STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN 1897
Great Art and Industrial Exhibition

Quick List Info

Dates Open - May 15 to October 3, 1897. Some sources state that the fair opened on May 13 and others on May 1. The formal opening was May 15.

Attendance - 1.2 to 1.5 million estimated.

International Participants - 5 nations and colonies.

Total Cost - Costs were budgeted at DKK 2,950,000, of which SEK 2,350,000 was for construction and 600,000 for operating costs. Later estimates of cost was 2,656,281 DKK. These are estimates and do not seem to be final totals.

Site Acreage - Main site on Island of Djurgarden was 51.4 acres. Other site about equal in size, thus just over 100 acres. Some documents state that the site was 514 acres, but this appears to be a mistake.

Sanction and Type - Prior to the Bureau of International Exhibitions. Would be considered a Recognized, Small Special Expo like those on the 2-3 or 7-8 year of a decade.

Ticket Cost - Opening Day - 10 Swedish Crowns. Reduced later to 1.5 to 2 Swedish Crowns.

Photo top center: Stockholm exhibition, 1897, Detroit Publishing Company. Courtesy Library of Congress. Column Top: Poster of the 1897 Stockholm exhibition, 1897, Vicke Andren. Courtesy Wikipedia Commons. Column Below: Skansen Park, circa 1890-1900, Detroit Publishing Company. Area where fair was located; unknown if photo is from period of the exhibition itself. Courtesy Library of Congress.

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History of the Event

It was intended to be purely Scandinavian, but grew slightly to include the nations (some of which were still combined with others) of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Russia. The decade of the 1890's, as with its predecessor, saw lots of competition for world's fair, or even regional international exhibitions. Brussels was holding a fair the same year, as was Nashville (no not much crossover competion there), with Antwerp only three years prior. So the focus here would be on Scandinavia, and the exhibition of Great Art and Industry would have three distinct sections; the main exhibition grounds at Skansen, an open air musuem about country life in past Sweden next door, and a 16th century themed Old Stockholm near the beach. One claim to fame was the exhibition's Industrial Hall, which was the largest wooden building in that 1897 world. How big? Fifteen thousand square meters. What did it look like? One hundred meter tall cupola and four minarets. Of course, having the largest wooden structure in the world was particularly appropriate for Sweden. It was, in 1897, the largest wood exporting country in the world.

The fair was being held during the 1897 Jubilee year (25th Anniversary) of the ascension of King Oscar II, although not officially twinned. The organizers, however, held many special events about the Jubilee and their choice of the year did prompt state officials to support their effort. The official Jubilee celebrations would be held in September. The official site of the fair was next to Skansen, five minutes from the center of the city. Skansen hosted a sort of permanent exhibition on Swedish ways now included in the exhibition. On the main site, there was the large Industrial Hall, plus buildings for Machinery, Fisheries, Sports and Tourism, Education, and the Chemical Engineering Industry. Stockholm had its own city pavilion and the Royals had one as well. There were also over one hundred pavilions and kiosks for private firms.

Above photo. Overview of the fair grounds at the 1897 Stockholm fair, 1897, Press. Courtesy Wikipedia Commons. Below: Entrance to the old Stockholm section, 1897, Ulf Sorenson. Courtesy Wikipedia Commons.


The city was overflowing with tourists anxious to witness the exhibition and the fair did well with over one million visits. There was a slight deficit in the financial area, but organizers saw the small amount as nothing more than proof of a success.

Historian's Perspective

Anders Ekstrom - "The national pride associated with the event was in part related to a royal jubilee celebrated through the organization of the fair. In general, 19th century expositions were not "thematized" in the same way as later fairs. Some minor problems concerning the funding of the fair disturbed the original plan."

Press Account

New York Times, August 10, 1897 - "Well, Stockholm's exhibition presents three novelties - its agreeable disposition of buildings, not one of which crushes the unlucky tourist with its mass and the impossibility of looking at its contents; then a peculiar architecture heretofore unknown among the spicy forests of Sweden or the steppes of Russia or the loamy plains of China; and, third, the ethnological annex which is designed in order to show in houses, cabins, huts, in beasts of burden, in cattle, men, women, and children the peculiarities of life in high latitudes this side of the polar circle."

Prior to BIE Sanction

International Participants
Nations and Colonies

Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Russia. The art section also included artists from other nations.

Note: It is sometimes difficult to tell whether certain nations actually participated in a significant way. Newspaper reports as well as the official documents or secondary sources may indicate participation when actual participation did not occur or occurred minimally. Take the above as a guide, not gospel.

Expo Tidbits

Speech at the Opening Ceremony was given was King Oscar II.

Part of the theme of the fair focused on new technologies of the phonograph and film. Lumiere's Cinematograph was one of the big hits.

The art exhibition included artists from other nations outside the Scandinavian sphere, including six from the United States. The official catalogue/report said that they (the United States art) did not make much sense.

The minaret towers of the main exhibition building could be accessed by elevators and visitors could gain a bird-eyes view of Stockholm and its lakes from their cupolas.

Legacies

The exhibition site on the western side of the island of Djurgarden still contains pavilions and other structures from the exhibition, including the Main Bridge, Djurgardsbron, the railway now in Skansen, and the Nordic Museum. The main building was torn down after the fair.

Those in Charge

Architect of the main building was Ferdinand Boberg. Other architect was Frederik Liljekvists, who designed the Old Stockholm section near the beach. Thore Blanche was the press commissioner.

Photo column top: Fisheries Building at Stockholm 1897, 1897. Courtesy Grace's Guide. Middle: Interior exhibits, 1897, Oscar Halldin. Courtesy Wikipedia Commons. Bottom: One of the remaining Pavilions from the fair, 2009, Holger Ellgaard. Courtesy Wikipedia Commons.

Sources: Ludvig Loostrom, The General Art and Industrial Exhibition in Stockholm 1897, Official Report, 1899-1900; London Times; New York Times; Historical Dictionary of World's Fairs by Alfred Heller; Fair News; Worldexhibitions.org.