Louisiana Purchase Exposition Souvenir Dish, Veiled Prophet Parade and Ball
date: label: Date made
content: 1904
notes: label: Description
content: Souvenir dish or tray commemorating the "Veiled Prophet" Parade held at Louisana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, 1904. The souvenir depicts the "veiled prophet" naming that year's "queen" before the Fair's Festival Hall, Cascades and Grand Basin.
label: Description
content: In 1904 a World’s Fair was held in St. Louis, Missouri to commemorate the 100th anniversary of “The Louisiana Purchase”, a land deal with the French that greatly expanded the boundaries of the United States. Between April and December, over 19.5 million visitors attended the Fair, hosted on a 1,270-acre site constructed at the city’s Forest Park as well as the Washington University campus. While the Exposition presented advances in technology and the arts and sciences, it is remembered today for its racist and dehumanizing displays of living foreign peoples. The Exposition also served as the site of the 1904 Olympic Games, the first ever held in the United States.
label: Description
content: The “world’s largest" pipe organ played to daily crowds of up 4,500 people at “Festival Hall,” the Exposition's signature architectural landmark. The Hall was fronted by “The Cascades,” an impressive water feature that flowed from the building into a “Grand Basin". The Hall also featured a “Wooden Colonnade of States”.
label: Description
content: The "Myserious Order of the Veiled Prophet" began as an anonymous all-white male community organization created by wealthy St. Louisans in 1878. Every year the organization presented a Mardi-Gras like parade and debutante ball, where that years leader, the "veiled prophet" would recognize a "belle" or "queen". In 1904 the annual event occured during the city's World's Fair. The Veiled Prophet organization has undergone numerous changes over the years, but has long been criticized for being antagonistic to labor and African Americans.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Missouri, St. Louis
label: Associated Place
content: United States: Missouri, Saint Louis
topic: label: Subject
content: Expositions and Fairs
label: Subject
content: Parades
label: Subject
content: Clubs, Organizations & Societies
label: related event
content: Louisiana Purchase Exposition
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: The Larry Zim World's Fair Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1989.0438.1021
label: catalog number
content: 1989.0438.1021
label: accession number
content: 1989.0438
label: catalog number
content: 1904K02
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Dish
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 1/4 in x 8 in x 1 1/4 in; 23.495 cm x 20.32 cm x 3.175 cm