A view of the natural-history fossil exhibit, with a model of a whale and skeletons of several dinosaurs, at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904. The Smithsonian coordinated all of the U.S. government exhibits and prepared a display on its activities and collections for the exposition. #

On April 30, 1904—the opening day of the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair—William H. Thompson, the president of the National Bank of Commerce in St. Louis, stands on the dais at the Louisiana Monument in the Plaza of St. Louis. Standing next to him is David R. Francis, the president of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company. #

World's Fair opening-day crowds gather, with William Howard Taft in the foreground. At the time, Taft was serving as the U.S. secretary of war under President Theodore Roosevelt. The Palace of Manufactures stands in the background. #

Statues of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant flank the entrance to the Illinois State building, photographed at the 1904 World's Fair in June 1904. The Ferris wheel can be seen at the right. #

A view of the Allis-Chalmers exhibit in the Palace of Machinery shows exhibits from companies such as Jeanesville Iron Works, Crocker-Wheeler, Doble Abner, Harrisburg Foundry, General Electric, and Westinghouse. #

The Underwood Typewriter exhibit stands inside the Palace of Liberal Arts. Underwood constructed a colorful pavilion with jewel-like stained glass set in an iron frame. The structure was lit with concealed electric bulbs. Six of its 12 model typewriters stood on specially made pedestals with adjustable mahogany chairs for the typists. Nearby the Underwood display were other typewriter exhibits by the Fox Typewriter Company, Mittag & Volger, Fay-Sholes, and Smith-Corona. #

An exhibit of historic locomotive engines fills part of the huge Palace of Transportation. A number of locomotives from 19th-century England and America were on display. #

A bride and groom pose for their wedding photograph at the top of the DeForest Wireless Telegraph Tower at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Violet E. Ingle and Alfred M. Landers, both from Worden, Illinois, were married on June 12, 1904, on the highest platform of the tower by the Reverend Dr. B. C. Palmer, a pastor of Lafayette Presbyterian Church in St. Louis. The top of the 300-foot tower was a popular attraction at the fair. #

A view of fair visitors crowding the Pike on Pike Day, June 4, 1904. The Pike was the main thoroughfare of amusement concessions at the fair. Pike Day celebrations included the Parade of Nations, a lacrosse match between Native American teams, and a variety of performances put on by representatives of the Pike concessions. #

The "Creation" concession, photographed on the Pike at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Inside "Creation," fairgoers traveled by boat through a labyrinth of underground passages to a roomy cavern, where they were "diverted by illusions in the form of living heads that have no bodies to support them." The destination of the boat trip was an auditorium, where they viewed pictures of Creation as narrated in the biblical Book of Genesis. #

Creatures walk around in enclosures at Hagenbeck's animal show on the Pike. The German animal trainer Carl Hagenbeck started his traveling animal shows in the 1870s, with spectacles featuring people and animals from remote regions. #

The Miniature Railway concession, operated by the Cagney brothers, ran the full length of the Pike and took passengers to the Boer War concession, the Philippine exposition, and other places of interest. #

The east entrance of the Pike with the statue Cowboys Shooting Up a Western Town, by Frederic Remington, at left center; Akoun's Mysterious Asia attraction in the left background; and the Under and Over the Sea attraction on the right. Mysterious Asia was a representation of life in India, Burma, Persia, and Ceylon, and required a 15-cent admission. Under and Over the Sea represented a trip to Paris in a submarine and a return in an airship, and required a 50-cent admission. #

Original caption: "Among the inhabitants of the Arctic Region at the World's Fair, St. Louis, Mo." This was one of several anthropological exhibits at the fair featuring people brought in from around the world. #

Original caption: "Group of Bontoc-Igorrotes 'Head-Hunters.'" Members of several ethnic groups from the Philippines—a newly acquired U.S. territory—were brought to the fair, essentially put on display in exhibits such as a re-creation of a Philippine village. #

Original caption: "An Exciting skirmish in the Battle of Colenso, Boer War, World's Fair, St. Louis, 1904." The Boer War concession was a 15-acre "battlefield" where military units paraded and battles from the Second Boer War (1899–1902) were reenacted. #

The Pyrheliophor, a device invented by Manual Antonio Gomes (bottom right), a Portuguese priest known as Father Himalaya. The Pyrheliophor, on display at the fair, was an apparatus set up to use thousands of small mirrors to concentrate the sun's rays and determine how much heat could be generated. #