Shopping Saturday: Souvenirs from the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair

This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series 1904 St. Louis World's Fair
image_pdfimage_print
Souvenir of 1904 St. Louis World's Fair-Pressed Ruby Glass Punch Cup-front.
Souvenir of 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair-Pressed Ruby Glass Punch Cup-front.

 

The word “souvenir” comes from the French for a memory or remembrance, and the promoters of the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair produced a lot of trinkets to keep the memories alive for many years. Unfortunately I do not know of any of these souvenirs that have come down in our family; those in this post are from my own collection. I do know the Helbling family attended the fair with friends, as did the Greens, and probably any of our families that lived in St. Louis during that exciting time strolled the avenues and marveled at the exhibits. I sometimes like to imagine that one of these objects may have belonged to them and found its way back to family.

[I apologize for the poor photography. Many of these items are really hard to photograph without a lot of light-rigging, camera fussing, etc.]

Souvenir of 1904 St. Louis World's Fair-Pressed Ruby Glass Punch Cup-back with name "Hazel."
Souvenir of 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair-Pressed Ruby Glass Punch Cup-back with name “Hazel.”

The fair sold many useful items that could be displayed as well:

Souvenir of 1904 St. Louis World's Fair-Transferware Porcelain small tumbler- Palace of Manufactures.
Souvenir of 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair-Transferware Porcelain small tumbler- Palace of Manufactures.

Items promoted each of the major buildings at the fair, such as the glasses above and below.

Souvenir of 1904 St. Louis World's Fair- Pressed glass number with gold rim.
Souvenir of 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair- Pressed glass tumbler with gold rim and various buildings on it.

Below is one of my favorite items- a collapsible cup.

Souvenir of 1904 St. Louis World's Fair-Collapsible Travel Cup, collapsed.
Souvenir of 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair-Collapsible Travel Cup, collapsed.

I remember having little plastic collapsible cups bought at souvenir stands while on vacation, and it seems I had a Girl Scout one as well. It was therefore fun to find this one from a much earlier time. I always loved these cups because you could carry them in a pocket until needed. OK, they did often leak, though this one from 1904 made from metal still holds water pretty well.

Souvenir of 1904 St. Louis World's Fair-Collapsible Travel Cup, extended.
Souvenir of 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair-Collapsible Travel Cup, extended.

Appropriately, the image on the top was of the Palace of Mines and Metallurgy.

 

More 1904 World’s Fair memorabilia to come.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Items from the author’s collection.

2) The Missouri History Museum (mohistroy.org) is located in Forest Park on the site of the 1904 World’s Fair in the old Jefferson Memorial building, and has expanded to house a wide range of exhibits. (Their Lewis and Clark exhibit was outstanding.) The museum has an excellent continuing exhibit about the 1904 Fair. If you can’t get to St. Louis to see it, they have developed a wonderful interactive website with photos, maps, etc.: The 1904 World’s Fair: Looking Back at Looking Forward.

 

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images. Click to enlarge images.

We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
 

Original content copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.
 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.
 
Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright of our blog material.
Series Navigation<< Amanuensis Monday: 1904 World’s Fair Visit- W. H. Spiggle Letter to Abraham and Rose GreenSentimental Sunday: More Souvenirs from the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. >>

2 thoughts on “Shopping Saturday: Souvenirs from the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair”

  1. Great pictures! Thanks for sharing. My great-grandparents met at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. I have a few pieces of ruby flash glass (not family heirlooms; I purchased them). I saw the Missouri History Museum’s exhibit a few years ago when I was in St. Louis on a research trip.

    1. Thanks for reading the blog, Beth, and your comment. Glad you enjoyed seeing some of my purchased heirlooms ;D too!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Exercise your brain- prove you\'re not a spammer/bot! * Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.