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LAURA INGALLS WILDER In 1915, Laura visited San Francisco. She came to spend some time with her daughter Rose who was a reporter for The Bulletin, a local paper at the time. While in the city, she also attended the Panama Pacific International Exposition several times. In 1974, the many descriptive letters that she wrote to her husband during this trip were compiled and published in a book called West From Home. This book gives a wonderful insight into some of the day-to-day details of life in 1915 San Francisco, and describes some of what she saw when attending the PPIE. Here are some images from 1915 fair viewbooks, along with a few of the words that Laura used when describing these attractions. (Click on photos to see larger image.) I will try to add more pictures/excerpts as time allows.
"The
buildings are built like those of a city and the streets and the
four corners of streets form the courts. One goes through beautiful
archways in the buildings into the courts where fountains splash
and lovely flowers and green things are growing. there are life-like
statues and figures of animals and birds. The foundation color
of the buildings is a soft gray and as it rises it is changed
to the soft yellows picked out in places by blue and red and green
and the eye is carried up and up by the architecture, spires and
things, to the beautiful blue sky above. I have never imagined
anything so beautiful."
"'The
Pioneer Mother' is [one of the wonderful statues] -- a life-size
group up on a pedestal so one looks up to it. A woman in a sunbonnet,
of course pushed back to show her face, with her sleeves pushed
up, guiding a boy and girl before her and sheltering and protecting
them with her arms and pointing the way westward. It is wonderful
and so true in detail. The shoe exposed is large and heavy and
I'd swear it had been half-soled."
SEPTEMBER 4, 1915
"Just
here Rose called to come quick and go see the fireworks at the
Fair. We put on our heavy coats and went out to the walk before
the house and just a little way along it and sat down on a stone
curb. The white Tower of Jewels is in sight from there. The jewels
strung around it glitter and shine in beautiful colors. The jewels
are from austria and cost ninety cents each and they decorate
all the cornices on the high, fancifully built tower. A searchlight
is directed on the tower at night to show it off and it is wonderful."
"We
went to the Manufacturers' Building... and saw the "Keen
Kutter" exhibit. In the center of the space, which was nearly
two hundred feet square... Everything about the exhibit was worked
by electricity. Above... is an arch made of glistening spoons
of different sizes. At the upper right-hand corner was a gigantic
pocket knife with four blades that kept opening and shutting and
at the upper left-hand corner was a row of seven blacksmiths standing
each at his anvil with a different tool in his hand. At stated
times first one and then another would beat the tool on the anvil
with his hammer... At the center top were two windmills made of
ax blades continually turning. It was very interesting."
SEPTEMBER 29, 1915
"We
went through a large entrance gate and were in the Zone, which
is a long street of attractions like the side shows at a circus,
only of course not to be compared with them as they are simply
wonderful. We took a seat on one of the little trains drawn by
a motor and rode the length of the Zone, for it is so far and
there is so much walking to do."
"We
went to... the Zone and went to the Samoan village. Samoa, you
know, are South Sea islands belonging to the U.S. There were several
girls and men dressed, or rather undressed, in their native costume...
They wore necklaces and strings of beads and rings... Their skin
was a beautiful golden color where it was not tattooed and their
voices were soft and musical. The girls are very pretty and some
of the men are fine-looking. They danced their native dances and
sang their island songs. In all this dancing and singing they
never touched each other and they danced in every muscle of their
bodies, even their fingers and toes... I did enjoy every bit of
it."
SEPTEMBER 4, 1915
"There
were some lovely Kentucky race and riding horses, and believe
me, they can all have their automobiles that want them. I would
have me a Kentucky riding horse if I could afford it."
"As
we looked, the aeroscope rose above the tops of the buildings.
It is a car that can hold five hundred people. Its outlines are
marked by electric lights. It is on the top of a more slender
part and is lowered for the people to fill the car, then is raised
high so they can look down on the whole Exposition at once. They
have that instead of the Ferris Wheel. As it rises, it looks like
some giant with a square head, craning his long neck up and up.
I don't suppose it looks like that to anyone else, but that is
the way it makes me feel."
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