Printed on the front of the stamped ticket was:

Exposition Universelle De 1900

Ticket D’entrée

Un Franc

The ticket-holder had apparently been one of the 50 million people who paid one franc to see the 76,000 exhibits at the World’s Fair and venture into what would become some of Paris’ most popular attractions, including the Musee d’Orsay. Like many of us, he or she apparently kept this entrance-ticket stub as a memento.

The 1900 World’s Fair – covering 280 acres on both sides of the Seine River – was held to celebrate the century recently departed and the one just starting. The turnout was the largest for any fair at that time, and 58 countries participated. The fair also was the site of the Second Olympics Games, which were the first to feature women competitors.

I’m sure this ticket-holder looked in awe at the first escalator and the first talking film and the first refracting telescope. But what I found fascinating, in researching the fair, was “The Exhibit of American Negroes,” which at that time had been set up in a plain white building on the banks of the river.

It was assembled by writer, activist and scholar W.E.B. DuBois and Thomas J. Calloway (described as an African American lawyer, as someone working in the War Department and as a Negro special agent) in collaboration with black colleges and universities and Daniel A.P. Murray, an assistant librarian at the Library of Congress. The federal government appropriated $15,000 for the project.

The exhibit included photographs, musical compositions, books, poetry, paintings, models, maps, patents, pamphlets and documents on the contributions of blacks to American culture up to 1900. The 500 or more photos showed blacks as both middle class and prosperous, and a mix of color tones – in direct contrast to how they were portrayed in the mainstream. Well-dressed, they posed for photos at home, in studios, churches and their own businesses.

One section was called “Negro Life in Georgia” (my home state), which had at the time the largest population of blacks in the country. The section offered photos and statistics on living in the state, where DuBois was teaching sociology at Atlanta University.

The exhibition – along with Dubois and Calloway individually – won numerous awards. It was ignored, however, by the European and U.S media, but covered by the black press.

It was, DuBois said:

“an honest straightforward exhibit of a small nation of people, picturing their life and development without apology or gloss, and above all made by themselves. In a way this marks an era in the history of the Negroes of America.”

The exhibit also included the works of Frances Benjamin Johnston, a white woman who was one of the earliest women photographers in this country. In 1899, Hampton Institute had commissioned her to take photographs of its students for the Paris exhibition.  

The ticket stub was not the only auction item that led me to a world’s fair: There were two postally unused postcards for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition – the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. The postcards showed a drawing of the Battle Ship Illinois from the U.S. Naval Exhibit. The fair covered 686 acres, drew 27 million visitors and attracted 46 nations as participants.

Blacks were apparently not well-represented although many may have attended. According to my research, two factions arose when blacks were denied full participation (black exhibits had to be approved by an all-white committee): Abolitionist Frederick Douglass felt blacks should take the opportunity to show their successes. Journalist and activist Ida B. Wells felt that the fair should be boycotted.

While most exhibits at the fair presented other cultures in a positive light, awful “fake ‘African villages’” depicted black people as savages. On a day set aside for blacks, organizers insulted them by offering them watermelons. Some of the same happened in 1900 where at least one exhibit presented a diorama called “Living in Madagascar,” showing Africans in the human lineage between apes and humans.

I’m always amazed at how the smallest items in my box lots can turn up such fascinating historical events. These pieces of ephemera have been an enlightening research journey for me. As always. (Photo below, on the website of the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies at the Universty of Michigan, is from the exhibit.)
 

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There were 19 brightly colored stickers, most with the name Rickie Tickie Stickies, the rest labeled “the fantasticks.” I examined the packages closely and saw one set of orange daisy-shaped flowers with pink centers. When I flipped to the back and saw the image, it sparked a memory.

It was a familiar Volkswagen Beetle from the 1970s plastered with daisies. Then I realized that I knew the image but not the name. They were a symbol of Flower Power and the hippie movement of the 1960s. I never knew where these images came from or who invented them.

The peel-and stick decals I got at auction were in their original packaging, unopened and sealed, except for one sleeve of daisies. Someone had apparently bought them 40 years ago, never got around to using all of them and just put them aside. The packaging was in good condition, but aged.

There were pink ladybugs (9 for $2), yellow/pink/royal-blue/lime trains with cars (5 for $1), an array of yellow/orange/hot-pink animals (9 for $2) and pink/orange paisleys (9 for $2). The Stickies were dated 1970. The package warned that they had to be removed within six to eight months or the company wasn’t responsible for any damage. 

On the back was the inscription:

They’re Right Now. They’re Bright Now.

For walls, ceilings, shower enclosures, luggage, notebooks, boats, appliances, raincoats, furniture, bulletin boards, cars, glass doors, garbage cans, gift boxes.

Top Quality Vinyl Decals in The “In” Colors. Easy to Apply, Washable, Non-Permanent.

They were a fad of the late 1960s – that’s how they were described on several websites – that made a man named Don Kracke millions of dollars. Kracke, who was working in an ad agency at the time, saw some hand-drawn flowers on the side of a Volkswagen bus and felt he could do prettier, according to neatorama.com.

He designed his own version of daisies, polka dots and paisleys, and put them on his own car, according to a 1998 story in the Los Angeles Times. Neighborhood kids took to them; so he created 3,000 in hot colors, and peddled them in his neighborhood and to a local hardware store. He didn’t expect the fad to last beyond 1967, he told a reporter.

It took off, especially the daisy sticker, embraced by “flower children” all over the country. By the end of 1968, 90 million Rickie Tickie Stickies had been sold.

“The key is timing,” Kracke is quoted as saying on the website drfad.com. He created the stickers a few months after 1967’s Summer of Love, a defining moment for the hippie movement at its epicenter of San Francisco.

The company lasted for about six years before Kracke sold it to a Minnesota company that no longer exists.

In 1977, he wrote a book – which was republished in 2001 – called “Turn Your Idea or Invention Into Millions.” He has brought 2,500 items to market, and was one of the writers of a 1970s comic strip called Yankee Doodles. Kracke is also a painter; his works were exhibited in 2007 at a Palms Springs, Calif., gallery).

Kracke apparently did not trademark his design, so other companies copied the concept. The fantasticks may have been one of them. I could find nothing about these stickers in my research. They had the same feeling of agedness, so I’m assuming they were from the same period.

I have yellow daises, a little boy with yellow hair and a little girl wearing a lime hat with flowers. They’re described as a ”Home Decorating Kit” with suggestions on the back on where to place them – walls, waste baskets, canister sets, mirrors, glass doors, boats, walls and surfboards. All so very familiar.

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There’s nothing like the real show, however. Sliding into a nice sleek Mercedes, touching the supple leather and turning the wheel was always like magic. And it was the closest I knew that I’d ever get to a $65,000 car.

The replicas? Those were the magazine ads I came across with drawings of vintage cars. In fact, I have a stack of old Life magazine covers whose inside pages contained cars from around a century ago.

The first significant car show was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1900, according to history.com. The owner of the Packard, James Ward Packard, brought three of his cars (he’d built his first Packard the year before), and several new car companies were introduced, according to the site. The show included automotive demonstrations, and the cost of admission was 50 cents. (The cost for tickets for the upcoming New York International Auto Show in April is $14 for adults.)

 The North American International Auto Show, held in Detroit each year, was started in 1907. According to Wikipedia, it is among the largest in North America. The first Chicago show was in 1901.

This is the time of year for car shows. Along with Philadelphia, Houston just ended its show, and Detroit and Washington had theirs in January. Chicago and Cleveland are holding theirs this month.

I thought this was a good time to pull out some of the ephemera I had stashed away of cars from the early 1900s. The date listed after each car below is the magazine publication date. Enjoy the ride.

 
Detroit Electric, Aug. 11, 1910. This car was produced by the Anderson Carriage Co. in Detroit. Production began in 1907. It was sold mostly to women and doctors who didn’t want to do the hand-cranking.

Klaxon horn, Jan. 20, 1910. This vintage ad boasted that the president – William Howard Taft at the time – used the Klaxon horn on his official White Steamer, the White House automobile. Is that him in the back seat in the picture?

Willys Knight Touring Car, July 20, 1916. Cost: $1,125; Roadster $1,095. Made by Willys-Overland Co., Toledo, OH.

Lozier, Aug. 10, 1911. This car was a 1912 model: 6-cylinder $5,000; 4-cylinder $4,700. It was sold as a luxury car for the wealthy and for a while, was the most expensive car sold in the United States, according to Wikipedia. In comparison, Cadillacs sold for $1,600 and Packards for $3,200 at that time.

Lexington, Oct. 25, 1917. This car was assembled from parts provided by different suppliers. It was manufactured by the Lexington Motor Co. in Connersville, ID. One of the most popular Lexingtons was this one: Minute Man Six. Cost: $1,585.

The White, Nov. 26, 1914. This car was produced by the White Co. of Cleveland. The company also made trucks, taxicabs, bicycles, roller skates and sewing machines.

Packard, Jan. 7, 1909. Everyone knows the luxurious Packard. Need I say more.

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In one glass case, I spotted a children’s book with a brown boy on the cover. It was called “Nimbo: Story of an African Boy,” from 1934, first edition written by Josephine Van Dozen Pease, illustrated by Eleanor Mussey Young.

Lying next to it was another book, with a black-and-white cover of images that resembled African masks. Intrigued, I opened it up to take a look. Its title was “Mad Man’s Drums.” On another page, the title was completed: “A Novel in Woodcuts by Lynd Ward.” It was published in 1930.

I flipped the pages and was wowed. A book of beautiful woodcuts. Remarkable.

I had never heard of Lynd Ward, but I was immediately impressed that he has used this artistic medium to tell a story. How imaginative. Not a single word. There weren’t even numbers on the pages. Just the graphic illustrations, more than 100 of them.

I grew even more interested when I saw some of the first woodcuts and realized I could interpret the story without words. They are very detailed and expressive:

In the foreground, an African man pounds a drum among the bushes and trees, and in the background a small figure of a white man (obviously a slave trader) with a sword looks down on him.

The slave trader forces African men and women (one woman carries a baby) toward the shore, where a ship waits on the ocean.

The slave trader and Africans are seen aboard the ship.

An African man is being sold as a slave.

As I flipped through the novel, I never saw the Africans again. The rest of the story appears to be about the man and his relationship with his wife and son. The website beaverpond.com quoted Ward as saying the book is about human relationships and how we deal with them.

Lynd Ward was my latest discovery of an artist, and I’m very very glad I came across him. I had never heard of him before and had never seen any of his works, but I’ll be on the lookout for more of them, especially those with a black theme.

Ward was born in Chicago in 1905 into a home of an activist Methodist minister father. The son attended the Teachers College at Columbia University and sailed to Europe after graduating in 1926. He studied graphic arts in Germany, and came under the influence of illustrators Frans Masereel of Belgium and Otto Nuckel of Germany, who were using woodcuts to tell stories in pictures without words.

Ward created his first woodcuts novel “Gods’ Man” in 1929, followed by “Mad Man’s Drums” in 1930 and “Vertigo” in 1937. He produced six such novels (“Wild Pilgrimage,” “Prelude to a Million Years” and “Song Without Words” ) and illustrated many other books, including some written by his wife May McNeer.

He also created children’s picture books that won the Caldecott Award and other honors. In 2001, Georgetown University held an exhibit of some of his original illustrations, primarily those for children’s books. Ward died in 1985.

Ward was very outspoken (he denounced fascism in the arts in the 1930s and McCarthyism in politics in the 1950s), and carried his passion for activism over into his art. He illustrated a children’s book in 1947 called “North Star Shining: A Pictorial History of the American Negro,” written by Hildegarde Hoyt Swift.

Ward noted in a sketch on “The Book Artist: Today and Tomorrow,” published in 1947, that we need a world:

“without ideas of enslavement and exploitation, of master races and inferior peoples, of special privilege and individual enrichment at the expense of others. Those ideas, and the complicated social and economic practices that stem from them, stand between us and the future. Only in a world completely free shall we be able to fulfill the promise of our heritage from the past.”

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