AR01 405756 HON. HOUACE GKEELEY. TEE IE . ^WlffEL ITS ' Eposes and 1 8 7 O . Sx IGthrtfl SEYMOUR DURST "t ' 'Tort nuuw iAr7tAe.rda.Tn, oj> Je Mankatatis When you leave, please leave this book Because it has been said "Sver'thing comes t' him who waits Except a loaned book." \\ I RY ARCHITECTURE! WD FlNl ARTS LIBRARY Gift of Si ymoi r B. Dursi oi dYork Library Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/sketchesofpastinOOindu K I, T G i a, ^ OF PAST WITH REFERENCE TO THE PERPETUAL EXHIBITION, TO BE HELD BY THE ,0mpEtt; NEW YORK: J. 0. Seymour, Kennard & Hay, Printers, 89 Liberty Street. 1870 S54' tndusttfat IxMfeltterw. Competitive exhibitions are as old as the world. The savage delights in exhibiting his prowess over his fellows in the hunt or on the war path, and his string of human scalps are, to him, so many medals of honor entitling him to su- perior distinction in the lodge or the tribe. In the barbarous ages, kings and rulers strove to outwit their rivals in strat- egy, and to outshine them in the rude splendor of their imperial dwellings and retinues. The tournaments of the days of chivalry were competitions for the rewards awaiting the victorious knights. The fierce wars of modern times have been so many exhibitions of valor, strength and skill, of which the prizes were personal, political or territorial supremacy. " Peace hath her victories, no less renowned than war," and they have been achieved in friendly rivalry of agricul- ture, arts and science. The importance of an improved development of human industry and invention has led to village fairs, to agricultural shows, to machinery trials, and, upon a grander scale, to those national and international ex- hibitions which have attracted the attention of the civilized world. Looking only to the consideration of those which have aspired to belong to the latter class, we find that as early as 1756, the British Society of Arts offered prizes for improvements in tapestry, in carpets, porcelain, agriculture and other mechanical inventions. The number of these in- creasing, the Society, in 1761, found it necessary to employ 4 INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS. a gentleman to devote his time to explaining to visitors and inventors the nature and utility of the articles entered for competition. From that time to the present there have been numerous industrial exhibitions, the more prominent of which are noted below. Early European Exhibitions. We have mentioned the pioneer of English exhibitions of industry and invention. The British Society of Arts has steadily fostered mechanical and scientific improvements. Many minor exhibitions were held subsequently to those of 1756 — 61, but the first movement toward a national enter- prise appears to have been in 182S, when King George IV. was largely instrumental in opening an exhibition, which it was proposed to continue annually, under the ponderous title of "A National Repository for the Exhibition of Speci- mens of New and Improved Productions of the Artisans and Manufacturers of the United Kingdom, at Kings Mews, Charing Cross." The plan was not well supported by the public, its title being not the least ridiculed point about it, Imt through the strenuous efforts of the king and a few co-laborers, it was kept up for four years, after which it was heard of no more. In 1850 an exhibition was held in Dublin, under the auspices of the Royal Society of that city (it being the first of the Royal Society's fairs, at which other than Irish pro- ductions were admitted), and several similar ones were held in Manchester, Leeds, and other cities. In 1853 a more extensive exhibition was held in Dublin, being international in its character. Ten thousand specta- tors were present at the opening, on May 12th. The number of season tickets sold was 366,745, and of daily visitors 63-1,523, the receipts being £47,363. The building, a series of parallel halls, cost £S0,000. The lowest rate of INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS. admission was sixpence, and the success of the project was entirely satisfactory. hi 1S52, an exhibition was held in Cork, at which the number of daily visitors was 74,095, and the receipts £4,419. Meantime, many exhibitions, more or less general in their character, had been held upon the European Continent. The pioneer of these was conceived and carried out in 1797 -8, in France, by Marquis d'Avize, who had had a super- vision of several branches of national manufactures. The return of Napoleon from the Italian wars was made the occasion for the first official Exposition in the " Temple of Industry," in the Champs de Mars. In 1801 the second Official Exposition was held while Napoleon was First Consul ; on this occasion Jacquard was awarded a bronze medal for the looms which have since made his name a household word in manufactures. The third Exposition was held in 1S02, the fourth in 1S06, the fifth in 1819 (when seventeen Crosses of the Legion of Honor were awarded, together with 360 medals), the sixth in 1823 (open for fifty days, and 1,091 prizes were awarded), the seventh in 1827, in the interior of the great Court of the Louvre, the eighth in 1834, with 2,447 exhibitors, the ninth in 1839, in the Champs Elysees, with 4,381 exhibitors, the tenth in 1844, when 3,690 manufacturers competed, the eleventh in 1849, the twelfth in 1855, and the thirteenth in 1857. Of the last, we shall speak more in detail elsewhere. That of 1849 was upon a larger scale than its predecessors, and was the first at which live stock and agricultural im- plements were allowed to compete for prizes. The building was 675 feet long by 328 wide, besides a vast shed for agricultural and horticultural productions. The cost of the building was about $90,000, this being paid simply for the use of the material, all of which reverted to the contractor, at the end of the exhibition. The public were admitted b INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS. gratuitously on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, from 11 o'clock, A. M., to 5 P. M. On Thursdays, from 9 to 5, there was admission for all who were willing to pay one franc, which went to the poor of Paris. There was much criticism upon the plan of the building, it being so miscon- structed that not more than one-fourth of the interior could be seen from any one point, and Sir Digby Wyatt, in a report to the British Society of Art, says that " a system of sham seemed to preside over all construction and ornament," cornices being of plaster made to represent carving, fir beams being covered with paper to make them look like oak, etc. At the Exposition of 1855, there were 20,859 exhibitors. This was held in the Palace de Industrie, and was open to all nations. The Exposition was inaugurated May 15th, and was open 198 days, the average number of daily visitors being 22,000. At the close of the Exposition, the building was purchased by the Government, and is now used for agricultural shows, &c. To King Ludwig, of Bavaria, is due the honor of first establishing & permanent national exhibition. In 1845, this was opened in a handsomely constructed and decorated edifice, about 1,000 exhibitors competing in that year. An exhibition was held in Brussels in 1847. None of the public halls being large enough for the purpose, the Nouvel Entrepot, a commercial edifice, was employed. The display of the special products of Belgium was very fine ; Brussels lace, valued at 2,500 francs per pound, and handkerchiefs worth £200 each, being examples. National Fairs were held in Ghent in 1820, in Tournai in 1824, in Haarlem in 1825, and in Brussels in 1830. In 1854, an exhibition for products of Germany alone was held in Munich, while similar ones had previously been held in Leipsic, Frankfort on the Oder, and Frankfort on the Maine. INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS. 7 ft National Fairs were held in Spain in 1827, 1828, 1831, 18-11 and 1815, each of which had an average of about 300 exhibitors. The World's Fair of 1851. All of these exhibitions sink into insignificance when compared with the grand International Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations, held in London in 1851. This mammoth enterprise, unprecedented in its extent and its success, deserves somewhat detailed notice. At a meeting of the British Society of Arts, held June 15, 1819, Prince Albert suggested the idea of a universal exhibition, to which competitors from all nations should be admitted. The Society heartily concurred in the proposal, and at once took measures for carrying it into effect. Per- sonal communications were addressed to the heads of leading industrial establishments, asking their co-operation. The Society appropriated £20,000 to be expended in prizes and medals, and voluntary subscriptions were called for to defray necessary expenses. The firm of James & George Munday agreed to erect the necessary buildings, advance what funds were needed, and be repaid by a proportion of the profits, to be decided by arbitration at the close of the exhibition. A Poyal Commission having been appointed to have general management of the enterprise, the Commis- sioners decided to decline the offer of the Messrs. Munday, and threw the whole burden of the expense and risk upon voluntary subscriptions. Many leading men and houses subscribed liberally, Sir Morton Peto being one of the leading subscribers. The total amount of subscriptions was £79,224 13s. 6d., of which £67,896 12s. 9d. were actu- ally paid in. The Commissioners soon found that it would be desirable to obtain an Act of Incorporation, which Par- liament granted, and the Bank of England then advanced O INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS. to the Company £32,500, which was subsequently repaid out of the receipts of the first three weeks. In preparing for the transaction of business, the Commis- sioners appointed sub-committees, including men of emi- nence in the several departments. The contract for the building was awarded to Sir James Paxton, at an estimated cost of £79,800, to which £35,000 were subsequently added in payment for changes and for the increased expense in- curred by reason of the haste with which the building was constructed. The first column was fixed September 26, 1850, and the whole was complete for opening, May 1,, 1851. The area of the original building was 800,000 feet, to which about 200,000 feet were added by enlargements. More than 2,000 mechanics were employed in the work. The building was 1,848 feet by 408 feet, with a projection 936 feet by 48 feet, making the total area roofed over about 19 acres. Seven hundred tons of wrought iron, 3,800 tons of cast iron, and 600,000 feet of timber were used in the work. The receipt of goods began February 12, 1851. At the opening ceremonies, May 1, 25,000 spectators were present. The Exhibition continued 141 days, finally closing October 15th. The total number of visits were 6,039,135, the average daily attendance being 42,831. f On three days of the closing week the number of visitors was 107,81 5 r 109,760 and 109,915, respectively, 93,224 having been in the building at once on October 7th. The total receipts were £506,100 6s. lid., and the net profits, after all ac- counts were closed, were about £176,000, or nearly a million dollars, which were devoted to the founding of an Industrial College. Twenty-five thousand six hundred and five season tickets were sold. No rent was charged for exhibiting goods, and the valuation of property exhibited was about £2,000,000. The population of London was, at that time, about 2,300,000. » industrial exhibitions. v The New York Crystal Palace. The splendid success of the London Exhibition stimulated efforts toward several similar ones in other countries. There was a prevalent feeling that in the Exhibition of 1851 the United States had not done justice to herself — that the im- mense resources of this country should have some more satisfactory exposition, which could best be attained by an exhibition in our leading city ; and, moreover, as this country was an enormous and increasing purchaser of the choicest fabrics of the old world, that an opportunity to place their goods before vastly more Americans than could attend the London World's Fair would be gladly made use of by the manufacturers and inventors of foreign nations. An effort was accordingly made, early in 1852, to organize an interna- tional exhibition, to be held in New York in the following year. The municipal authorities of New York granted a five years' lease of Reservoir Square, upon two conditions : that the building should be of glass and iron, and that no more than fifty cents should be charged for admission. A Charter tor the " Association for the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations," was granted by the Legislature upon the 11th of March, 1862, authorizing the association to issue stock to the amount of a half million dollars. Upon the 17th of March, an organization was effected, Theodore Sedgwick, Esq., being elected President. Subscriptions to stock were rapidly made. The Secretary of State urged the importance of the scheme upon the representatives of our Government to foreign countries, and the resident Ministers of foreign powers responded cordially to the letters addressed to them, soliciting their influence in securing the co-operation of European nations. A plan for an exhibition building was presented by Sir Joseph Paxton, the architect of the London Crystal Palace, * llth of March, 1862, above— should read March 11th, 1852. 10 INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS. but the contract was finally awarded to Messrs. Carstensen & Gildermeister, architects; $175,000 being appropriated for the purpose. The edifice was constructed in the form of a Greek cross, the length of each diameter being 365 feet 5 inches, and the widtli of the arms 149 feet 5 inches. The dome over the intersection of the arms was 100 feet in diameter, the height to the spring line being TO feet, and to the crown of the arch 123 feet. Thirty-two ornamented windows of stained glass, representing the arms of the Union and of the several States, gave light and beauty to the interior of the dome. The building was mainly of iron and glass. The contract for construction was signed August 26th, 1852, and the first column raised October 30th. The exhibition was first expected to be opened May 1st, 1853, but various causes so delayed it that the official opening did not take place until July 14th. An addition to the building, 451 feet 5 inches long and 75 feet wide, for the reception of machinery in motion, refreshment saloons, etc., was added to the original plan. Eighteen hundred tons of iron were employed in the construction, with 55,000 square feet of glass and 750,000 feet of timber. The total area of the building was 249,691 feet, or 5f acres. The President of the United States and a large number of eminent officials of this and foreign countries were present at the opening. Many of the goods designed for exhibition were not in place until late in the summer. The price of season tickets was $10 ; of single tickets, 50 cents for adults and 25 cents for children, and of tickets good for two months, $5. The season tickets sold up to the third day of the exhibition, amounted to $30,060. The goods were admitted to the building free of duty. After September 2d, the Exhibition was opened from 7 to 10 p.m. The Exhibition was not a very great financial success, the building having been destroyed by fire. The shares (par value $100,) at one time rose to $17~>. industrial exhibitions. 11 The Suydenham Palace. No one of the many places of interest in and about Lon- don is more attractive than the Suydenham Crystal Palace, at Penge Park, near Suydenham. It is distant about six miles from London, hourly trains (from London Bridge,) taking the visitor to the Palace Grounds in fifteen minutes. This Palace is the sequel to the Crystal Palace of 1851, in Hyde Park. At the close of that Exhibition, a company of in- fluential gentlemen was formed with a view of purchasing the Hyde Park building and establishing it permanently in some convenient locality. About three hundred acres of land were secured, as above noted, the price paid for the land alone being greater than the cost of the Hyde Park building. The Company has a paid-up capital of £800,000 or $4-,000,000. Thither the great Crystal Palace was re- moved and re-constructed in a slightly modified form. In place of the original nearly flat roof, a curved roof was put on, and the length of the building diminished from 1,848 to 1,500 feet. Xo expense or labor was spared to make the building all that could be desired. One million dollars were spent for hydraulic arrangements alone. The grounds were laid out with great skill and taste, — with groves, streams, fountains, and all that can add beauty to the scene. A part of the building was subsequently destroyed by fire, but enough remains to bewilder the visitor by the multitude of artistic charms. In the edifice, there are Roman, Grecian, Assyrian. Italian and German Courts, devoted not only to exhibition of the rarest artistic productions of those countries, but to a valuable exposition of the architecture prevailing in or emanating from those nations. Sixty thousand pounds were devoted to models and copies of the most noted statues and groups of ancient Greece and Rome. Twenty-five thousand pounds were paid for the Luddiges collection of exotics. Upon such a liberal scale has the 12 INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS. enterprise been fostered and its attractions sustained. The whole has been enlivened by daily concerts by a band which has thus made itself famous, while notable dramatic per- formances and other great public gatherings have found here the best place for their celebration. Audiences of thirty thousand persons have frequently listened here to concerts by three thousand children, and upon special fete occasions there have been as many as sixty-five thousand persons present. Excursion tickets from London, including admission to the Palace, are issued at 2s. 6d, and 2s. for first and second class, respectively. The Paris Exposition of 1867. On the first of April, 1867, the Thirteenth Official Expo- sition was opened in the Champs de Mars. The building erected for the purpose was radically different from any that had been previously designed for similar objects. It was elliptical in form, arranged with a series of aisles running entirely around the structure, with transverse passages from the centre to the circumference, cutting the aisles at right angles. The remark attributed to the Emperor, that it was " a huge gasometer," was a terse description of the general effect of this method of construction. The spaces between the transverse passages were assigned to the various nations exhibiting, the design being that in each of these spaces a certain class of goods should occupy the place nearest to the centre, another, class the next outward position, and so on, so that a visitor passing through any one of the aisles from the entrance around the building, back to the place of be- ginning, would, in this walk, see only the same general class of goods, as shown by the different nations. The building was devoid of beauty, whatever imposing effect it had being due to its immensity. The Champs de Mars contains about INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS. 13 100 acres, of which about 35 acres were covered by the Exposition building, which was 1,500 feet by 1,250. The credit of the plan, it is said, should be divided between the Emperor, Prince Kapoleon, the Baron Haussman and Mons. Le Play. At the opening, April 1st, everything was confusion, and the Exposition was almost universally considered a great failure. But a month's energetic effort so changed the gen- eral aspect, that on the first of May public opinion was as unanimous in declaring it a great success. The Exposition was financially successful, and brilliant in the extreme, nearly all the crowned heads of Europe taking the occasion to pay royal visits to the French capital, where they were imperially entertained. The Exposition finally closed, jSov. 17th, 231 days from its opening. dPQWfti of New Yark audi itt Surrounding*'. Nearly twenty years have passed since the JS"ew York Crystal Palace stood in Reservoir Square. It is superfluous to say that the Empire City has wonderfully changed and grown within that time. Streets have been opened and rapidly built up upon the upper part of Manhattan Island ; trade has crowded upon residences, until the best streets below Union Square are given up to traffic ; the Central Park has been laid out and made the people's play ground ; other places, which were parks at that day, are now cov- ered with warehouses ; what was then " up town" has become " down town ;" the population of the city has increased from 515,394, in 1850, to about 1,000,000, in 1870; the valuation of property in the city is $1,000,000,000, against $351,708,4:20, in 1852. In 1853, Twenty-third street was virtually the head of Fifth avenue ; the map of the city showed the " Bloomingdale Road" as beginning at Madison 14 INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS. Square ; the Second Avenue Street Railroad ran only to Forty-second Street, the Third Avenue Cars to Sixty-first, the Sixth Avenue to Forty-fourth, and the Eighth Avenue to Fifty-ninth. The passengers by the Camden and Amboy Railroad took boat to South Amboy and thence to Phila- delphia by rail ; those for the Erie Road were carried by boat to Piermont, which was the eastern terminus of the road, and travelers by the New Haven Railroad started from 29 Canal Street. Mayor Westervelt, in his annual message, January 1, 1854, deprecated the proposal to take 000 acres between Fifty-ninth and One Hundred and Sixth Streets and Fifth and Eighth Avenues for a grand Central Park, as " an area, in my judgment, vastly more extensive than is required for the purpose. * * * Many years must elapse before our citizens can derive any of the bene- fits which it was anticipated by the friends of the measure would result from the enactment" of the legislative authority. The telegraph cable had not been laid across the North River, and California news was a month in reaching New York. Business enterprise has changed all this. The site of the old Crystal Palace was then away out of town ; now it is in the heart of the city. Seventeen city railroad lines carry their tens of thousands daily. Nearly one hundred million persons cross our ferries yearly, to homes in New Jersey and on Long Island. Over three hundred trains per day upon the railroads centering here, arrive loaded with pas- sengers, which, allowing five cars to a train, can bring to and carry away from this city ninety thousand persons per da} r . Burton's Theatre has been converted into a court house ; the Broadway Theatre has been leveled, in obedience to the insatiable demands of trade. Hundreds of suburban towns have sprung into being, and grown rapidly into prosperity The metropolis is no longer confined to Manhattan Island, but embraces the whole country for fifty miles around. INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS. 15 The demands for education as well as amusement have increased in corresponding ratio. Churches, schools and theatres have increased in numbers and in strength. That the people cordially support properly founded and ably conducted places for refined entertainment, such structures as the Young Men's Christian Association Building, Booth's Theatre, the Academy of Design, and others, testify. It is not New York alone, large aa it is, which supports such enterprises. This city is the adopted representative of the whole United States. In the pursuit of pleasure, we, as a people, are more liberal than the Parisians themselves. Notwithstanding all that has been or may be said of the superior art culture of European capitals, it is a fact that, as a nation, America is mure liberal in the support of what is worthy than any other country, while the vast scale upon which our agricultural and manufacturing development is conducted, render us most peculiarly hearty in welcoming and adopting useful inventions. Moreover, our imports of foreign goods yearly increase in quantity and value. The United States is at once the harvest field and the customer of the world. The Prapasedl CadttstFtaC iKfufetttaro, The foregoing facts, and others of a similar nature, mani- fest to all who examine the subject, have led to a desire to establish, in New York, an International Industrial Exhibi- tion, which shall be an illustration of our mechanical and artistic development, and a bazar wherein the industry of America and the world may be brought into profitable competition. A few public spirited gentlemen, acting upon this theory, obtained from the New York Legislature of 1870 the following Charter, under which it is proposed to establish an enterprise which will be an honor to our city and country. 16 INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS. CHARTER. AN ACT to Incorporate the " Industrial Exhibition Com- pany" and to authorize said Co?npany to purchase real estate, and to erect thereon a building or buildings tvhich shall be used as an Industrial Exhibition. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact asfolloics : Section I. — * * * their associates, successors and assigns shall be, and they are hereby declared and created a body cor- porate and politic, by the name and style of the Industrial Exhibition Company, and by that name shall have succes- sion, and all the powers and privileges conferred upon a corporation created under an Act of the Legislature of the State of New York, entitled "An Act to authorize the formation of Corporations for Manufacturing, Mining, Me- chanical or Chemical Purposes," passed February seven- teenth, eighteen hundred and forty-eight; and the several Acts extending and amending said Acts, are hereby granted to said Industrial Exhibition Company; and said Corporation shall be subject to all the duties, obligations and liabilities prescribed by said Act, and the Acts amendatory thereof, except as hereinafter provided. Section II. — The Capital Stock of said Company shall be two million dollars, to be divided into twenty thousand shares of one hundred dollars each, but it shall be lawful for the board of directors of said Company, by the vote of two-thirds of the members thereof, to increase the same to seven millions. It shall not commence business until at least one million of the stock shall be subscribed for, and twenty per cent, thereof, or a sum equal to that amount, actually paid in. Section III. — All the affairs of said Corporation shall be managed by a Board of not more than fifty-two Directors, who shall, except as hereinafter provided, be annually elected by the Stockholders. Section IV. — The said Corporation is hereby authorized to purchase and hold such real estate as may be necessary INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS IT and to construct thereon such buildings as may be necessary for the maintenance and carrying on of the business of exhib- iting the products, goods, wares and merchandise, machinery, mechanical inventions and improvements of every nature, name and kind, and such as are usually exhibited at fairs, and to award and pay to exhibitors therein such prizes and medals, and honorary distinctions, as they shall deem proper ; and to lease, let, or own stalls, stands, rooms and places in said building or buildings, upon such terms and conditions as the Board of Directors shall deem best for the interests of said Company, and for the promotion of Science, Art, Commerce and Literature. And the said Company is hereby further authorized to construct studios and picture galleries, and to exhibit therein paintings and statuary of any nature and kind, and to buy and sell such paintings and statuary, and to award such prizes for the creation of the same as such Board of Directors may deem proper; and generally, said corporation shall have power to carry on in its said buildings, erected for the purposes hereinbefore mentioned, all legal and proper business. And said Cor- poration is hereby further authorized to purchase and hold, by gift, subject to all provisions of law relating to devises and bequest by last will and testament, grant, lease or conveyance, any real estate, or interest therein, which shall be necessary or useful for carrying on the business hereby authorized to be carried on by said Corporation. Section T. — Said Company is hereby authorized and fully empowered, in its corporate capacity, to borrow any sums of money from any person or persons, corporation or body politic, of any kind, for any rate of interest which may be agreed upon by and between said Company and any per- son or party of whom said money may be obtained ; and to make, execute and deliver all necessary writings, notes, bonds, mortgages, or other papers and securities in amount and kind which may be deemed expedient by said Corpora- tion, in consideration of any such loan, or in discharge of any liabilities that it may incur in'the purchase of its said real estate, or in the construction of its said buildings, and in carrying on of its said business ; and the power of said Corporation for all purposes necessary to carry out the object of said Company are hereby ratified and confirmed, and the 2 18 INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS. contracts and official acts of said Company declared binding in law and equity upon said Corporation, and npon all the parties to such contracts. Section VI. — The first fifty-two persons named in this Act shall constitute the first Board of Directors, and shall have the power to name a Board of Regents not to exceed in numbers (10) ten for each State or Territory in the United States ; and also a Board of Regents for other Countries that may propose to exhibit wares in such building, the Regents to hold office at pleasure of the Board ; and these first fifty- two Corporators shall constitute the first Board of Directors, until the Capital Stock of said Company shall have been subscribed for and paid in in full, and the said building shall have been constructed ; after which time, said Directors shall be annually elected by the Stockholders, as prescribed in said Act, entitled " An Act to authorize the formation of Corporations for Manufacturing, Mining, Mechanical or Chemical Purposes," passed February seventeenth, eighteen hundred and forty-eight ; and in case of a vacancy in the said first Board of Directors, occasioned by death, resigna- tion or otherwise, the persons remaining in said Board shall have power to fill such vacancy by appointment. Section VII. — The first Board of Directors shall have power to elect such officers as they may deem advisable, who shall hold their respective offices during the existence of the first Board of Directors, unless vacancy is caused by their own act. After tllis Act becomes a law, any five of the herein named Directors may, by signing a call and pub- lishing such call in a daily paper for twenty consecutive days, and by mailing a printed notice to each of the Directors herein named, twenty days prior to ,the time of such meet- ing, convene the Board ; and if there are present at such meeting thirteen of the herein named Directors, they may proceed to elect such officers as shall be necessary, and to adopt a set of By-laws. Section VIII. — The building to be erected shall be fire- proof. INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS. 19 Section IX. — Persons subscribing to the Stock of this Company or being Directors, shall incur no personal liabil- ities beyond the amount of the capital stock held and owned by them respectively. Section X. — The Corporation hereby created shall pos- sess all the powers and be subject to the provisions of title third of Chapter 18 of Part 1, of the Revised Statutes. Section XI. — This Act shall take effect immediately. Magnitude of the "Work. It will be seen that the charter gives liberal authority, and that, if the Directors carry out in full the authority thus given them, they will have a greater work upon their hands than has ever before been attempted for a similar purpose. All previous international exhibitions have been temporary in their character ; this is designed to be permanent. The greater part of the large capital has already been subscribed, and much preliminary work is being done. It is proposed to combine all the best features of past great exhibitions, and to do all upon a liberal scale. The edifice to be erected will be, in itself, an exposition of art in architecture ; there will be galleries of painting and statuary ; agricultural and horti- cultural departments, where notable products will always find opportunity for exhibition and competition; mechanical and scientific departments, where inventions of new motive powers or new applications of those already in use, will receive critical and intelligent examination and verdict ; commercial departments, where the various products of domestic and foreign industry may have opportunity for beneficial exchange ; conservatories of native and foreign plants, flowers and fruits ; courses of literary, scientific and useful philosophical lectures ; one or more immense halls for 20 INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS. grand concerts or occasions of other great public gatherings ; cabinets of minerals, shells and fossils, and whatever else may be needed to make up the most complete industrial exhibition of ancient or modern times. To do all this, and to do it well, will require extraordinary skill and energy. Xo half-way work will answer the needs of the city and country, or prove remunerative to those who embark in the enterprise. The public will, it is believed, give generous support to anything that is liberally and wisely founded and energetically and judiciously conducted. Beside all labor incident to organizing and conducting the exhibition itself, as such, there will need to be very careful consideration of the arrangements for minutely and impar- tially examining all articles in competition, and deciding upon their proper comparative merit. The selection of juries upon the different classes of goods, will be not the least of the arduous duties of the directors of the enterprise. It is intended that this shall be done with the utmost care, and a due consideration -for the best interests of all concerned. Special Advantages of New York. Granting that America is large enough, rich enough and ambitious enough to make such an exhibition a national -enterprise, to be nationally supported, what is the best point for its location ? In discussing this question, reference must be had, not to geographical or political lines, but to com- mercial and manufacturing considerations. If a solely agri- cultural display was proposed, the West would have strong claim to its possession. If a purely manufacturing exhibi- tion was the object, New England would justly claim pre- eminence. If the design was simply to enhance our national glory, and no question of dollars and cents was permitted to enter, then the Washington ians would have a clear field against all competitors, and another Smithsonian Institute, larger and finer than even that creditable institution, would INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS. 21 be added to the white marble structures which fill up the measure of the sights of our national capital. If an illustra- tion of our mineral wealth was the object to be attained, then Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Cleveland and Marquette might fight out the question of location among themselves ; or if a place of summer resort was alone sought, Lake George, Newport, Saratoga and Long Branch could put in their several powerful claims. But no one of these comprises the design. It is, rather, the intention to combine all these, and more. And for the accomplishment of the actual com- prehensive plan, there is no place so favorable as New York. We have, at hand, a city of a million inhabitants, with other millions within one hour's ride. We Jiave quick access to all parts of our vast and growing country, by rail and boat. We are in daily communication with the chief shipping ports of Western Europe, and nearly all foreign transportation of goods or persons passes through New York Bay. In the matter of accommodation for the throng of visitors to such an exhibition, and of administering to their material and mental wants, no city in the land can compare with this. Our hotel accommodations are far in advance of those of London or Paris ; the amount and variety of natu- ral scenery or of seaside enjoyment, within easy reach, is equally superior. No other city in all this growing country presents to the foreign visitor so energetic and striking phases of live Americanism as this. In fashionable display we are not outdone by the gayest of European capitals, and in the sturdy and industrious walks of life, no other city exceeds us. When another half century has been added to American growth, one of the great inland cities, like Chicago or St. Louis, may, perhaps, have just claim to be the best place at which to exhibit the products of American indus- try ; but now, and for many years to come, New York is, unquestionably, the most accessible and the most favorable 22 INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS. place in which to collect the evidences of the educated labor of the civilized world. * Estimates of Business. Calculations in advance are necessarily imperfect. The Commissioners for the World's Fair of 1851, hoped to re- ceive patronage enough to repay the liabilities incurred in the erection of the building — about $400,000 — and the operating expenses. They met with most unexpected and triumphant success, the receipts for 14*1 days, being, as we have previously noted, more than $2,500,000, an aver- age of more than seventeen thousand dollars per day. The average of visitors was more than forty-two thousand per day. ^Twenty, thirty, and forty thousand per day are seen at the Suydenham Palace. Twenty-two thousand per day was the average for 198 days at the Palace de Indus- trie of 1855. The Exposition in 1867 numbered its daily visitors by tens of thousands. Even the New York Exhi- bition of 1853, in a location not then easily accessible, was visited by thousands every day. New York, in 1872, with the whole country looking to it as the Mecca of their amusement and recreation, should do as well, continually, as London did in 1851. The facilities of travel, in our country, are greater than they were then in England ; our people spend money more liberally than ever their European cousins did ; more people will come from England to attend this Industrial Exhi- bition than went from America to London ; the hundreds of thousands of emigrants who annually arrive upon our shores will, of themselves, make up a profitable attendance upon the Exhibition which places before their eyes the familiar forms of the productions of their native lands; as our com- merce grows with our population and wealth, our merchants will throng the exhibition halls to see what new fabrics are being prepared for their customers ; foreign producers and their American agents will find this the best place for INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS. 23 effecting advantageous sales through a proper display of the articles which they have for sale ; the giant farmers of the Illinois prairies, or the Platte Valley, will keep watcli of the -exhibition rooms to see what new helps machinery is giving them for the tillage of their broad fields ; the m