One of the really nice things about blogging is that you can edit your posts at any time. This is just a start to what I’m sure will be a much longer list.
Primary Sources:
American Federation of Labor. American Federation of Labor Industrial and Social Economic Exhibit at the Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exposition. Washington, D.C.: American Federation of Labor, 1907.
An account of the AFL’s exhibit at the Fair. An induction into Progressive-Era labor consciousness, the exhibit highlighted the quality products manufactured in unionized factories, even going to the lengths of having a "Model Union Store" stocked with union-made goods.
Glimpses of the Jamestown Exposition and Picturesque Virginia. Chicago: Laird & Lee, 1907.
A commemorative photo book of the Expo, its buildings, and exhibits. Great source for photo reference. The wording of the captions can be interesting as well, giving a good sense of the messages or lessons conveyed in individual exhibits. The Philippines exhibit is quite interesting, talking about their uniquely high "potential to civilization."
Jamestown Ter-centennial Exposition Corporation. The Official Blue Book of the Jamestown Ter-centennial Exposition. 1907.
This book is the mother load. It’s actually a bit intimidating, as it’s probably a source of information overload. It clocks in at 800 or so pages, and gives an official daily account of the goings-on at the Expo. It lists full texts of most important speeches made there, accounts for what day was what– almost every day was in honor of some group, from Georgia Day to Negro Day to Women’s Day… It’s definitely the organ of the organizing committee, so it will not be the best source for dissenting voices, but it is quite exhaustive in its coverage of the Expo’s goings-on. If you want to know what day Mark Twain or Booker T Washington came to the fair, what they saw and what they said, this is your book.
Jamestown Ter-centennial Exposition Corporation. Official Catalogue of the Jamestown Ter-centennial Exposition. 1907.
This volume makes for incredibly dull reading, but may be of some use. It is a catalog of all groups exhibiting at the Exposition, from states to temperance groups to pen manufacturers. It could probably yield some form of quantitative data as to the nature and character of the event.
Jamestown Ter-centennial Exposition Corporation. Official Guide of the Jamestown Ter-centennial Exposition. 1907.
This is the official guidebook to the exhibition. Main attractions are outlined, descriptions of buildings, events, and exhibitions.
Laird & Lee’s Guide to Historic Virginia and the Jamestown Centennial. Chicago: Laird & Lee, 1907.
This is a rather thick but pocket-sized unofficial guide to the Exposition, much like the official guide except in format, and on a greater emphasis on the greater Norfolk area.
Library of Congress Photo Lot 2832.
This is a collection of fifty or more stereographic photos from the Exposition– great pictures of the buildings, some of the more celebrated visitors, exhibits, etc. If you’re curious, a small selection of them have been scanned, and can be found here.
Library of Congress Photo Lot 7026.
This photo lot is a collection of postcards and photos from the Expo, many of the photos appearing to be, upon inspection, the images that were used for the creation of the postcards. Again, a few of these have been scanned, and can be found here.
McCall, Samuel Walker. The American Constitution, a Speech Delivered by Hon. Samuel W. McCall of Massachusetts, at Jamestown, on September 17, 1907, on the Occasion of the One Hundred and Twentieth Anniversary of the Adoption of the National Constitution by the Convention of 1787. Boston: 1907.
I grabbed this because it was a highly patriotic theme, a patriotic speech at such an imperialist event seemed natural and interesting. To be honest, I’ve only had the time to give it a quick scan-through. But he focuses much time on the original intent of the framers of the Constitution– much as the protest pamphlet dedicates several pages to arguing the founding fathers were anti-imperialist. Also interesting in that he does a little high-wire dance about federalism, as a Yankee in the South, at this event that seems to bear the thumb-prints of the Civil War all over it.
See! See! See! Guide to Jamestown Exposition, Historic Virginia, and Washington D.C. Washington, D.C.: B. S. Adams, 1907.
Yet another unofficial guide to the Exposition. This one is interesting in that it is the version most obviously targeting people from outside the Virginia area– Eastern Virginia and D.C. attractions are given about as much page-space as the Expo itself.
Veloz-Goiticoa, N. Effect of the Jamestown Exposition on the Foreign Commerce of the United States and Incidental Remarks on the Subject. Washington, D.C.: W. F. Roberts Company, 1907.
A speech made the January before the Expo, on its intended economic effects, made before the National Convention for the Extension of the Foreign Commerce of the United States. Essentially, the gist of it is, "we hope this will make a lot of money and encourage foreign trade." As with McCall’s speech, I’ve only really given this a cursory look-through, but I was fascinated by the speaker’s conviction that this Expo will have a dramatic and positive effect on Latin American trade… Are special invitations made to Latin American leaders to an Exposition celebrating America’s growing imperialism and military might less than a decade after the Spanish-American war really the best incentive to trade with those nations?
Wright, Carroll D, et al. International Justice Vs. The Splendors of War: Protest Against the Diversion of the Jamestown Exposition to the Service of Militarism. 1907.
This document, which I mentioned in an earlier post, is a protest against the growing militaristic character of the Expo, cosigned by (among others) Jane Addams, Edward Everett Hale, and Cardinal Gibbons.
Secondary Sources:
Brundage, W. Fitzhugh. "Meta Warrick’s 1907 ‘Negro Tableaux’ and (Re)Presenting African American Historical Memory." The Journal of American History Vol. 89, Issue 4. (2003), 1368-1400.
A look at the "Negro Tableaux" in the Negro Hall of the Exposition, and the politics of the Tuskegee Institute folks who coordinated the Negro Hall. Uses a lot of resources that will be unavailable to me, as they’re in Alabama.
Gleach, Frederic W. "Pocahontas at the Fair: Crafting Identities at the 1907 Jamestown Exposition." Ethnohistory 50:3 (2003) 419-445.
An excellent analysis of the various constructions of Native American identity that competed at the Expo, looking to the agency of the Indians who participated in constructing alternative visions of themselves and their people.
Werry, Margaret. "’The Greatest Show on Earth’: Political Spectacle, Spectacular Politics, and the American Pacific." Theatre Journal 57 (2005) 355-382.
An article on militarism in turn-of-the-century expositions, looking at them as spectacles of empire. While it mentions the Jamestown Exposition only a couple times, it’s a good article for contextualizing the event.
Winton, Ruth M. "Negro Participation in Southern Expositions, 1881-1915." The Journal of Negro Education Vol. 16, No 1. (1947) 34-43.
A more general overview of black participation and representation in the golden age of Expositions.
Items I haven’t had the pleasure of looking at that look promising:
- The LC has at least three or four maps of the grounds of the event.
- I’ve found COUNTLESS articles in newspapers from the time, but have yet to sort through them.
- I’ve also found several more pamphlets that were printed for other exhibits at the Expo that I haven’t yet looked at, and there are a few photo lots I haven’t pulled as of yet.
- Representing the Nation: A Reader, eds. David Boswell and Jessica Evans. London: Routledge, 1999.
- David Blight’s work on the memory of the Civil War.
- Manliness and Civilization, by Gail Bederman. I don’t have my copy, but I wanna look over the chapter on TR again.
