New Orleans: Gateway to the Americas
Cotton Exposition, 1884 |
The 1884 World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition was held in New Orleans at least in part to advertise the city's commercial revitalization following the end of the Reconstruction era. This panel shows the Mexican National Exhibits building at the Exposition. Mexico's presence at the Exposition, both in this structure and in the Main Building, was larger and more elaborate than that of the other Latin American nations present at the event--Honduras, British Honduras, Venezuela, Brazil, and Guatemala. The island of Jamaica also participated in the Exposition with a display of rum, sugar, coffee, cocoa, dyes, oils, fruits, medicinal plants, and more.[Herbert S. Fairall, The World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition, New Orleans, 1884-85 (Iowa City, 1885)]