Southern Branches: I Want to Go to the Fair!

This is my first post in a very long time. We have moved 3 times, lived in an RV twice, and survived 2 hurricanes since my last blog post. Now I FINALLY have a place to work on and store my genealogy, and I am thrilled. As we finish up the last hold outs of unpacking, I have been able to pick up my research where I left off in some cases and to "do over" in others. Lately I've been enjoying the Genealogy Gems Podcast, the Research Like a Pro Podcast, and several others. I have also been using these cool Family Tree Notebooking pages to tie up my research with a bow and help me look at things with fresh eyes. FUN!!!

Just yesterday I was making this notebooking page for this newspaper article that mentions my 2nd-great-grandfather Samuel Alfred Martin, when I realized I had never noticed that it was about the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. Well, this seemed like an obvious thing to research since it was such a huge event and should have lots of information available. What I found kept me up well past midnight clicking and clicking.

It was an unimaginably huge spectacle. Like EPCOT at Disney World except way bigger (over 1200 acres compared to EPCOTs 300 acres. Woah.) and built KNOWING that it would subsequently be taken down! It is estimated to have cost $50,000,000.00 which would be well over a billion dollars in today's money. Check out the "Official Guide" for the fair from 1904!

My mind was totally blown by the grandeur and expansiveness of it all. I wondered how my ancestor Samuel A Martin felt seeing it in person and even being a part of it. I knew I had to make a blog post just to gather all the great media I found all in one place. I hope you enjoy experiencing the sights of the 1904 World's Fair as much as I did!

To see original film footage, check out this playlist on my YouTube channel.