the panama-pacific, that is! • part 1

ever since i read these words, i really wanted to know who won what for what: "The Panama-Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco in 1915 included more than two thousand prints representing the history of American print making. There was one gallery each for prints by James McNeill Whistler and his follower Joseph Pennell, and
four galleries for modern prints, one of which was devoted
to color prints.

A jury that included Frank Duveneck and Pennell, both of whom had contributed to the revival of etching in America, awarded ten medals, eight of them to wood-block artists. Gustave Baumann won the gold medal; Edna Boies Hopkins, Bertha Lum, and B. J. O. Nordfeldt each received a silver medal; Elizabeth Colwell, Dow, and Helen Hyde won bronze medals; and honorable mention went to Pedro Joseph de Lemos and Margaret Jordan Patterson." 1

these are all my favorites -- all in one place! so i decided maybe we should go to the fair and find out!

LET'S GO!

well, okay -- we didn't exactly see any of those artists there (you did click the link, didn't you?), though of course we did see bernard maybeck's palace of fine arts. okay, we will, we will. but how about we get a lay of the land first.

the fair was built on the marshes of the north- west edge of san fran- cisco, where only a few years earlier residents squatted in tents after many homes were destroyed in the 1906 quake.

here's practically the same view, after the fair was built.

and here it is now.

looking in the other direction, we see the fair....

and the same area now. remember, it used to be marshland.

next up, we'll see some astonishingly gorgeous statures and murals, and some prints and paintings soon after that (and a full references & credits list) -- stay tuned!