The Howard Electric Tower at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition held in Buffalo NY.
Toronto. A decade or two after Edison invented the first practical electric light and Westinghouse won the idea for electricity distribution, a world’s fair was held in Buffalo NY close to Niagara Falls – the prime source of electricity in the area.
The fair was called “The Pan-American Exposition, 1901“. The centre piece of the fair was the famous Howard Electric Tower as shown in the photo at left. The photo is from a stereo half from a collection by the late Robert Wilson.
For issue 27-3, Dr Wilson wrote an article on the Exposition while editor Robert Lansdale chose the photo of the ‘tower at night’ as his cover shot for the issue. Bob writes, “Our photograph for this issue’s cover takes us back 100 years to the year 1901 when the Pan-American Exposition was held in Buffalo, New York.
“The key attraction to that fair was the use of electric lighting to illuminate and outline the many sculpted buildings that were soon to disappear after the final closing. The public was awed by the magnificence and beauty of the scenes that were doubled by the reflecting pools and bolstered by the rainbow colouring of the buildings.
“See Robert Wilson’s stereo article on pages 12 to 15. Photograph is from the stereo card collection of the author.”
Members could read Dr Wilson’s article, and why the explosion was remember long after it closed, in the issue 27-3 pdf file on the free members-only DVD/thumb drive. Join or renew today – see ‘Membership’ above and at right for details. Email member@phsc.ca with any questions you may have.
Collectors of old photos and cameras can expand their collections at our 2026 events (we can’t promise any photos of the 1901 exposition but we can say you will see many items that will complement your collection). In May we will be holding two events, our spring auction on May 3rd and our spring fair on May 24th. As we near the dates a poster will be pinned to the top of this site.
