Official bird's-eye view of Exposition Universelle of 1867Napoleon III receives the rulers and illustrious men who visited the Exposition universelle of 1867.
In 1864, Napoleon III issued a decree stating that an international exposition should be held in Paris in 1867. A commission was appointed with Prince Jerome Napoleon as president, under whose direction the preliminary work began. The site chosen for the Exposition Universelle of 1867 was the Champ de Mars, the great military parade ground of Paris, which covered an area of 119 acres (48 hectares) and to which was added the island of Billancourt, of 52 acres (21 hectares). The principal building was rectangular in shape with rounded ends, having a length of 1,608 feet (490 m) and a width of 1,247 feet (380 m), and in the center was a pavilion surmounted by a dome and surrounded by a garden, 545 feet (166 m) long and 184 feet (56 m) wide, with a gallery built completely around it. In addition to the main building, there were nearly 100 smaller buildings on the grounds. Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Ernest Renan, and Theophile Gautier all wrote publications to promote the event.[2]
Exhibits
Swedish folk costumes on display at the International Exposition in 1867
There were 50,226 exhibitors, of whom 15,055 were from France and her colonies, 6176 from Great Britain and Ireland, 703 from the United States and a small contingent from Canada. The funds for the construction and maintenance of the exposition consisted of grants of $1,165,020 from the French government, a like amount from the city of Paris, and about $2,000,000 from public subscription, making a total of $5,883,400; while the receipts were estimated to have been but $2,822,900, thus leaving a deficit, which, however, was offset by the subscriptions from the government and the city of Paris, so that the final report was made to show a gain.
Bateaux Mouches, boats capable of carrying 150 passengers, entered service conveying visitors along the Seine to and from the exhibition.[3] There was also a new railway line built to convey passengers around the outer edge of Paris to the Champ de Mars.[4] Two double-decker hot air balloons, the Géant and the Céleste, were moored to the site and manned by the famous photographer Nadar. Nadar would take groups of 12 or more people for flights above the grounds, where they could enjoy views of the site and Paris.[5][6]
In the "gallery of Labour History" Jacques Boucher de Perthes, exposes one of the first prehistoric tools whose authenticity has been recognized with the accuracy of these theories. Napoléon III was particularly interested in exhibiting prototypes, designs, and models of workers' housing in the section of the exposition dedicated to workers' living conditions. He commissioned the architect Eugène Lacroix to design and build a set of four buildings on the rue de Monttessuy, at the edge of the exposition grounds, to demonstrate that affordable, decent housing for the working classes could be built at a profit.[7]
The exhibition also included two prototypes of the much acclaimed and prize-winning hydrochronometer invented in 1867 by Gian Battista Embriaco, O.P. (Ceriana 1829 - Rome 1903), professor at the College of St. Thomas in Rome.[8][9][10][11]
One of the Egyptian exhibits was designed by Auguste Mariette, and featured ancient Egyptian monuments. The Suez Canal Company had an exhibit within the Egyptian exhibits, taking up two rooms at the event. Which it used to sell bonds for funding.[12]
The German manufacturer Krupp displayed a 50-ton cannon made of steel.[13]
Americans displayed their latest telegraph technology and both Cyrus Field and Samuel Morse provided speeches.[13]
The exposition was formally opened on 1 April and closed on 31 October 1867, and was visited by 9,238,967 persons, including exhibitors and employees. This exposition was the greatest up to its time of all international expositions, both with respect to its extent and to the scope of its plan.
Influence
For the first time Japan presented art pieces[21] to the world in a national pavilion, especially pieces from the Satsuma and Saga domains in Kyushu. Vincent van Gogh and other artists of the post-impressionism movement of the late 19th century were part of the European art craze inspired by the displays seen here, and wrote often of the Japanese woodcut prints "that one sees everywhere, landscapes and figures."[22] Not only was Van Gogh a collector of the new art brought to Europe from a newly opened Japan, but many other French artists from the late 19th century were also influenced by the Japanese artistic world-view, to develop into Japonism.
The Paris street near Champs de Mars, Rue de L'Exposition was named in hommage to this 1867 universal exhibition.
Sudden Mania to Become Pianists created upon hearing Steinway's Piano at the Paris Exposition. After a lithograph by "Cham", Amédée de Noé. From: Harper's Weekly, issue August 10, 1867, reporting on the 1867 Paris Exposition
^This includes six world expositions (in 1855, 1867, 1878, 1889, 1900 and 1937), two specialized expositions (in 1881 and 1925) and two colonial expositions (in 1907 and 1931).
^Pope, Harrison G. Jr., Tabernanthe iboga: an African Narcotic Plant of Social Importance Economic Botany volume 23, pages 174–184 (1969).
^Furst, Peter T. (ed.) Flesh of the Gods: The Ritual Use of Hallucinogens, pub. George Allen & Unwin 1972 Copyright 1972 by Praeger Publishers, Inc. (Chapters 6 and 7 copyright 1972 by R. Gordon Wasson), ISBN0 04 573009 1, Chapter 9, "Tabernanthe iboga: Narcotic Ecstasis and the Work of the Ancestors" by James W. Fernandez, Page 237.
Exposition Universelle de Paris 1867 album, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. Accession No. 2002.R.11. The album contains 25 photographs taken by Auguste-Rosalie Bisson (Bisson Jeune) and five taken by Charles-Louis Michelez. The album documents the buildings, grounds and exhibits of the 1867 Paris Exposition universelle in Paris.
