The Midwinter Exposition in San Francisco has a unique story to tell. Most of those putting world's fairs together generally will wait several--often at least 5--years before holding another fair. It generally takes close to five years from planning to raising funds, from notifying national and international exhibitors and working the ground to prepare it for the event...and of course, building the entire fair!
Despite all this conventional wisdom, the Midwinter Expo opened just a single year after the closing of the World's Columbian Expo. To think it was possible would have been a flight of fancy--until they actually pulled it off.
The unique situation was state, national and international buildings and exhibits were a train shipment away at the conclusion of the Columbian Expo. Chicago was the rail hub of the country and San Francisco was the largest western metropolis, and thriving city where the majority of east to west trains traveled.
There is no way that European, Asian or other countries could imagine preparing to exhibit in a world's fair ANYWEHRE, let alone in the U.S. with only a year to prepare. This actually is one of the truly amazing stories in the 175-year history of world's fairs.
Exhibitors packed up their entire staff and displays, and headed west from Chicago. Virtually every government and private exhibitor was presented with unique and unparalled opportunity. And just a year after the conclusion of the Columbian Expo the new one in San Francisco opened its doors and welcome the world.
My plan to list a wonderful group of new acquisitions by July has been preetty much become impossible. June has been a very disconcerting double-problem of computer woes and personal illness. Both of us were hit with a virus that meant I have not worked in a week and Chris even longer. And besides a human virus, a wonderful bug hit our computers, too. We were unable to send emails for several days, thought we had things fixed and it occurred again. I'm hopeful it won't happen again, but no one could provide much tech support or advice. Kind of like the doctors....just ride it out! LOL.
I will begin photographing new acquisitions this week (beginning June 22) and while it won't be by July 1, hopefully shortly after the following will be ready to post on ebay:
* Several more medals from the Midwinter Expo
* Approximately 12-15 medals from the World's Columbian Expo
* Great group of uncirculated Lincoln and Indian cents and Civil War tokens
* A dozen medals of all sizes & rarity from the 1851 Crystal Palace (the first ever world's fair) and the 1853 copycat in New York including a very rare large official medal and the best-known medal from the first U.S. world's fair, featuring a picture of the Crystal Palace & the celebrated dog show at the expo.
If you have interest in this material by all means email me ASAP and I will share more details and can list items on ebay for just YOU. We have often listed an item with a Buy it Now for a customer/collector only--and it's a great way to get a headstart. Of course you have to ask questions so we can share details.