If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 460

Logo, Alaska Yukon Pacific Expo, 1909

[found on the reverse of the postcards]

Here are five postcards with night views of the 1909 Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition grounds.  Frank H. Nowell was the official fair photographer.  The cards were published by the Portland Post Card Co. of Portland, Oregon and made in Germany.  These postcards were in the scrapbook collection of Dick Thompson.  Unfortunately Dick had trimmed the cards to fit the pages of his book but the pictures still provide a glimpse of what the buildings looked like all lit up at night. 

The fair grounds may have been one of the first places in the city to have outside lights at night.  Beginning in 1898 The Seattle Electric Company held the contract for the streetcar lines and controlled the electrical grid in the city.  Seattle City Light was formed in 1910.  

One mishap at the fair occurred on opening night during a concert featuring the noted Russian baritone, Albert Janpolski.  When the first song ended all the lights went out.  The audience waited 15 minutes until it was announced that the concert would be rescheduled for later in the week.  It was pouring rain outside and fair attendees faced a bottleneck at the turnstiles and then at the streetcar terminals.  The Seattle Electric Company had scheduled the cars to arrive at regular intervals but that could not accommodate the tens of thousands of people to leaving en masse.  The power blackout was the result of a grounded power wire that caused the current to flow through the soaked earth and effectively electrified the grass.  The power to all the buildings was shut off so the defective wire could be found.  Over 20,000 lights were used to illuminate and decorate the buildings on the fair grounds.  

Washington State Building, Alaska Yukon Pacific Expo, 1909

The Washington State Building was lavishly furnished and was used as a host building for various ceremonies.  There were no Washington State displays or exhibits within its walls, those were found in the Forestry Building and other places.  After the fair the building was used as the University of Washington Library until 1927 when it became the home of the Washington State Museum.  

Oregon State Building, Alaska Yukon Pacific Expo, 1909

David Chambers Lewis, a Portland, Oregon architect, designed the Oregon Building.  It resembled Monticello and featured paired columns.  This building housed exhibits during the fair but was demolished in 1917.

Agriculture Building, Alaska Yukon Pacific Expo, 1909

The Agriculture Building and the Manufacturers Buildings bracketed the Cascade Basin and were mirror images.  Another mishap happened on opening day when a 3 year girl dropped her rubber ball in the basin and fell into the water trying to retrieve it.  A man from Walla Walla jumped in and rescued her.  Today the basin is Frosh Pond on the University of Washington campus.

Manufacturers Building and Cascade Basin, Alaska Yukon Pacific Expo, 1909

U.S. Government Building, Alaska Yukon Pacific Expo, 1909

Even though the Government Building had exterior lights, this view shows the interior of the building illuminated but not the outside lights that were similar to the other buildings on the fair grounds. 

All these cards are unused, have the official logo and were numbered.

For additional information, see:

https://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcollections/collections/exhibits/ayp/ayp/
https://www.history.link.org/File/8965
https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/imlsmohai/id/11458/
https://www.seattle.gov/light/history/defaullt.asp
https://pcad.lib.washington.edu/building/7089
https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/washington-state-building-alaska-yukon-pacific-exposition-ca-1909/

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 459

Nikko Café, Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 1909

This week’s postcard is an advertisement for the Nikko Café at the 1909 Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition held in Seattle.  The café was located at the foot of Pay Streak the amusement park section of the Fair near the landing for the gondola ride.  I found several other views, interior as well as exterior, of the building but none quite like this photo postcard.  All of the cards for the café had the "Meet Me at Nikko Café A.Y.P. 1909" caption.  

There were many restaurants in this area as well as an array of carnival rides, exhibits, souvenirs and games for fair goers.  Some of the restaurants were temporary, open only a few weeks and did not remain open for the duration of the fair.  It is not known if the Nikko Café was there throughout the run of the Fair but since there is a fancy looking building to house the café it is possible.  This café served Japanese style food. 
 
Dick Thompson worked as an honor guard at the fair and saved a number of postcards including this one.  Unfortunately for us, he trimmed most of the cards so they would fit into his scrapbooks and managed to clip off parts that we might find interesting today.  For instance, the top of the Nikko Café had a decorative spire that cannot be seen on this card.  The cards are still interesting and have some historical value too; therefore, I will share more of them even though they are not the original size.

For more information about the fair, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska-Yukon-Pacific_Exposition
https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/ayp/id/598/
https://www.historylink.org/File/8635

If this Thursday it must be postcards, 343

1909  Frosh Pond (Arctic Circle) looking west, the pond had a railing around it during the Fair, the cascading waterfall and the Government Building in the background.  

2018 Looking west up toward where the Government Building and cascading waterfall would have been during the Fair of 1909.

We visited the University of Washington campus the other day in hopes of seeing the cherry trees in full bloom but we were a few days too early.  We hope to return and catch the best of the blooms.  However, since we were on the campus we decided to walk down to Frosh Pond and take a few pictures from places that appear in some of the 1909 Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition postcards.  Even though a couple of these postcards have been shared before I am re-posting them with comparison photos of the modern views.

 

1909 Looking east from the Government Building, Mt Rainier in the distance, the cascading waterfall flows toward what is today called Frosh Pond.

2018 Looking east.  Where the people are standing in this photo is where a section of the cascading waterfall was during the exposition in 1909.

1909 Looking east from Arctic Circle now Frosh Pond, gardens of the Rainier Vista

2018 Looking east toward the Rainier Vista, even though it was too cloudy this day to see the mountain.  This is where gardens were in 1909.

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 148

 Lake Chelan, Washington, ca 1906

Here is another postcard that was printed about the time of the 1909 Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition held in Seattle.  The copyright year is given as 1906 but the card does have the official logo of the Fair.  The message on the reverse is dated by a cancelation mark 30 June 1909.  The picture is of Lake Chelan in eastern Washington.   Like last week’s card this card was also produced by the Hopf Bros. Co., Importers, Seattle and printed in Germany. 

Reverse

Stamp and date

Lake Chelan is a 55-mile long, narrow lake fed by streams from the Cascade Range of mountains and the Stehekin River.  The maximum depth is approximately 1,480 feet or 453 meters.  The original Salish name was “Tsi-Laan” meaning deep water.  It is the largest natural lake in the state and a popular summer vacation destination.  The north end of the lake is protected by Lake Chelan National Recreation Area while at the south end is Lake Chelan State Park.  Access to parts of the lake is limited to boat, plane or hiking.  In 2011 Emily von Jentzen was the first person to swim the length of the lake.  It took her 36 hours.  The swim was to raise money for a young girl, Katelyn Roke, with cancer and was chronicled in Jentzen’s blog “A Lakke for Katelyn.”

For a little more about the lake see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Chelan

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 147

Old Renton Trolley Line along the shore of Lake Washington, ca 1909

The postcard featured has the official logo of the 1909 Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition that was held in Seattle and it shows part of the trolley line that ran from Renton south of Seattle to the city along the shore of Lake Washington.  It was a scenic ride that was often used by tourists.  The card is somewhat damaged as evidenced by the tear at the lower center.  An identifying number of 529 can be found on the back with the publisher listed as Hopf Bros. Co., Importers, Seattle, Washington and printed in Germany.  It has a divided back and a short information statement about the picture.

In the late 1800s Seattle promoted the development of streetcar lines and by 1891 the Seattle Renton & Southern Railway had built this first true interurban.  It ran from the largely agricultural Rainier Valley to Seattle.  In 1912 the company declared bankruptcy, was reorganized and the name was changed to the Seattle & Rainier Valley Railway (S&RV). 

Initially the company refused to let the city pave the space between the tracks and created what locals labeled a “thoroughfare of death” as people tried to cross the central rails.  The City Council refused to renew the franchise in 1934 and two years later ordered the S&RV to rip up the lines.  The rails were eventually removed and paved over when Rainier Avenue South was resurfaced and widened for automobiles.  Unfortunately the line also had safety and financial problems due mostly to poor management that contributed to the revoking of the franchise. 

A couple of trivia notes about the rail/streetcar line includes the statement that one the worst accidents occurred in 1909 or about the time this postcard was issued.   Not too much later when zoned fares were suggested there was a passenger riot.  In 1911 voters reluctantly approved a bond to purchase the line and put it under City management.  The owners then raised the asking price so the City refused to pay.  The bond funds were used in 1914 to create a city-owned streetcar line to Ballard instead.  There were numerous independent streetcar lines by that time and Seattle took over operations from all the remaining companies.  The last run of the Renton line was on the morning of January 1, 1937.  Doesn’t look like “light rail” has changed much in 100 years, does it?

For additional information see:

http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=1756

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 124

The Auditorium, Administration and Fine Arts buildings, 1909

Most of the buildings erected for the 1909 Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition held in Seattle were built as temporary structures and not expected to last much beyond the duration of the Fair.  There were a few exceptions, however, and the postcards shared this week show two of them, the Auditorium and Fine Arts Palace buildings.  Above is the rear of the Auditorium, sometimes mislabeled as the Music Pavilion, that was later named Meany Hall after Edmund Meany one of the people responsible for the Fair’s location on the University of Washington campus.  It is the red brick building just in back of the smaller white administration building with the flags on the roof line that no longer exists.

The front view of the Auditorium is shown on the card below although the caption labels it as the Music Pavilion.  This may just be a printing error but since the copyright note at the left margin gives 1908 as the date it is possible that when the card was printed the building was intended to be called the Music Pavilion and was changed to the Auditorium when the Exposition opened about a year later.  During the 1909 Exposition the Auditorium was used as an athletic arena where competitions such as boxing were held.  It had the largest capacity on the campus with 2,600 seats.  Another building called the Music Pavilion used during the Fair in 1909 was entirely different, almost more like a bandstand and is pictured on the bottom card. 
 
After the Fair was over the Auditorium, or Meany Hall as it was later named, was used for music and drama productions as well as student assemblies.  Meany Hall was used as a performance hall until 1965. Today the original building is often referred to as “Old” Meany Hall.  In 1958 that building underwent renovation and structural reinforcement but it was so severely damaged in the 1965 earthquake it had to be demolished.  The University was without a large performance hall until a new Meany Hall was built in 1974. 

How did Meany Hall get its name?  In 1909 the University student paper, The Daily, started lobbying to have the Auditorium renamed in honor of Edmund Meany a University of Washington graduate and then history professor who had been the driving force behind the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition.  The Board of Regents resisted the suggestion since no other buildings on the campus were named for living people.  However, The Daily continued the campaign and started referring to the building in print as Meany Hall.  In 1914 the Board of Regents officially named the building after Meany who was still alive at that time. 

Auditorium Hall during the 1909 Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition and renamed Meany Hall

Looking at the first postcard at the top again, at the far lower right side is another red brick building that was the Fine Arts Palace.  This building was designed by the architecture firm of John G. Howard and John D. Galloway as a chemistry building and in a reversal from many of the other Fair buildings was temporarily to be used during the Fair.  The chemistry lab tables and other furnishing were moved in after the Fair ended and it was named Bagley Hall after Daniel Bagley a Methodist minister and early Seattle pioneer who helped establish a Washington Territorial University.  Bagley Hall continued to be used until 1937 when a new chemistry building opened and was named Bagley Hall.  The older building then became the home of Architecture and Physiology.  It has been extensively restored and renovated and is still in use today as Architecture Hall. 

Howard & Galloway worked together for about a year and a half between May 1906 and September 1908.  They were responsible for designing the Auditorium, the Fine Arts Building, the Lake Union Wharf, the Machinery Pavilion and a general site plan for the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition buildings.  They first started working together following the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco helping to rebuild that city and were well known enough on the west coast as a result that they were perhaps a natural choice for the 1909 Expo in Seattle. 

The Music Pavilion shown above was used for band concerts and did not survive beyond the Fair, June through October 1909.

All three postcards were published by the Portland Postcard Company of Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington.  They are divided back cards with a message space and an address section.  The postage required was one cent for mail in the United States and Canada, two cents for foreign mail.  The topmost card is numbered X27 the third card at the bottom is numbered X50.  The middle card is not numbered.  All three cards have an official logo, however, the middle card uses the logo designed by Seattle artist, Adelaide Hanscom.  The other two cards use the relief logo based on her design.

For additional information, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska%E2%80%93Yukon%E2%80%93Pacific_Exposition
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=3470
https://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/partners/583/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meany_Hall_for_the_Performing_Arts

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 112

 Grant County Threshing Outfit, ca 1908

 Reverse

Even though it does not have the official logo, this historical postcard was produced for the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition held in Seattle in 1909.  The Fair had demonstrations and exhibits that featured both modern manufacturing and farming or agricultural practices of the early 1900s.  The activity shown on the card is known as threshing and is performed at harvest time.  The scene photographed is an example of the transition period between man and horsepower to machine power.  In this case at least one machine is using a steam engine but horses and men are still playing important roles.

The Thresher was invented in 1784 by a Scottish mechanical engineer, Andrew Meikle.  Prior to the threshing machine it took several men with flails to separate the grain from the stalks, husks, and chaff.   The mechanization took much of the drudgery out of farming but it left many men unemployed.  This in combination with higher taxes and low wages eventually led to the Swing Riots of 1830 in the United Kingdom and to the destruction during the riots of threshing machines and threats against farmers who used them.  These early threshing machines were hand-fed grain and were horse-powered.  The size of the thresher was compared to an upright piano.

In 1834 John Avery and Hiram Abial Pitts made significant improvements to the basic threshing machine.  They were granted a United States patent in 1837 for their thresher.  An Australian inventor, John Ridley, also developed a threshing machine in 1843. 

More improvements continued to be made and around 1910 the first horse drawn combines were introduced.  These machines could combine the binding of wheat stalks with the act of threshing or separating the grain out from the stalks.  Today huge combine harvesters work the fields doing a variety of jobs such as cutting, binding, threshing, and separating but the basic design has stayed almost the same.  The modern combine harvester has an air-conditioned cab and can be operated by one skilled person.  An unforeseen disadvantage was the accumulated dust and debris that sometimes gets into the engine compartment of these huge machines has been responsible for fires that have been known to cause millions of dollars of damage.  Dragging chains are used to reduce the static electricity and help lower the risk of fires.

On the reverse of the card it gives information about 1907 crop production in several states that grow wheat including Washington and provides addresses for additional information.  

Grant county is located in eastern Washington State and is in the heart of the wheat growing area.  The county seat is Ephrata.  I can remember driving through this part of the state when I was a little girl and being amazed at what seemed like endless miles of golden wheat growing on the rolling hills.  As early as 1902, when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was formed, this part of the state was being considered for irrigation because the rich volcanic soil is especially good for growing crops but the climate is extremely dry and needs water.  Grand Coulee Dam was built between 1933-1942 to provide water from the Columbia River for irrigation.  It is the largest water reclamation project in the United States.  The dam also provides hydroelectric power.

I thought this was a particularly interesting postcard since it shows a way of life and farming that is so far from the way the majority of farming is done today on the large agribusiness holdings.  Note the women standing at the door of the chuck wagon or cookhouse and all the men and horses it took to accomplish the harvest.  Although there are what look like a couple of steam driven machines there is still a great deal of manual labor in the operation shown.  The picture would date from 1907 to 1909.

For more information, please see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshing_machine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combine_harvester
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Basin_Project
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Coulee_Dam

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 108

Washington State Woman’s Bldg., 1909

The central building shown on this postcard from the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition held in Seattle, Washington the summer of 1909 was then the Washington State Woman’s building but is now known as Cunningham Hall.  It was built for the Fair in 1909 and later named for Imogen Cunningham a 1907 graduate of the University of Washington who later went on to become one the first female professional photographers.  She began her photographic career taking pictures of plants for the botany department as a way to help pay for her education.   She graduated with a degree in chemistry but is best known for her photographs; most of flowers and plants, human portraits, hands and nude studies.  She worked for both Edward Curtis and Ansel Adams two well-known western photographers who had their own studios. 

One of the few buildings to survive beyond the Fair, originally in 1909 it was located near where the Chemistry Library and the Molecular Engineering and Sciences buildings are on the University of Washington campus today.  In 2009 the building was successfully moved to the grassy slope just south of Parrington Hall.  It is the home of the Women’s Center and once functioned as a meeting place for suffragists fighting for women’s voting rights.  It continues to serve women on campus and in the community.  

I went to the University campus and walked to the present site to take a couple of photos of the way the building looks today.  It is a lovely old wooden structure that has been restored, painted a soft yellow color with white trim and preserved in near pristine condition.  It was fun to see something 100 years old looking so timeless and beautiful with a bed of roses in front, a garden in back and green grass all around.   One change I noted was the little annex to the side of the building shown on the card is now a series of stairs or fire escape with metal fencing instead of the wooden porch shown on the card.  It also looks as if the front porch roof may have been changed slightly. 

The front of Cunningham Hall, 2013

Cunningham Hall, 2013, taken from approximately the same angle as the postcard

The back of Cunningham Hall, 2013

The card has the AYPE seal in the upper left, is numbered as X101 in the series of official Post Cards for the exposition, is unused, has a divided back, and was published by the Portland Post Card Co., of Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon.  There is a notation stating the postage for the United States and Canada as one cent, foreign postage was 2 cents.  This is another example of a black & white photo that has been tinted to appear as a color picture and then published as a color postcard.   The postcard shows the building as white but I am not sure if it was originally white or a soft yellow with white trim as it is today.  The roof seems true to color as it is the same blue-gray depicted on the card. 

The photographer is not credited on the back of the card but is thought to be Frank H. Nowell.  In 1909 Nowell, the official photographer for the Fair, took a picture of several women posed on the building steps and labeled as the Ancient Order of United Workmen members that appears on the site providing historical information about the Women’s Center.  The AOUW was a fraternal order that had mostly male members but did also have a female division.  Another photo taken by Nowell shows the interior of the building, which had wood floors, a fireplace and several wooden chairs including rockers but not much else. 

For more information, please see: 

http://depts.washington.edu/womenctr/about-us/history/
http://depts.washington.edu/womenctr/about-us/history/moving-cunningham-hall/

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 91

 Manufacturers Building and Machinery Hall

 Looking West on Yukon Avenue

Looking West on Lake Washington Avenue

It has been a while since I shared postcards from the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition that was held in Seattle, Washington in 1909.  Many of the cards have similar views like these three above.  The cards were printed by the Portland Postcard Company of Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington and display the official logo of the Fair in an upper corner of the card.  The Manufacturers Building and the Agriculture Building were mirror images facing each other across Cascade Basin or what is now Frosh Pond on the University of Washington Campus.  The third building is the Machinery Hall. 

I like these three cards because they show people and vehicles, both automobiles and carriages.  Looking carefully it is possible to see just part of the horse that is pulling the black carriage in two of the views.  The car is colored red on two of the cards.  It is interesting that moving vehicles whether horse drawn or motorized were allowed to drive along the same pathways where the pedestrians were walking.  In some of the other postcards showing people the crowds were so large that it did not seem feasible to let cars or carriages drive along the same paths. 

Today at Fairs people dress casually in jeans and tee-shirts but in 1909 those attending were dressed up.  The women were wearing hats and long skirts the men were in suits and wearing hats too.  The cards have been tinted or colored and reproduced in color but were originally black and white so we cannot be sure how accurate the colors may be. 

The Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition opened on June 1 and closed on October 16, 1909.   It attracted thousands of visitors.  Originally the idea for the Fair was suggested by the Grand Secretary of the Arctic Brotherhood, Godfrey Chealander, as a way to mark the 10th anniversary of the Klondike Gold Rush.  Chealander approached the Alaska Club and the Seattle Times with his idea to have a permanent exhibit in Seattle about Alaska.  This evolved into the concept of a World's Fair or Exposition.  Edmund S. Meany proposed using the University of Washington campus site, which had only three buildings and little landscaping in 1905.  The state legislature endorsed the Fair if it would include at least four permanent buildings on the University of Washington campus at that time mostly forested land and if it would still attract out-of-town visitors even though it was a trolley ride distant from downtown Seattle.  The title of the Exposition was expanded by the adding Yukon because the first Klondike gold strikes had been in Canada and then Pacific was added to emphasize trade with the Orient.  The target year for the Fair was 1907 but due to scheduling conflicts the it was delayed until 1909. 

For more information about the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska%E2%80%93Yukon%E2%80%93Pacific_Exposition

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 85

 

 Cascade Falls, on Unalaska Island, near Cape Cheerful, Alaska

Reverse

Here is another wilderness type postcard, unused, showing a man in a small boat or canoe in the lake at the foot of Cascade Falls, on Unalaska Island, near Cape Cheerful, Alaska.   It is possible to date the postcard from 1908 or 1909 since it has the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition of 1909 emblem on the reverse.  The card was published by the Portland Post Card Co., of Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington.  There is a divided back with a very narrow space for a message.  F. H. Nowell the official photographer for the 1909 Fair took the original picture.   This version of the photo has been cropped and printed vertically while the original is a horizontal view that shows more of the lake and hillside.  Like many other cards of this era, it was a black & white photo that was colored in before reproduction as a postcard.  

Postage amounts are noted in the space where the stamp should be placed with domestic postage listed as 1 cent and foreign postage at 2 cents.  It is interesting to note that the domestic postage rate included Island Possessions, Canada, Cuba, Mexico and Panama. 

Unalaska Island is one of the Aleutian Islands off the west coast of mainland Alaska.  The town of Unalaska is located on the island of the same name and also on the neighboring island of Amaknak.  The two islands are connected by a bridge.  The population is only about 4400 with all the community’s port facilities on Amaknak Island, also known as Dutch Harbor, a Naval Operating Base.  The U.S. Army base, Fort Mears, is located there as well and the area is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. 

Native peoples have lived on Unalaska for thousands of years.  The Russian fur trade started here in 1759.  Dutch Harbor was named by the Russians because they believed the first European vessel to reach the harbor was a Dutch ship. 

As a trivia note, since 2005 the Discovery Channel’s documentary show “Deadliest Catch” has focused on fishermen who are based in Dutch Harbor. 

For more about Unalaska see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unalaska,_Alaska

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 73

Japanese government building, Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition 1909

It has been a while since I posted something from the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition held in Seattle in 1909.  The building shown on this postcard above was sponsored and funded by the Japanese government.  Another exhibition on the grounds was built with funds from local Japanese Americans.  There were many more Japanese Americans than Chinese Americans living in the area during this time.   As noted in a previous postcard Thursday the Chinese exhibit was funded entirely by the local population. 

One of the aims of the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition of 1909 was to encourage trade with Asian countries.  It was hoped that Seattle would become a center for trade with these countries opening their markets to products made in the United States.

I did not realize how controversial this plan to promote trade was until I started investigating the exhibits at the 1909 Fair.  While the U.S. federal government was promoting the trade with Asian countries there was widespread prejudice against Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino people within the United States.  The West Coast states even proposed laws that included school and housing segregation, prohibitions of property and gun ownership as well as prohibition of Japanese directors of corporations.  These state laws would have caused considerable difficulties for the federal government if they were passed making a struggle between the desire for trade and the states that sought to pass anti-Japanese legislation.   One suggestion advocated the posting of bonds by visitors from Japan to ensure that they would return to Japan after the Fair.   That idea was quickly stopped.  There was an incident involving the Japanese boycotting American goods in response to these proposed laws.  Fortunately Japan decided the laws were not a reflection of the American people but of the legislatures so a diplomatic crisis was averted.

Some of the goods promoted at the Japanese Government exhibition included things like, tea, cultured pearls, enamel and cloisonné items, musical instruments and silks with manufacturing displays.  Japan Day at the Fair was September 4th and included two parades, the first held in the International District the second on the Fair grounds.  The parades included 14 decorated floats and 50,000 lanterns.   The parade on the Fair grounds also included evening fireworks. 

Tokio Café

This previously posted card shows the Tokio Café, one of the more popular places at the fair.  It was located at the end of the amusement area known as Pay Streak.

Yet another exhibit was housed in the Oriental Foreign Exhibit building located near the Cascades. 

Additional information is available at:

http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcollections/collections/exhibits/ayp
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=9037
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Japan_exhibits_building_-_Alaska-Yukon-Pacific_Exposition,_Seattle_1909_-_Page_14.jpg
ExpoMuseum / 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, Seattle ...www.expomuseum.com/1909/http://www.cinarc.org/aype.html#anchor_252

Thursday postcard book

 Front cover

Back cover

As a Christmas gift Q had the first year of “If this is Thursday it must be postcards” privately published by Blurb.  Blurb is designed to publish directly from blog posts.  It was not proofread so there are a few errors.  I am not urging everyone to buy the book but since a few people have asked about getting a copy, the book is now available for purchase through Blurb by going to this link: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3939723

Q set up the “bookstore” to sell the books more or less at cost with just a small amount added to help defray expenses at this end.  The format and the number of pages determine the price per book with books printed on demand.  The cost is higher than I had hoped but because of the number of pages, the type of binding and paper plus all the illustrations there really was not much choice.  There are three different price levels, hardbound with shrink cover, hardbound with slipcover, and softcover (paperback).    I hope we can do a similar publication with the family history posts in the future.

It was a wonderful, thoughtful gift.  Digital media is great and allows the sharing of so much material but for a person who loves books to see the blog entries converted to a hardbound book was pure delight.   Thank you, Q (& Lou – I know you had some part in this too).

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 57

California Building, Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, 1909

 Many of the buildings on the grounds of the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition of 1909 reflected cultural heritage.  For instance, the buildings for both Japan and China were designed to look very much like they stepped out of those countries.  The Hoo Hoo House and the Arctic Brotherhood buildings were built of timber from the northwestern United States.  Live exhibits such as the Igorrote and Eskimo Villages were built to allow the visitors to feel as if they were in actual native villages.  The California building shown on the postcard above has a decidedly Spanish appearance, as did many places in California at that time and still do.  This building is quite different looking than other buildings on the fair grounds. 

Among the exhibits the interior housed displays of fruits, nuts and vegetables that were grown in California.  We are fortunate that a couple of photos of the interior views are still available that show the often creative and spectacular displays.  Oddly the interior does not appear to reflect the Spanish theme of the building exterior.  It is hard to imagine why a model of an animal like an elephant made of fruit or nuts would seem appropriate but perhaps it was just for the artistic novelty and to attract visitors to the display with a sort of awe factor.  The glass jars and round bowls filled with produce look like penny gumball or candy machines.  Gumball machines were first introduced in 1907 so it is possible that in 1909 it would have seemed a fashionable or novel way to display items such as these in that manner.

 

Interior display, California building

[photo:  Frank H. Nowell, photographer]

Interior display, California building
[photo:  Frank H. Nowell, photographer]

The official photographer for the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition of 1909 was Frank H. Nowell (1864-1950).  Many of his pictures, like these above, were on display during the Fair and also used in official publications.  Born in New Hampshire he moved to Alaska at age 22 to join his father who was involved in mining near Juneau.  He took up photography as a hobby taking pictures of the native Alaskan people, businessmen, city officials, railroads, hydraulic mining, waterways, ports, and creating a visual record of Alaska around the turn of the century.  He traveled between Nome, Alaska and Seattle and around 1908 J. E. Chilberg, the president of the Exposition, appointed him as the official photographer.  After the Fair he operated a commercial photography studio in Seattle for 25 years. 

For more information about Frank H. Nowell and his AYPE collection see:
http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/findaid/ark:/80444/xv75935/

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 54

Snoqualmie Falls, ca 1909

One of the places on the Lee’s list to visit on a Saturday or Sunday drive was Snoqualmie Falls.  It still is a favorite local tourist attraction.  This card, published by the Bon Marché, a locally owned department store and made in Germany, shows the falls as they were in 1909.  It has the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition logo at the upper right suggesting that the Fair was used to encourage a more general tourism. 

A lodge and restaurant was built at the top of the falls in 1919.  For many years it was known as the Snoqualmie Falls Lodge.  After the lease expired the lodge was completely remodeled in 1986-88.  Today the original lodge has been replaced with the Salish Lodge & Spa.  The only remaining feature from the 1919 structure is the fireplace.  The restaurant has been famous for years for its breakfasts.  A meal that could take most of the day to eat and has almost every known breakfast food in multiple courses from oatmeal, eggs, pancakes, juice, fruit and muffins. 

The information blurb on the reverse side of the card states that the falls drop 268 feet (a greater drop than at Niagara) and are located 28 miles east of Seattle.  There is a viewpoint pavilion with a safety fence to prevent people from falling off the cliff just a short walking distance from the main highway where one can see and hear the falls perhaps without getting wet from the more or less constant mist coming off the falls--unless the wind is blowing the wrong direction. The locality is used for weddings during the summer months.

There are two hydroelectric power plants at the falls that are operated by Puget Sound Energy.  Built in 1898 power plant 1 was the first completely underground power plant.  The second power plant was built in 1910 and later expanded in 1957. 

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snoqualmie _Falls for more information and photos.

Lake Washington, ca 1909

Another popular drive was along the shoreline of Lake Washington stretching for 35 miles.  The card above was also published by the Bon Marché and contains the 1909 Fair logo at the upper left.  Small boats like the one shown on the card were very popular and there are many Lee family pictures from picnics and other gatherings that show boats such as this one.  The photograph below is of a group of ladies and children, including Petra Lee, in one of the boats that has been pulled up to the shore. 

Petra Lee is standing, first on the right back row, ca early 1900s

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 40

Spirit of the Pacific

There were at least two monolithic sculpture ideas submitted for the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition to be held in Seattle in 1909.   The Norwegian born sculptor Finn Haakon Frolich was selected as the Director of Sculpture for the Exposition.  He had also submitted works for the fairs in Paris, St. Louis, and Chicago.  His appointment as director was a result of his previous successes.  This piece shown above was his design.  Two others he made for the Exposition in 1909, busts of Edvard Grieg, the famous Norwegian composer and musician and James J. Hill, United States railroad tycoon, can still be found on the University of Washington campus. 

The postcard shows a close up view of the Spirit of the Pacific a 30 foot high sculpture of a winged figure on a globe with four women representing Japan, China, Alaskan Eskimos and the Pacific Islands standing beneath the globe looking outward to each part of the fair grounds.  It was one of two suggested sculptures presented as finalists and it is unclear if it was actually placed anywhere on the fair campus. The Spirit of the Pacific was to be located at the Cascades fountain however the card below shows the other suggested sculpture called the Alaska Monument at the Court of Honor in front of the US Government building and at the head of the Cascades.  The Cascades flowed down into Geyser Basin or what is now Frosh Pond. The beginning of the Cascades can be seen at the lower right of the card.

Court of Honor with Alaska Monument

Both pieces were somewhat similar, winged, and on a tall pillar.  It seems unlikely that they would both be placed in the same area of the fair.  It was interesting that some information about the designer of The Spirit of the Pacific could be found but no mention was made of who designed the Alaska Monument or why it was chosen instead of the other one.  

Alaska Monument

This view of the Alaska Monument is as seen in front of the Hawaiian exhibition hall on the north side of the US Government building and at the head of the Cascade fountain.  Remember that these cards were tinted from the original black and white prints.  The gold coloration on one card may look pretty but all the other pictures show the monolith as having a natural stone color.  It is hard to say exactly what the color might have been under the circumstances.  The Portland Postcard Company of Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon published all three of the cards shown.

Some additional information can be found at: http://content.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/aype/architects.html

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 28

Pioneer Square Pergola and Totem pole, ca 1909

This Robert A. Reid black & white postcard published in Seattle shows Pioneer Square or Pioneer Place as it was once called with the Iron Pergola and the Tlingit Totem pole. Pioneer Square was the original site of the city’s first sawmill built in 1853 by Henry Yesler. In the 1880s the land was turned into a public square following a massive street-straightening project.

The dictionary defines a "pergola" as a frame structure that supports climbing plants such as a grape arbor, a shady resting place in a park. The Iron Pergola was built in 1909 as a stop or public waiting area for the Yesler and James Street Cable Car Company. Julian Everett, a Seattle architect, designed the Pergola which was a waiting shelter built mostly of glass with ornamental cast iron columns and wrought iron ornamentation. It also had a large underground restroom that was described in one article as the eighth wonder of the world. The “comfort station” as it was called had marble stalls, brass fixtures, oak chairs, tiled walls and terrazzo floors. There were separate entrances for men and women with a combination of free and pay stalls. Each side had an anteroom with oak chairs, sinks and a shoeshine stand. The men’s room also had a place to purchase cigars. The restrooms were closed sometime after World War II. For a more complete description please see: http://www.historylink.....

In January 2001 an inexperienced driver of an 18-wheel semi truck crashed into the pergola and did significant damage. Many people did not think it would be possible to restore and repair the nearly 100 year old Pergola but in August of 2002 about a year and half after the accident at a cost of $3.9 million the repair and restoration was completed. For pictures of the restoration project see http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/pergola

The totem pole first appeared in 1899. The Portland Post Card Company of Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon published the card below [card #6114]. The card has the official logo of the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition of 1909.

Totem pole, Pioneer Square, Seattle, ca 1909

The totem pole had stood for more than 100 years in Alaska but was stolen from the Tlingit Indians by vacationing members of the Chamber of Commerce and brought to Seattle where it was gifted by the men to the city and erected in Pioneer Square. The Tlingit tribe sued for its return but the courts only assessed a $500 fine and let the city keep the ownership of the pole.

In 1938 the pole was vandalized and set on fire. The pieces were returned to the Tlingit tribe where their craftsmen carved a reproduction. The new pole was sent back to Seattle where it has remained unmolested in Pioneer Square. The article I read from the National Park Service stated that it “now stands as a symbol of the complicated relationship between American Indians and European Americans.” See http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/seattle/s26.htm for the complete article with information about both the Pergola and the Totem Pole.

Another totem pole was recently erected at the Seattle Center. It is 33 feet tall and is a memorial to John T. Williams a slain Native American woodcarver. The article and photograph from the Seattle Post Intelligencer can be found at http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Totem-pole-to-honor-slain-Seattle-woodcarver-3362923.php