Hearthside House to Present 1904 World’s Fair Celebration on July 12th
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Sunday, July 12th, the Hearthside House Museum in Lincoln will celebrate Rhode Island’s unique connections to the 1904 World Fair with “Discovering Our Great Past: Rhode Island at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair" from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Many Rhode Island manufacturers, schools and artists won awards for their exhibits at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, the largest and most spectacular international exhibition in history. At the center of Rhode Island’s presence at the Fair was the Rhode Island Building, fashioned at Lincoln’s stately Hearthside House.
Today, the nostalgia of the 1904 World’s Fair is alive and well and ready to be discovered by a whole new generation. On Sunday, July 12th, the Hearthside House Museum in Lincoln will celebrate Rhode Island’s unique connections to the Fair with “Discovering Our Great Past: Rhode Island at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe event features captivating exhibits, including a small working model of the Ferris Wheel, artifacts, and memorabilia from the 1904 Fair. The sensory room and image galleries inside the museum help to bring the visitor back in time utilizing the voices of fairgoers recalling their childhood impressions. Outdoors, Hearthside’s grounds will host non-stop family fun activities including live music, arcade games, demonstrations, Fair food and an entertainment tent showcasing a taste of just some of the experiences that fairgoers in 1904 would have had as they strolled along the “amusement avenue,” known as The Pike.
“One of our primary objectives with the World’s Fair tribute is to explore the many ways that Rhode Island played an important role at that Fair and to showcase those many achievements in business, education, art, and government…all of which can still be found today throughout our state,” says Kathy Hartley, president of the Friends of Hearthside, the all-volunteer nonprofit organization sponsoring the event.
Billed as bigger and better than last year’s, this event features several new attractions and themes: all focused on contrasting the past and present. Fairgoers in 1904 marveled at getting a bird’s eye view from atop the gigantic Ferris Wheel or going up in a hot air balloon. Hearthside’s Fair will feature a drone flying overhead and projecting live images of today’s bird’s eye view. Today’s fairgoers will stroll the grounds using cell phones to send text messages to friends about their experience at Hearthside; back in 1904, the wireless telegraph was being used to send messages to the press about happenings at the Fair. Music is enjoyed today on IPods; in 1904, along with live music, people enjoyed recorded music for the first time made possible by Thomas Edison's phonograph.
A special addition to the festivities will be a double-header vintage baseball game played by the Providence Grays. The game, with authentic equipment used by the original team from the late 1800’s, will be played next door to Hearthside at Chase Farm Park starting at 11 a.m.
The all-day event will provide a glimpse into the history, experience and memories of the World’s Greatest International Exposition.
For more information on the event visit here.
