Prince Pu Lun was the the nephew of the Emperor of China, and was the fourth member of the imperial Chinese family to ever visit foreign shores. And the highest Chinese dignitary that had ever visited the US in 1904. He was thought to be the next emperor of China, but Prince Chun was named. Pun Lun, a son of Prince Tsai Chic, who under the reign of Prince Tung Chih, was considered the heir presumptive. Nevertheless, Pun Lun never became emperor.
Arriving in St. Louis on May 4th, he dedicated the Chinese pavilion (a replica of his Summer Palace), two days later.
The Prince stayed at the Fair for about 2 weeks, attending many official functions, and visited several cities in the US during his trip, including a well-noted dinner at Moy Key in Indianapolis on the week of May 17th. His visiting were part of a failed attempt for China to modernize.
Rebecca Ann Felton (June 10, 1835 – January 24, 1930) was an American writer, lecturer, activist, reformer, and politician who became the first woman to serve in the US Senate, although she served for only two days (in a symbolic gesture.) She was the most prominent woman in Georgia in the Progressive Era, and was honored by appointment to the Senate. She was sworn in November 21, 1922, and served just 24 hours. At 87 years, nine months, and 22 days old, she was the oldest freshman senator to enter the Senate. She was the only woman to have served as a Senator from Georgia until January 6, 2020.
She graduated first in her class from the Madison Female College, Madison, Georgia in 1852. A year later she married William H. Felton, a local physician active in liberal Democratic politics. She assisted her husband in his political career as a U.S. congressman and later in the state legislature, writing speeches, planning campaign strategy, and later helping to draft legislation.
Both William and Rebecca promoted penal reform, temperance, and women’s rights. She was outspoken against prejudice of African Americans and Jews, and her advocacy of child labor and lynching.
She served on the board of lady managers at the 1893 Chicago Exposition and was on the agricultural board during the 1904 St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
Dr. Alexander Nicolas DeMenill (March 23, 1849 – November 29, 1928) A great-grandson of Madame Chouteau (mother of the founder of St. Louis), Alexander was a literary critic and son of Dr. Nicolas N. De Menil of the Chatillon-DeMenil Mansion fame as well as an attorney before becoming a man of letters. From 1894 to 1917 he was editor of the "Hesperian," a literary periodical in St. Louis. This was about the same time that William Marion Reedy was publishing his "Mirror." DeMenil's greatest contribution was as an author- "The Literature of the Louisiana Purchase Territory." As editor of a genteel magazine he did not think much of Reedy's "Mirror," saying that "for all its literary flavor, the "Mirror" was occupied chiefly with local & social interests. The "Hesperian" does not publish stories, it is devoted entirely to the higher literature." He knew writer Kate Chopin from childhood, but when her book "The Awakening" was banned in St. Louis, he refused to review it in his magazine.
Alexander DeMenil served on the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition as the Director of the French Exhibit and translator to the French dignitaries that visited St. Louis in preparation for the Fair.
To the right, you can see DeMenill in front of his office in the French Exhibit.
Ode D. Jennings born September 6, died Nov, 21 1953), was born in Paduca, Kentucky. He began working at the Industry Novelty Company, Inc.which worked hand in hand with Mills by refurbishing the slot machines they had manufactured. In his late 20's he went to work for the Mills Novelty Co where his natural engineering ability soon made him an expert on coin-operated machines. He ran the Mills Spectatorium at the 1904 World Fair in St Louis. The building, partly designed by Thomas Edison, featured a huge amount of Mills slot machines. Jennings began producing their own slot machines by 1918.
Jennings ran the company for 47 years.
After his demise, his personal wealth was gauged at 2,211.222, which was passed on to his wife. Upon his death, Jennings and Company which was incorporated in Illinois in March, 1954. This company later merged into the Hershey Manufacturing Company of Illinois and, by the early 1960s, was the leading manufacturer of slot machines in the U.S until laws changed the industry forever.
Lawrence Alma-Tadema (born January 8, 1836, died June 25, 1912) was a Dutch painter, born in Dronryp, the Netherlands, and trained at the Royal Academy of Antwerp, Belgium, ans assisted under Louis (Lodewijk) Jan de Taeyethen, before settling in London, England in 1870. He was the sixth child of Pieter Jiltes Tadema, It was intended that the boy would become a lawyer; but at the age of fifteen he suffered a physical and mental breakdown. He was allowed to spend his remaining days at his leisure, drawing and painting. Left to his own devices, he regained his health and decided to pursue a career as an artist. A classical-subject painter, he became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled interiors or against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean Sea and sky. Alma-Tadema was considered one of the most popular Victorian painters. He assisted with the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904 where he was well represented and received. He was among the most financially successful painters of the Victorian era. In the summer of 1912, Alma-Tadema was accompanied by his daughter Anna to Kaiserhof Spa, Wiesbaden, Germany, where he was to undergo treatment for ulceration of the stomach. He died there on June 28, 1912 at the age of seventy-six. He was buried in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral in London.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) transformed the role of First Lady, becoming a powerful voice for social justice, human rights, and the underprivileged during her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency (1933-1945) and beyond, redefining the position with her extensive travel, press conferences, and advocacy for civil rights, women, and the poor. After FDR's death, she continued her tireless work as a U.S. Delegate to the United Nations, leading the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, earning her the title "First Lady of the World" for her global humanitarian efforts.
Born into wealth but orphaned young, Eleanor overcame shyness to become a formidable activist, marrying her distant cousin Franklin in 1905 and supporting his political career, famously acting as his "eyes, ears, and legs" during his polio illness. Her own prolific writing in "My Day" and public appearances championed causes from workers' rights to racial equality, and after the White House years, she became a pivotal figure in international diplomacy, ensuring human dignity remained central to post-war global policy, solidifying her legacy as a world-renowned humanitarian and diplomat.
Eleanor Roosevelt was at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, but as a young attendee (aged 19-20) with her aunt, not as First Lady; her cousin Alice Roosevelt (Teddy's daughter) was the big star there, but Eleanor also visited, enjoying the sights like the Philippine exhibit, though she didn't have a major public role like Alice did. Eleanor Roosevelt died on November 7, 1962, in her New York City home at the age of 78, from complications including aplastic anemia, disseminated tuberculosis, and heart failure, and was buried next to her husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt, at their Hyde Park estate. She passed away after a period of declining health following a car accident in 1960
John T. Stinson (1866–1958) was a notable professor and the the director of agricultural development of the Missouri Pacific Rail Lines from 1922 to 1946, He was an early advocate of crop rotation and diversiand fication, fertilizing depleted land.
A native of Montgomery County, Iowa, he joined Missouri Pacific in 1905. The next year he introduced agricultural exhibit trains. The trains stopped a day in each town along the lines and held open house and educational meetings in conjunction with county agents and university extension services. He was credited with helping thousands of farmers in the south and west.
For seven years he served as secretary of the Missouri State Fair at Sedalia.[citation needed]
He died in 1958 at the age of 92
J.T. Stinson not only attended but was a key figure at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, serving as the Director of Horticulture and famously coining the phrase, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away," during a lecture there, according to sources like The New Yorker.
Maud Stevens Wagner *( February 12, 1877 – January 30, 1961) was an American circus performer. She was the first known female tattoo artist in the United States.
Wagner was born in 1877, in Emporia, Kansas, to David Van Bran Stevens and Sarah Jane McGee.
She was an aerialist and contortionist, working in numerous traveling circuses. Supoposdly she was looking for work in St. Louis at at the Fair. She met Gus Wagner—a tattoo artist who described himself as "the most artistically marked up man in America" while traveling with circuses and sideshows—at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904, where she was working as an aerialist. No official documentation of her performing or attending the Fair has been found, but her connection to Wagner and at the same time frame, cannot be disputed.Wagner did have a tatoo palor in St. Louiuis but not on Fair grounds.
Supposedly, she exchanged a romantic date with Wagner for a lesson in tattooing, and several years later they were married. Together they had a daughter, Lotteva, who started tattooing at the age of nine and went on to become a tattoo artist herself.
After leaving the circus, Maud and Gus Wagner traveled around the United States, working both as tattoo artists and "tattooed attractions" in vaudeville houses, county fairs and amusement arcades. They are credited with bringing tattoo artistry inland, away from the coastal cities and towns where the practice had started. Maud Wagner died of cancer twenty years after her husband, on January 30, 1961, at her daughter's home, in Lawton, Oklahoma.
* Most likely
