 It only invented it a year earlier, but it swept the nation, and by May was on display at the Mechanics Pavilion. You're dazzled, I can tell. In 1882, the exhibition building was moved to the newly purchased block of land that now contains the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, which is kiddie corner to City Hall. This building was intended to be a permanent structure, and it hosted 15 industrial fairs, as well as many civic and cultural events. It was nearly 170,000 square feet, or nearly four acres large, and it could hold over 10,000 people at one time. The 1880s saw the exhibitions continue to grow, but I want to skip ahead to the next decade. The next fair I want to talk to you about is the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago. What did we have to do with that? Well, Mechanics Institute hosted a dry run. Going back to Andrew Hallity, he and several other Mechanics members, including another longtime president, Irving Scott, who was the leader of Union Ironworks, they were appointed by the California Governor to a committee who were to oversee the representation of California at the World Fair. In order to make sure that the exhibits were ready, the exhibits came from all over the state, in order to ensure they were ready to go to Chicago, it was decided to host a preliminary fair or practice run at the Mechanics Institute's pavilion. So from January 10th to February 11th, 1893, the residents of California had the opportunity to see the state's contribution to the Chicago World Fair here in San Francisco. There are no known photos of the preliminary World Fair at the Mechanics pavilion, so I'm showing you a photo from the exhibit as it stood in the California building in Chicago. One of the most popular exhibits was the prune horse, there he is right in the middle. The prune horse symbolized Santa Clara County's annual production of prunes, which stood then at about 20 million pounds annually. Upon a pedestal of dried fruit was a life-sized horse surmounted by a man clad in armor, and the entire surface of both was covered with French and silver prunes in dark and light colors. Many of the California exhibits from the Chicago World Fair would find themselves back on display in Golden Gate Park for the California Midwinter Fair of 1894. Many Mechanics members would be directly involved with the Midwinter Fair, including Mayor James Fallon and Mechanics Presidents Irving Scott, who'd been on the Chicago World Fair Committee, and Irwin Stump, who was Vice President of the Executive Committee for the Midwinter. After the Midwinter, the city underwent a depression in the commercial and manufacturing world, and the Mechanics Institute in order to battle declining interest in the exhibitions had to get creative. The Institute had been renting out the pavilion for other events, and one of those rentals in 1895 was a Pure Food Exhibition, hosted by the Merchants Association and the city's prominent grocers. This exhibition was held in January and planned to aid the passage of a Pure Foods bill that the California Governor later approved in March. At that time, society was greatly concerned with adulterated foods. People were dying or sickening right and left from food that had been tainted. Jams were colored with coal tar, arsenic was in the candy, and as in this photo, wine with cocaine. But what a buzz that must have been. The 1895 exhibition sported cooking demonstrations for Mary Lincoln, who was the principal at the Boston Cooking School and author of several cooking books. Samples from local food purveyors were on display for tasting, such as pure milk, cheese, butter, honey, coffee, chocolate, jelly bread, wine, whiskey, brandy, fruits, and preserves, including canned and bottled foods. This concept was so popular that the Institute decided to host its own Pure Food exhibition in 1897 after the state held a Pure Food Congress in San Francisco. Pure Food, as you know, was and still is a serious concern here in San Francisco. The Institute spent considerable money engaging a special manager and employing a lecturer on cookery and an analytical chemist who tested all the foods on display. Nancy Green, the mascot of the Aunt Jemima pancake flower company, hosted one of the most popular exhibits, making pancakes and telling stories to entertain and feed the fair goers. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of her in San Francisco, but there she is at the Chicago World Fair a few years earlier.