Enter the World of the World's Fair: 1884 Cotton Centennial Exposition

By Miki Pfeffer

From December 16, 1884 until June 1, 1885, the spectacular World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition covered these grounds with gigantic wooden structures and broad, lighted paths. Too little is known of the event, even by New Orleanians, for later, grander expositions dwarfed its accomplishments. Yet, it is worth another visit, so come and re-imagine it today fanned by ghostly images from the past.

Disembark at the entrance to Audubon Park and walk through the classic Maurice Stern gates. Enter the paradise that the park-design firm of Frederick Law Olmsted created after the 1884 World's Fair. The exposition had only partially developed the grounds. The Olmsteds drew the master plan for the oasis around you. Olmsted's son Charles designed this pair of entrances that Maurice Stern's wife financed in the 1920s to honor the philanthropist.

This approximately 150-acre section of Audubon Park (from St. Charles Avenue to Magazine Street) reflects the Olmsted philosophy for public parks: quiet natural beauty designed to offer city dwellers an escape from the artificiality of city life. Now, an 18-hole public golf course occupies most of this section of the park, while the path on the periphery teems with bicyclers, joggers, and children. Another 190-acres section (from Magazine Street to the Mississippi River) forms the more commercial area of the park: Audubon Zoo, tennis courts, stables, baseball and soccer fields, and other amenities, including restaurants.

Begin your journey at the edge of the lagoon before you that wanders the width and one length of the park.

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Miki Pfeffer, “Enter the World of the World's Fair: 1884 Cotton Centennial Exposition,” New Orleans Historical, accessed December 7, 2023, https://neworleanshistorical.org/items/show/191.

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Related Sources

  • New Orleans Daily Picayune. 1 Oct. 1883 - 15 June 1885; 24 April 1887; Nov. 1895; 16 Feb. 1896; 8 June 1901; 23 Aug. 1905; 30 Mar. 1908.
  • New Orleans Mascot. January 1882-December, 1886. 
  • New Orleans Times-Democrat. 1 Nov. 1884 -15 June 1885; 8 June 1901; 23 Aug. 1905; 30 Mar. 1908.
  • Smalley, Eugene V. “In and Out of the New Orleans Exposition.” The Century Magazine 30.2 (1885): 185-99. Print.
  • Fairall, Herbert S. The World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans, 1884-1885. Iowa City, IA: Republican, 1885. Print.
  • Findling, John E., and Kimberly D. Pelle. Encyclopedia of World’s Fairs and Expositions. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. Print.
  • Forman, L. Ronald, and Joseph Logsdon, with John Wilds. Audubon Park: An Urban Eden. Japan: Friends of the Zoo, 1985. Print.
  • Hardy, D. Clive. “The World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition.” Master’s thesis, Tulane University, 1964. Print.
  • Pfeffer, Miki., “An ‘Enlarging Influence’: Women of New Orleans, Julia Ward Howe, and the Woman’s Department at the Cotton Centennial Exposition, 1884-1885.” Ph. D. diss., University of New Orleans, 2012. Print.
  • Rydell, Robert W. All the World’s a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1916. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984. Print. 
  • Watson, Thomas D. “Staging the ‘Crowning Achievement of The Age’–Major Edward A. Burke, New Orleans and the Cotton Centennial Exposition.” Louisiana History 25.3 (1984): 229-57; 25.4 (1984): 341-66. Print.
Published on May 7, 2012. Last updated on Sep 14, 2023.