I have long been fascinated by the United States’ great nineteenth and early twentieth-century expositions. Much of my scholarly research centers around musical life at these events. I have given conference papers for conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Westfield Center on organ concerts at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Alexandre Guilmant’s activities in the United States, and women organists at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.
My article, “Blending the Popular and the Profound: Organ Concerts at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition,” appeared in the May 2022 issue of the Journal for the Society of American Music (vol. 16, no. 2).
To view video of my presentation titled “Women Organists at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo,” for the Westfield Center conference, Diversity and Belonging: Unsung Keyboard Stories (Ann Arbor, January 2022): visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EksKIwjReI
My analysis of programming trends at these events relies on newly-created databases listing each organ piece performed. These excel spreadsheets are searchable by date, performer, composer, work title, etc. I offer these resources here in the hopes that they might be useful to my peers.
Databases for download:
I received grants from the Syracuse Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement (SOURCE) and the Ruth and Clarence Mader Memorial Scholarship Fund to continue the work of creating databases for 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis and the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. I will post databases for those events on this site when they are completed.
Note: The original concert programs of these events contain numerous misspellings of composer names and piece titles, sometimes requiring considerable guesswork when creating a database listing.
Anne Laver 