Q. David Bowers
Situated on 635 acres in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, the Exposition cost about $50 million, opened on February 20th and closed on December 4th, 1915, and drew an estimated 19 million visitors. The event was a smashing success by all standards. Curiously, especially in view of the spectacular array of commemorative coins produced in connection with the Exposition, the annual American Numismatic Association convention held that year in San Francisco was a dismal failure, and only a few delegates attended.
The Panama-Pacific was the last really large-scale exposition to be held in the United States until the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago and the 1939 New York World's Fair (no commemorative coins were issued for either of these latter two events).
A Showcase for Sculpture and Art More than any other fair before or since, the Panama-Pacific International Exposition was a showcase for the talents of American sculptors and artists. "Never before have sculptors anywhere so completely played their most important roles in the ensemble setting that constitutes our Exposition visually," noted A. Sterling Calder, a sculptor who was in charge of the art displays, who went on to say that because of unfortunate financial constraints, the original $600,000 "apportionment for sculptural enrichment" had to be cut to $375,000. (As quoted in Sculpture and Mural Paintings [of the Exposition], by Jessie Niles Burness, which illustrated many of the works exhibited.) Nevertheless, the exhibits were spectacular.
Among the artists whose works were shown were the following, who had been or were to be involved in the designs of regular or commemorative coins during the early 20th century:
On exhibit was The Scout, a statue by Cyrus E. Dallin, who was to later do the models for the 1920 Pilgrim commemorative half dollar. John Flanagan, who never produced an accepted design for a commemorative coin but who was later known for the 1932 Washington quarter dollar, contributed several sculptures to the Ex-position. Hermon A. MacNeil, who in 1916 designed the Standing Liberty quarter, produced with Isadore Konti the Column of Progress.
Daniel Chester French, whose statue of the Minute Man in Concord, Massachusetts was to be used as the obverse motif for the 1925 Lexington-Concord commemorative half dollar, sculpted the Genius of Creation, which was placed in the West Plaza opposite the main entrance to the Palace of Machinery. Elsewhere at the fair French's statue, A Princeton Student, attracted attention. Official Exposition publicity named French as "the most successful, best loved and honored of American sculptors." French was chairman of the Commission of Fine Arts in 1915, a group of artists who were supposed to furnish advice to the government on matters of art-including coinage designs-but whose recommendations were often ignored.
Adolph A. Weinman, later known to numismatists for his creation of the 1916 "Mercury" dime and Liberty Walking half dollar, created friezes at the base of columns surrounding the vestibule of the Palace of Machinery and a sculpted water display titled The Fountain of the Rising Sun. Robert I. Aitken, who was to become involved with later commemorative coins, was best known to numismatists in 1915 as the creator of the impressive $50 gold coins for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. For the fair Aitken created the Fountain of the Earth, a monumental production set in the Court of Abundance, involving many figures, plus a colossal sculpture of Hermes with outstretched arms grasping reptiles-"suggestive of earliest forms of earth life, from the mouths of which streams of water are thrown all over the globe; steam clouds shrouded by night. "Aitken's bust of William Howard Taft and a statue of Michelangelo were set in locations near the Palace of Fine Arts. His sculptures of heroic proportions, known as Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, were displayed in the Sunken Gardens at the center of the Court of the Sun and Stars.
Paul Manship, who in 1935 supervised the production of the motif of the Connecticut Tercentenary commemorative half dollar, produced a large statuary display, Festivity, one of four groups by this sculptor placed at the east and west approaches to the Sunken Gardens. Paul Wayland Bartlett submitted a copy of his equestrian statue of Lafayette, similar to the early version set up in 1900 in connection with the Paris Exposition and used as the motif for the reverse of the 1900 Lafayette dollar. This was erected beneath the Rotunda in the Palace of Fine Arts not far from where Farran Zerbe had his Coin and Medal Department concession and Money of the World display.
Evelyn Beatrice Longman, who was to have created designs for the Panama-Pacific gold quarter eagle but because of illness could not complete the work, had several sculptures on view at the fair, including the Fountain of Ceres, displayed in the Court of Four Seasons, and a statue, L'Amore, shown near the Palace of Fine Arts.
James Earle Fraser, who was to become involved with commemorative coins and who by 1915 was well known in numismatic circles as the designer of the 1913 Indian (or "buffalo") nickel, exhibited his sculpture, The End of the Trail, in front of the Court of Palms, which showed a "drooping, storm-beaten figure" of the Indian on an exhausted pony, symbolizing the end of a race which was once a mighty people. "Chief American-Big Tree, a tall and stately young full-blooded Iroquois Indian now at the Exposition, was the model who posed for the sculpture. For six months in 1913 American-Big Tree posed for Fraser in the latter's New York studio. Until he saw it at the Exposition the Indian had no idea of the destined setting for the group," Jessie Niles Burness' printed guide to art at the Exposition, Sculpture and Mural Paintings, stated.
Near the Palace of Fine Arts was a figure of Lincoln, seated, by the late Augustus Saint-Gaudens, remembered by numismatists as the creator of the 1907 Indian $10 and MCMVII $20 gold coins. Sherry Fry, a New York sculptor whom the Commission of Fine Arts recommended for consideration for designing commemorative coins for the Exposition (but who was not among those finally selected), produced decorative sculpture for the Festival Hall. Fry, medalist at the Paris Salon in 1907, and "whose work is well known everywhere," was born in Iowa in 1879. Over a decade after the Exposition closed, Fry was named to prepare designs for the 1927 Vermont-Bennington commemorative half dollar, but the motifs were ultimately rejected.
A statue titled Beyond by Chester Beach was located near the Palace of Fine Arts. Years later Beach was to become involved in the production of several commemorative half dollar designs including the 1923-S Monroe, 1925 Lexington-Concord, 1928 Hawaiian, and 1935 Hudson issues. A statue titled Whaleman, depicting a harpoonist in the bow of a boat by Bela Lyon Pratt, designer of the 1908 $2.50 and $5 regular issue United States gold coins, was also on display near the Palace of Fine Arts. (The Palace of Fine Arts, largely constructed of plaster and other Impermanent materials, survived after the Exposition and in a gradually increasing state of disrepair served as a storage depot for fire engines and other equipment (its use when the author first visited there in August 1958), In recent years the Palace has been the center of a project to restore it to its 1915-era elegance. Now it is designated as the Exploratorium, a well-known hands-on science museum.) The general area, outdoors and indoors, served as a setting for many works of prominent American artists.
Commemoratives for the Exposition
Although posters, postcards, stamp cancellations, and other advertisements for the Exposition were circulated several years in advance of the event, coinage legislation lagged, and it was not until the relatively late date of January 16, 1915 that a congressional act providing for commemorative coins was signed into law. The enabling legislation stated that no more than 3,000 gold coins of the denomination of $50, 10,000 gold coins of $2.50 value, and 25,000 gold dollars were to be coined and that no more than 200,000 silver half dollars were to be made. Production of the gold coins was to begin as soon as possible but not later than the day of the opening of the Exposition. The Treasury was to sell the pieces at face value, and the fair could charge the public whatever it pleased.