Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-10-23
PANAMA-PACIFIC is COMING HERE
The Commercial Museum Is the Graveyard Of Exposons O
It's By No Means Dead Place-Many Great Fairs Now on
Show in Philadelphia haired With Public Schools
BY WILLIAM A. McGARRY

A. McGARRY
conceived the idea Of q permanent, NJ.
for the best exhibits OF such exposi,,or.
Some Of the leading business mar, :, !.
city became Interested in the plap a..
June Is. 1894 the Commercial Mus.,,s'' - %
organized by ordinance OF Councn. y"
William Pepper was the first presldsn, y. ~
ing that office until his death in isos '','' y
Wilson in 1894 closed negotiations ,,s,., IT.
h9d opened with various Governner,. !. y. y
dependencies exhibiting at Chicago. and
whole train load of exhibits cana a. =
city Since that time the three great buna
ings west of the schuyllsin River have ~.
constructed and there are thousands AZ ~,
OF floor space still available. wv
The Furs of the World
The most notable single collection g..
Chicago, because Of it's completeness 1. 'Sn '
animal skin exhibit. It includes bides q s '
preservation, Of virtually every fur-bs...s ,.'
animal extant, and many OF spec,o, ,'-s
since exterminated. The collection Is ..,s
be the largest Of its kind in the world o.,u !"
inally this was turned over to tho ~,
Columbian Museum, of Chicago In ~. WV
ganization of which, incidentally. n,r....-
Wilson played an important part. That Mn
scum found the exhibit somewhat out =, VI
line, and Philadelphia got It. -
More than 500 tons of collections No..
tanned by DIR. Wilson at the close az N.
Paris Worlds Fair in 1900. About 400 tor.
were contributed from the South and Centre,
American exhibits at the exposition in cra
temala. Three corporations with an evs =.
future South American trade landed ,h,.
cargo in Philadelphia absolutely FIRE. !,
charge. They are the Pacific stear,sh.
Company, the Panama Railroad ana ~,
Clyde line.
When the Buffalo and ST Louis Expos,t,o,.
were held the Philadelphia Commercio, NJ,
scum was becoming rather we'll stocLas
Some of the exhibits were not su -,c,on,,-
complete to satisfy the Director. however !.
he selected various specimens from Ru,.,.
weighing In all Is tons, and at ST Iou,. "a
carloads of material were obtained. Direc,o,
Wilson, by the way, was Commissioner for
the Philippine Islands at the St. Louis Exno.
sition, and in that Office had complete cbs,s.
of the island exhibits. Nearly all Of than
are now at the Museum in this CITY.
A Help to Foreign Trade
The fame of the Museum has spread 90 n,
now, mainly because of the activities NJ Il,
Foreign Trade Department, that tore,vn
countries are extremely anxious to have ran.
resentative exhibits Of their lands on disn,av
. in this city. Accordingly, Director Wilson h
having the full cooperation of the FOREIGN
Commissions at San Francisco in selecting
exhibits for installation here China and ia.
pan are especially anxious to be accurately
represented in the Commercial Museum
Chow Tszchl, Minister of Agriculture and
Commerce for the Republic of China, sent to
this country a delegation of 20 Chinese bus
iness men and commercial experts. They
spent an entire day at the Museum examin.
ing the collections.
The visitors were not at all satisfied with
the section devoted to China, nor were the
Commissioners at San Francisco, who also
have visited the Museum. They all take an
intense pride in the progress made by the
republic. within the last few years, and have
made arrangements to send here from the
Pacific coast collection of industrial and art
objects that will be the most complete and
up-to-date in the United States The japanese
Commissioners also have visited the Museum.
From their section at San Francisco Director
Wilson expects to obtain a fine exhibit Of a
new weave of silks.
Most OF the material obtained. of course,
remains in the Museum, free to the public.
Some Of the smaller objects that happen to
be duplicated, however, are included in the
collections sent out by the Director TO public
schools all over the State for use in educa-
tiQnal work, and others are traded with Mu-
seums elsewhere for articles wanted. Through
the exhibits sent out, and the illustrated
lectures. the Museum last year reached more
than $4,000 children in Pennsylvania