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Anna, Celia, William
ca 1910 |
16 year old Celia Cathcart is traveling with her parents, Anna and William Cathcart, and "grandmother." We're assuming this was Emma Sconce. Monday, July 5, 1909 the party arrived in Seattle, Washington after a cross country train trip from Sidell, Illinois. Read about that
here. Celia is my father's mother.
Seattle was hosting the
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition June - October 1909.
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Tuesday July 6
The next morning (Tuesday) we went out to the Exposition grounds. The buildings were all of a cream colored plaster-like substance. The main ones were arranged so as to face a rectangular park which consisted of sunken gardens. Beautiful flowers such as pansies, poppies, carnations, geraniums, foxgloves, Canterbury bells, etc. covered the terraces which rose from the walk to the buildings. We visited the Alaska, Hawaii, and Government Buildings, then went to the Eskimo Village on the Pay Streak. There we found Mr. Baber, who conducted us through the main amusements, such as Igerrote [Igorrotes] Village, Trip along the Yukon, Human Laundry, Scenic Railroad, etc. In the evening saw Ethel Barrymore in "Lady Frederick" at the Moore Theatre. In the boudoir scene she says to the desperately desperate Charley: "You have noticed that dark streak under my eye which gives so much feeling, so much pathos and sentiment to my expression?" "Yes", whispers Charley. "Well, here it is", as she picks up the pencil.
Wednesday July 7
Wednesday we again visited the fair, taking in the European, Oriental, Agriculture, Manufacturers, Forestry, and Music Pavillions [sic]. In the forestry building were two "big sticks", one 74 ft long by 4 ½ ft square, the other 156 ½ ft long by 17 in. square. The Washington game exhibit was especially fine; it represented a woodsy scene showing the cataract, hills, boy fishing, and wild animals. At the Music Pavillion [sic] we heard the Innes Band and also enjoyed two solos from a harpist. At night we admired the illuminations, and then went to the Natural Ampitheatre and saw the Iola Company, a squad of 48 K's of P, give their drill.
Thursday morning was spent in taking an auto ride through the city. We went up on First & Last Hills, Capitol Hill, and Beacon Hill. Went through Volunteer Park and saw Washington Lake. Saw the men in their work on the streets, making them wider and removing the hills. At the Exposition we visited the Fine Arts Gallery, in which we saw nothing exceptionally appealing but a picture of Samson slaying a lion. The gladiator stood astride the monster, forcing its jaws open with his own powerful hands. The scene was in the mountains. We also went to the Canada building and to the Canadian Klondike where we heard a picture-talk.
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Exposition - The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
From article about the Exposition:
“The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition opened in Seattle on June 1, 1909 with nearly 80,000 visitors. Originally planned for 1907 to mark the 10th anniversary of the Klondike Gold Rush, the Exposition was postponed two years to avoid a conflict with another summer long exhibition in Jamestown, Virginia, marking that town’s tercentenary. In addition to providing time in which to raise additional funds, the delay gave the planners the opportunity to expand the original concept from that of a commemorative Alaska exhibit to a fair encompassing all the Pacific Rim countries and territories. The new scope of the AYPE would not simply commemorate the past, but display the value of commercial trade with the Pacific Rim, celebrate a new era of commercial and industrial expansion and promote Seattle as its center. Nationally known landscape architects from Boston, brothers John and Frederick Olmstead, designed the fairgrounds. The central portion of the grounds was oriented along axes that exploited the natural beauty of the setting, with views of Mount Rainer, Lake Union and Lake Washington. Built on 250 acres of the largely undeveloped campus of the University of Washington (and partially funded by the state legislature for later use by the University), the AYPE grounds were close to downtown and convenient transportation. Though most of the buildings, designed by John Galen Howard, were too poorly built to survive, the landscaping of the grounds added value to the university by removing wilderness and opening new possibilities for future university installations.” source jht - We saw remnants of this layout when we toured the University of Washington campus with our grandson years ago.
Check out the Hawaii Building - Our relatives were likely dressed like the men and women in this postcard. Think how much space those dresses would take up in a suitcase! I wonder if they traveled with trunks such as pictured here.
Eskimo Building - It was supposed to look like a glacier. source
Pay Streak - midway at the Exposition. Click here for an explanation and great pictures. One of the pictures shows a woman with the "native" children. I wonder if this is how Anna Cathcart and Emma Sconce dressed for the fair?
Mr. Baber - mentioned earlier in the diary. On the train from Chicago to St. Paul, Minneapolis they met Helen Baber, "whose father my father had known a long time ago."
Igorrotes – Filipino group that appeared in an anthropological exhibit at the Exposition. Slides #38-40, 42, 43 here
Human Laundry – part of the Midway at the Exposition; I couldn't find an explanation of what this was
From Bill Holton's Recollections - "Mother took me to the Hartman Theater in Columbus to see Ethel Barrymore in "The Corn Is Green". I must have been in high school. That was my first real stage show, and it was wonderful to see an actress of the calibre [sic] of Ethel Barrymore." jht - Do you think Celia remembered her experience in Seattle and shared that with her son Bill as they watched Ethel Barrymore in person at the Hartman Theatre? I like to think that she did. *I found a program for a performance of this play at the Hartman on October 1943. Celia died December 1942. Barrymore performed "Whiteoaks" at the Hartman Theatre in January 1939. Perhaps that's the play that Bill and Celia saw.
European, Oriental, Agriculture, Manufacturers, Forestry, Music Pavilions - click here for photos. Click here to see photos of the Forestry Building, including the big stick
Innes Band - from New York City; more here
Iola Company, K's of P - This must be Knights of Pythias. Click here for a newspaper article about a jubilee that was held the same time as the Exposition. It mentions a parade but doesn't say it was part of the Exposition.
Auto ride through Seattle - removing hills - This is an interesting article on how Seattle's terrain has been shaped and reshaped over the years - with some pictures of what Celia and her family might have seen on their drive. More here
"heard a picture-talk" - from Wikipedia - "The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before sound motion pictures were made commercially practical. Reliable synchronization was difficult to achieve with the early sound-on-disc systems, and amplification and recording quality were also inadequate. Innovations in sound-on-film led to the first commercial screening of short motion pictures using the technology, which took place in 1923." more here
Click here to read an account written by Mateel Howe when Mateel visited the Exposition in June 1909.
Whew! That's it for Seattle! I keep wondering how this group from tiny Sidell, Illinois felt about aIl they were seeing and experiencing. Sidell is only a few blocks wide and not many blocks long with about 1,800 people in the township in the 1910 census. I enjoyed looking up links for this post. I hope you enjoy Celia's account as well as the background information I found.
*September 21, 2015 - information about Barrymore performance in Columbus, Ohio updated and corrected
