Exposition Universelle of 1900
1900 CE
The Exposition Universelle of 1900, better known in English as the 1900 Paris Exposition, was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from April 14 to November 12, 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate development into the next.
It is held at the esplanade of Les Invalides, the Champ de Mars, the Trocadéro and at the banks of the Seine between them, with an additional section in the Bois de Vincennes, and it is visited by more than fifty million people.
Many international congresses and other events are held within the framework of the Exposition, including the 1900 Summer Olympics.
Many technological innovations are displayed at the Fair, including the Grande Roue de Paris ferris wheel, the Rue de l'Avenir moving sidewalk, the first ever regular passenger trolleybus line, escalators, diesel engines, electric cars, dry cell batteries, electric fire engines, talking films, the telegraphone (the first magnetic audio recorder), the galalith and the matryoshka dolls
It also brings international attention to the Art Nouveau style.
Additionally, it showcases France as a major colonial power through numerous pavilions built on the hill of the Trocadéro Palace.
Major structures built for the Exposition include the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, the Pont Alexandre III, the Gare d'Orsay railroad station and the entrances of Paris Métro stations by Hector Guimard; all of them remaining today, including two original entrances by Guimard.
Subject
Related Events
Showing 5 events out of 5 total
The Exposition shows one hundred Years of French art with a large representation of Impressionism including works by Camille Pissarro, who stays in Paris and visits Dieppe and Berneval, continuing to work with freshness of vision and increasing freedom in his technique.
The Exposition features a pavilion in which one hundred and fifty of Auguste Rodin's sculptures and numerous drawings are displayed, testifying to the international scope of his fame
Rodin has long has been revered as a modern-day Michelangelo, a titan of sculpture, and an incarnation of the power of inspired genius; even his prodigious sensuality is excused as a symbol of his Olympian stature.
Paul Cézanne exhibits at the Exposition, and galleries finally begin to seek his works; the National Gallery in Berlin purchases a landscape as early as 1900.
Edgar Degas' works are exhibited also at the Centennial exhibition, although without his approval.
Cecile de Wentworth's portrait of Pope Leo XIII wins a bronze medal at the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1900 and will prompt the pope to decorate her with the title of grand commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and to make her a papal marchesa. (The portrait will later hang in the Vatican Museum.)
Trained from 1878 to 1889 at the School of Decorative Arts, Paris, and in London, Lalique had founded his own firm at Paris in 1885.
F. W. Taylor and P. White present the first molybdenum-based high-speed steels at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900.
Simultaneous with the presentation by the two American engineers, chemists Marie Curie in France and J. A. Mathews in the United States use molybdenum to prepare permanent magnets.
Tungsten is brought to public attention in 1900 by the Bethlehem Steel Company with its tungsten-containing high-speed tool steel products at the Exposition.