Rare Video Shows St. Louis As It Was During the 1904 World’s Fair

If you could hop into a time machine and go to any point in time, what would you pick? I'm probably not alone thinking the St. Louis area back in 1904 would be interesting. I don't have a time machine, but I have come across some rare video that shows you the city during that famous event.

Get our free mobile app

King Rose Archives specializes in...(*drum roll*)...archives on YouTube. Here's a snippet of how they described this video share:

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S., from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds totaling $15 million were used to finance the event. More than 60 countries and 43 of the then-45 American states maintained exhibition spaces at the fair, which was attended by nearly 19.7 million people.

Since there were no drones back then (duh), this film was obviously captured from the top of some nearby buildings.

The Atlantic shared some very detailed and interesting pics from the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair including some of the first private automobiles and the newly-invented x-ray. The even have high-resolution pictures from opening day of the fair on April 30, 1904. One picture showing eventual president William Taft walking right through the middle of the huge crowd there. That would likely give modern-day Secret Service agents nightmares.

Wikipedia remembers the World Fair in St. Louis as a sharing of what was then popular culture. No surprise that's a far cry from what the world looks like today in St. Louis and elsewhere. The good ole days indeed.