The California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894 was the first, smallest, and least remembered of San Francisco’s three world’s fairs. Conceived, designed, constructed, and filled with the greatest artistic and industrial treasures of its time in five months, it was a miracle of inspiration, hard work and dedication by the people of San Francisco. Among its grand exhibit palaces showcasing wonders of art, industry and agriculture were a myriad of “concessions” offering exotic foods, entertainments and souvenirs to ensure that the memories gathered by its visitors would endure long after closing day. Along with describing the fair, historian Ed Herny will devote time to the fair’s formal legacy—the present day museums, ornaments and gardens in Golden Gate Park, and to the more mundane—its surviving souvenir memorabilia. Taken together, they form a more complete impression of an unforgettable experience for those fortunate enough to attend this entrancing spectacle.

Historian Ed Herny is an archivist and the author of Berkeley Bohemia: Artists and Visionaries of the Early Twentieth Century (2008) as well as Picturing Berkeley: A Postcard History (2005). He is a founding member of the Berkeley Historical Society and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Post Card Club.