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Click to Enlarge. The Government Building is in the background. Courtesy of the City of Portland Archives. |
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There were extensive agricultural and livestock exhibits, technology exhibits, and musical offerings, including the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The Smithsonian Institution sent large exhibits as well, and works of great artists such as Claude Monet, Mary Cassat, and Henri Rousseau hung in the State buildings. Well known authors gave presentations, Government delegations and civic organizations were represented, and sporting competitions were held. The Exposition contained exhibits of Native Americans, Philippine Igorots and babies in incubators. Such exhibits caused some controversy at the time.
The largest and most valuable exhibit from a foreign country was that of Italy. Valued at over a million dollars, half of the building was devoted to marble statuary. Second only to Italy in terms of value was the French display, which featured a replica of Louis the forteenth's drawing room. The German exhibit featured an embroidered facsimile of the Sistine Madonna which measured eighty feet in diameter. Virtually every branch of the U.S. Government was represented with displays in the Government building, including; The Department of State, the War Department, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Justice, the Post Office, The Department of the Navy, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Mines. The structure covered twelve acres and cost over $800,000. The variety of exhibits is impossible to detail adequately. Organizers wanted to rely on single features of merit and interest, while creating a distinction between the 1905 exposition and previous world's fairs. The plan was to discard everything that would be considered as unimportant and uninteresting and not to overdo exhibits. The Portland Light and Power Company strung over 100,000 lights through buildings and numerous sculptures.
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