A World’s Fair in Paris

[Photo Credit: Lucien Baylac, Vue panoramique de l'exposition universelle, de 1900, Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division]

Julia and her younger brother Avery were in Paris during the Exposition Universelle of 1900, the spectacular world’s fair located on both sides of the Seine. Covering more than 530 acres, it was so large that it used the Eiffel Tower (which had been built for the 1889 Exposition) as merely one among its several grand entrances. Julia and Avery watched the fair’s construction with great interest. On 11 February 1899, Julia wrote to her cousin Lucy (and Lucy’s husband, architect Pierre LeBrun):

“It seems almost impossible for the Fair to be ready in a year! . . . The whole plan is surrounded by a very high fence so you can’t see much except from the tram top or a chance glimse [sic] through an open gate. . . .”

[Julia Morgan Papers, Special Collections, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, 2-D-17-13.]