St. Louis: A Little History

From our trip this week: the view from the St. Louis Art Museum which stands atop “Art Hill.”
The Art Museum was built for the St Louis World’s fair: the only building intended to be preserved after the Fair closed.
The lagoon at the foot of the hill was one of many water features designed for the Fair.

Forest Park in St. Louis was originally developed as the site of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, also called the St.Louis World’s Fair, in 1904. The Fair celebrated the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase in April, 1803, a result of which St.Louis (and much more territory) became part of the United States. The Fair also commemorated the departure from St. Louis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which left St. Louis in May of 1804, and traveled up the Mississippi River for around 40 miles to reach the mouth of the Missouri River. From there, they explored westward until they reached the Pacific Ocean.

Maybe you can hum the tune of “Meet me in St. Louis, Louis, Meet me at the Fair,” a popular song from 1904 about this very famous event in St. Louis history. Visiting the Art Museum this week while I was in St. Louis has made me think about the history of St. Louis as I learned it in elementary school in a suburb of St. Louis where I was born. By the way — no one who comes from St. Louis pronounces it “Looie” the way the song does.

At the entrance to the World’s Fair stood a majestic statue of Saint Louis, for whom the early French settlers named the city when it was founded in 1764. Louis IX (1214-1270) is the only king of France that was also a saint of the Catholic Church. Louis became king at the age of 12, so his reign was long and he was fondly remembered — obviously so by the founders of St. Louis: two fur traders who were named Auguste Chouteau and Pierre Laclède.

A view of the statue “Apotheosis of St. Louis.”
(Don’t you love the little dog that was walking in the park?)

The statue “Apotheosis of St. Louis,” was designed by sculptor Charles Henry Niehaus in 1904 for the World’s Fair. Niehaus made the original of plaster along with other statues to decorate the elaborate temporary fairgrounds; it stood at the entrance to the Fair. After the Fair was over, the Exposition Committee that had been responsible for the Fair commissioned St. Louis sculptor W.R. Hodges to make a bronze cast of the statue as a permanent symbol of the city. In its current location it was dedicated in 1906. I remember seeing it there all my life! Niehaus’s interpretation of King Louis has several anachronisms, such as a sword that wouldn’t have been invented until several centuries after the life of the subject. 

The River

Any history of St. Louis must focus on the river beside which the city was built, and which was very important for commerce and trade from its start. As we left St. Louis, of course we had to cross the river, though we did so to the north of the city, not downtown where the famous Arch stands. Two years ago, we did drive past the arch, which has replaced the statue of Saint Louis as the most recognizable symbol of the city. Here’s the photo from then:

Going back to St. Louis always makes me think about what I learned in school! A few years ago, I read a book titled The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States by Walter Johnson (published in April, 2020). This book made me rethink what I learned in school. For example, in my review of this book — which I called “I am ashamed” — I wrote this:

“Even the famous Louisiana Purchase Exposition -- that is, the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair -- embodied the pervasive racist practices of the time in employment and other areas. The ‘anthropology’ of the fair involved bringing specimens of humanity to the fairgrounds where dark-skinned natives were kept in the largest human zoo in history. They served fair-goers as an example of the progress and civilization of the American way and of the supposed backwardness of the non-white races. I learned a lot by reading Johnson's account of this underlying reality -- and inhumanity -- of the fair.”

George Washington Carver

Life-size bronze of Carver by the late acclaimed African-American sculptor Tina Allen of California.

Here’s an example of the deficiencies of my education about famous people from the St. Louis area: I learned almost nothing about George Washington Carver, a leader in both agricultural science and in education. Carver was born in slavery near St. Louis. I learned a number of facts about him at the George Washington Carver Garden at the Missouri Botanical Gardens this week. The Carver Gardens opened in 2005.

Blog post ©2024 mae sander. Photos © 2022, 2024.