Southern Exposition

Template:Nofootnotes Template:Short description Template:Infobox World's Fair The Southern Exposition was a five-year series of world's fairs held in Louisville, Kentucky, from 1883 to 1887 in what is now Louisville's Old Louisville neighborhood. The exposition, held for 100 days each year on Template:Convert immediately south of Central Park, which is now the St. James–Belgravia Historic District, was essentially an industrial and mercantile show. At the time, the exposition was larger than any previous American exhibition with the exception of the Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia in 1876. U.S. President Chester A. Arthur opened the first annual exposition on August 1, 1883.

Highlights

One highlight of the show was the largest to-date installation of incandescent light bulbs, having been recently invented by Thomas Edison (a resident of Louisville sixteen years before), to bring light to the exposition in the nighttime. The contract with the Louisville Board of Trade was for 5,000 incandescent lamps. 4,600 lamps for the exhibition hall and 400 for an art gallery, more than all the lamps installed in New York City at that time, were used.

George H. Yater writes in his book Two Hundred Years at the Fall of the Ohio:

File:Birdseye-southernexpo.jpg

"Birds-eye view of Louisville from the river front and Southern Exposition, 1883" by William F. Clarke

See also

• Amphitheatre Auditorium, built with materials from the nearby dismantled remains of the Southern Exposition building
• St. James Court Art Show, held in the same location

External links

• "'Went to the Exposition Tonight': Louisville's 1883 Southern Exposition" — Article by Kathryn Anne Bratcher of The Filson Historical Society
• Template:Usurped — Article by Civil War historian/author Bryan S. Bush