, initially it contained the 10,000 books that
Victor Schœlcher had donated to the island. Today, it houses over 250,000 books and an ethnographic museum, and stands as a tribute to the man it is named after who led the movement to abolish slavery in
Martinique
Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...
.
See also
*
Exposition Universelle (1878)
The 1878 Universal Exposition (, ), also known as the 1878 Paris Exposition, 1878 World Fair, or 1878 World Expo, was a world's fair held in Paris, French Third Republic, France, from 1 May to 10 November 1878, to celebrate the recovery of Franc ...
*
Champ de Mars, Paris
*
Colonial exhibition
*
Human zoo
Footnotes
Bibliography
*
* Jonnes, Jill, ''Eiffel's Tower'' (2013), Penguin Putnam .
* (Catalog of a centennial exhibition on the Expositon in 1989).
* ''Engineering''
ournal3 May 1889 (vol XLVII), London: Office for Advertisements and Publication, 1866– .
* ''Structural iron and steel,'' 1850–1900, edited by Robert Thorne; Aldershot, Hampshire, Great Britain; Burlington, Vt., US: Ashgate/Variorum, 2000. .
References
Further reading
* Young, P. (2008). From the Eiffel Tower to the Javanese Dancer: Envisioning Cultural Globalization at the 1889 Paris Exhibition. The History Teacher, 41(3), 339–362. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/30036916
World's Fair of 1889, Paris The
BIE's page about the Exposition
Views of the Paris Exposition, 1889 290 photos at the Library of Congress
''L'Universelle exposition de 1889 illustrée...''in
Gallica, the digital library of the
BnF
*
Exposition Universelle de 1889' from the Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art Library
{{Authority control
*
World's fairs in Paris
French Third Republic
1889 in France
1880s in Paris
Festivals established in 1889
1889 festivals
Colonial exhibitions
Storming of the Bastille