Cornell University Library Digital Collections
Pan-American Exposition, 1901, Buffalo, N.Y., U.S.A.
- Title:
- Pan-American Exposition, 1901, Buffalo, N.Y., U.S.A.
- Alternate Title:
- Pan-American Exposition
- Collection:
- Persuasive Cartography: The PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Beck, Raphael
- Date:
- 1901
- Posted Date:
- 2017-04-14
- ID Number:
- 2128.01
- Collection Number:
- 8548
- File Name:
- PJM_2128_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1900 - 1919
- Subject:
- Advertising & Promotion
Pictorial
- Measurement:
- 6 dia on sheet 15 x 8.5 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- A trade card for the 1901 Pan American Exposition, featuring the logo of the Exposition.
Over 400 entries were submitted in a competition among artists to design the promotional logo, or seal, for the Exposition. The winning design was submitted by Raphael Beck, an artist from Lockport, NY, with a studio in nearby Buffalo. His elegant design featured North and South America in the shape of two women in flowing dresses, locking arms across Central America. The models were selected in a contest by the New York World to find “the most representatively beautiful women in America” from hundreds of entrants. The two winners were Maxine Elliot ("too well known as the most beautiful woman on the stage to need further introduction to the public”) and Maude Coleman Woods ("honored as the leading beauty of Virginia, her native state, by the Daughters of the Confederacy”). Lockport Union-Sun, December 4, 1900, http://panam1901.org/panamlogo.htm, accessed April 21, 2016.
While the Exposition Committee had originally intended to use Beck’s design only for “dignified purposes,” it proved so popular and profitable it was eventually used (sometimes without permission) not only in booklets, folders and circulars, but on 3 x 5 cards in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese, 9-inch hanger cards, paperweights, pins, toothpick holders, decks of cards, clocks, ceramics, pillow covers - “everything that didn’t move and some things that did.” https://www.shorpy.com/node/5487, accessed December 20, 2019. For other examples of the Exposition logo in the collection, Search > “Pan-American”.
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact
- Cite As:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography, #8548. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
- Repository:
- Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
- Archival Collection:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.
