Sculpture of the Exposition Palaces and Courts: Descriptive Notes on the Art of the Statuary at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco

In 1915, San Francisco rose from earthquake ashes to host the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, a World's Fair that announced America's artistic coming-of-age. Juliet Helena Lumbard James walked the exposition grounds that year and recorded what she saw: hundreds of sculptures by the era's most celebrated artists, from Daniel Chester French to A. Stirling Calder, placed throughout the fair's white palaces and courts. This book is her curated tour through that marble and bronze spectacle, offering detailed descriptions of works like 'The Fountain of Energy' and 'The End of the Trail' alongside biographical sketches of the sculptors who shaped American public art. James writes with the intimate authority of someone who stood before these works as they were unveiled, capturing a moment when sculpture was believed to civilize cities and memorialize national ideals. The book serves as both an invaluable art historical document and a time capsule of Progressive Era optimism, before World War I reshaped everything those statues were meant to represent. For readers interested in America's architectural heritage, World's Fair history, or the evolution of San Francisco, this volume offers a front-row seat to a forgotten golden age of public art.