Carmel Magazine

Carmel Magazine HO15

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1915 Wor ld's Fair Ar tifacts on Display in Pacific Grove A centur y ago, a makeshift city rose on 635 acres of what is today's Marina district in San Fr ancisco. These sprawling palaces and show fields housed the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), a gathering that marked the host city's recovery from the devas- tating 1906 ear thquake. T h e w o r l d 's f a i r a l s o showcased the industries, artists and cultural appeal of the many California communities that created exhibitions for the event. This winter, the Pacific G r o v e M u s e u m o f Natural Histor y is dis- playing memorabilia from Monterey County's PPIE exhibits. Local historian Tim Thomas first proposed the small exhibition, which expanded in scope as museum administrators discovered undocu- mented ar tifacts in the archives. "We had some discoveries and surprises as we created this," says Annie Holdren, exhibitions curator at the Pacific Grove Museum. "It appears that an entire marine exhibit was given to the museum after the exposition." Information on those PPIE materials was lost when the museum changed locations in the early 1900s, Holdren explains. But, as she reviewed photos from the world's fair, she saw sea stars, abalone shells and other specimens in booths built to promote Monterey County's fish- ing industr y—and she recognized those speci- mens as pieces under t h e mu s e u m 's c a r e . They're included in the cur rent exhibit, along with historic images, sou- venir fair tokens and additional ar tifacts. Also on display is a wooden chair built from a t r e e t h a t s h a d e d Junipero Serra during his first Monterey sermon. Serra eventually estab- lished several California missions, including the San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo Mission in Carmel. Holdren appreciates the opportunity to reconnect the community to these historically signifi- cant PPIE relics. "It was fun for us because we are a very old museum," she says. "We had all of these pieces, but we didn't know a lot about them. Now we have the context." The Panama-Pacific International Exposition exhibit is included with regular admission to the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History through January 3, 2016. For museum hours and information, please visit www.pgmuseum.org. —Renee Brincks SHORTCUTS HISTORY The Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History discovered some Monterey County items from the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 stored in its archives and has created a display of fishing industry relics and a chair used by Junipero Serra. 76 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • H O L I D A Y 2 0 1 5 Photo: Kelli Uldall

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