The X-ray machine was a major addition to a UT exhibit that had won a gold medal at the
1895 Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition. Practically every school and department
joined in assembling an exhibit to show Tennesseans what the University was doing on the Hill in
Knoxville.
Having recovered from the Civil War's devastating effects and making progress under its
energetic young president, Charles W. Dabney, the institution had marked its own centennial in
1894. Designated as Tennessee's federal land-grant institution and state university since the war's
end, UT was beginning to exert a statewide influence from its 40-acre campus in Knoxville, where
300 students, both men and women, were taking classes.
The Centennial Exposition, too, stressed the progress being made by the state and region
in the post-Civil War period. It sought to present the "New South" image of a rural antebellum
culture giving way to a progressive industrial economy. For instance, a Negro Building on the
Exposition grounds was intended to show the progress being made by a people liberated from
slavery only 30 years earlier.
Among the Exposition's most up-to-date exhibits was Roentgen's X-ray phenomenon. And
being given the exclusive right to demonstrate the miraculous machine testified to UT's growing
reputation in state educational circles.
Dabney was largely responsible for the prize-winning exhibit at the Atlanta Exposition in
1895. As U.S. assistant secretary of agriculture, an appointment by President Grover Cleveland
that required him to divide his time between the UT campus and Washington, Dabney had been in
charge of the federal government's building in Atlanta. He had persuaded the UT trustees to
authorize an exhibit for that event. That Atlanta exhibit was repackaged and updated for the
Tennessee Centennial, scheduled for 1896.
Although he no longer had a federal appointment under Republican President William
McKinley, Dabney would have charge of the U.S. government building at Nashville, having been
named to that job before Cleveland left office.
In contrast to the excitement and participation generated by the Centennial celebration,
plans for the 200th anniversary of statehood on June 1, 1996, seem more modest in scope if not in
dollar cost. In Nashville, the centerpiece for the 1996 observance is a Bicentennial Mall, a $23
million project covering a 19-acre area north of the Capitol. The area is an historic one, for it
includes the salt lick found by French hunters almost 300 years ago, a site around which Nashville
was settled. Also in the Mall area is the site of Sulphur Dell, the city's long-time professional
baseball park.
Meanwhile, on the UT campus at Knoxville, a special exhibit at McClung Museum will
help remind visitors of the importance of the year to Tennesseans. Entitled "The Cherokee
Indians: Tennessee's First Citizens," it will push back the curtain to the state's prehistoric
times.
Suggestions for a centennial observance had been percolating about the state capital since
1892; but it was 1894 before Nashvillians began to prepare in earnest. That year a Centennial
Association was formed to create interest in Tennessee's history and make preliminary plans for an
exposition. Governor Peter Turney gave the movement official status by sending a letter to
governors of other states proclaiming a "grand industrial exposition" to begin September 1, 1896,
and inviting the people of all states to attend.
By early 1896, the West Side Park, a former race track, had been chosen for the
exposition grounds, and plans for 15 main buildings and 18 auxiliary structures were
announced.
But problems arose. Some Nashville leaders thought a new railroad station should be built
before the Exposition began. One newspaper editor declared that the "filthy old mule shed known
as the Union Depot" was not fit to receive thousands of out-of-town visitors.
A more pressing problem was raising funds to finance the Centennial exposition. County
courts were asked for appropriations, and the response was slow. Postponement became a
certainty by the end of January 1896. Several reasons were cited: unsettled conditions that made
fund-raising difficult; election year activities that might detract attention from the Exposition; and
the hope that perhaps the next Tennessee legislature would appropriate money for the project,
thereby enhancing chances for federal funds.
The Centennial directors then announced that the Exposition would be inaugurated with a
June 1, 1896, ceremony; but the gates would not open until May 1, 1897.
With the postponement, professors and students preparing the UT exhibit put their work
on hold, waiting for the next year. Work on the Exposition grounds and buildings continued,
however, as weather would permit. On February 3, a windstorm delayed progress by damaging
some of the partly finished structures and uprooting transplanted trees.
As planned, a gala ceremony was held in Nashville on June 1. A parade wound through
downtown and out to the Centennial grounds. Joining the march were military units--U.S. infantry
and cavalry and the Tennessee militia--Confederate veterans, DAR ladies, Daughters of the
Confederacy, Hermitage Ladies, Colonial Dames, and several bands. At the Centennial
auditorium, the Marine Band from Washington performed, speeches were offered, and a
19-stanza Centennial poem was read, evoking memories of great Tennesseans and Tennessee
victories.
The day's activities closed with a fireworks display. The pyrotechnical production spelled
out the invitation: "Come to the Centennial Exposition, 1897."
Work continued through the ensuing months on the main buildings in what has become
known as Centennial Park. The centerpiece was a replica of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, the
temple honoring that city's patron goddess. A statue of Pallas Athena, cast in Paris, was situated
in a plaza outside the Parthenon's east entrance for the Tennessee centennial. Including pedestal, it
stood 40 feet tall.
For the exposition, the famous temple was constructed of temporary materials. When the
edifice began to crumble in the 1920s, today's permanent Parthenon was built, and only after the
planners had gone to Greece to get data for an exact reproduction.
The Nashville replica reopened in 1931, but without one prominent feature of the
original--the statue of the goddess of wisdom. It was 1990 before a reproduction of the 5th
century B.C. statue of Athena was unveiled inside today's Parthenon. The 42-foot-tall statue of
Athena is said to be the largest piece of indoor sculpture in the western world.
In the spring of 1897, plans for UT's participation in the state's birthday celebration were
in full stride. Professor Charles E. Ferris of the engineering school was in charge of
preparations.
"The exhibit will be along the same lines of the prize-winning display at Atlanta," a
Knoxville newspaper reminded its readers. It would "occupy a large, prominent corner of about
1,500 square feet of the building devoted to education and hygiene."
Early in April, faculty members met with the Centennial Committee from the city and
county to decide on a date for a "Knoxville Day" at the Exposition. A few days later a local
newspaper reported: "The work of preparing and parking the University exhibits for the exhibition
goes steadily on. A few days will suffice to have most of the exhibits on the way."
Among the exhibits would be the X-ray equipment. "A space of 420 square feet will be
taken up in the same building [Education and Hygiene] for purposes of an X-ray exhibit in charge
of Dr. [Charles] Perkins [physics and engineering] and Prof. J.R. McColl [mechanical
engineering]," the newspaper report continued. "They have obtained the exclusive privilege of
obtaining and displaying sciographs and X-ray mechanism."
In all, 15 schools in UT's College of Arts and Sciences and other units contributed to the
large institutional exhibit. These units included chemistry, botany, and zoology; physics and
electrical engineering, civil engineering, and mechanical engineering; the languages, philosophy,
and history; and the Agricultural Experiment Station and horticulture department. An historical
display included photographs of former UT presidents and buildings and a relief map of the
campus.
Other Knoxvillians had prominent roles in the Exposition. Lloyd Branson, a UT alumnus
and noted artist, took a carload of paintings from Knoxville and supervised their arrangement in
the Knoxville Building. Branson's art also was represented in an exhibition of paintings in the
Parthenon, his being one of the few nudes in the collection.
Mary Boyce Temple, a Vassar graduate and daughter of Oliver P. Temple, a UT trustee
since 1854, presided in the Women's Building on College Day, a time devoted to the educating of
women.
The new year brought relief for concerned fund-raisers. The Nashville city council voted
$100,000 for the Exposition, and the state legislature appropriated $50,000. A Congressional
appropriation of $130,000 and approval of a federal government building gave planners a firm
financial footing.
Before leaving office, President Cleveland named UTŐs President Dabney chairman of the
commission to supervise the federal building and exhibit. Ground was broken for the structure on
March 1, and like most of the exhibition buildings, the $30,000 hall rose quickly. It was ready for
exhibits by mid-April, and a Nashville newspaper boasted: "The Government Building is the
largest to be built south of the Ohio River in sixty days."
A midway with a variety of attractions for the public was ready for the grand opening on
May 1. In an octagon-shaped building, a kinetoscope threw a series of pictures onto its walls,
"reproducing with all the life and action of reality the Grand Opera, the Boulevard des Italians of
Paris, the Coronation of the Czar, a watermelon feast, the Corbett-Fitzsimmons fight, and
hundreds of others, there being a change of scenes every day."
A boat ride on the Venetian Pleasure Canal could be had for 10 cents. The public could
ride in colorful chariots behind dapple-gray hobby horses to the tune "The Girl I Left Behind Me"
played on the merry-go-round. Cars on a giant see-saw, balanced atop a 75-foot tower, could
accommodate 20 passengers each. Camels could be ridden at the Streets of Cairo midway
attraction.
Admission prices were 50 cents for adults, a quarter for children. A contract for medals
for winning exhibits was let. They would be gold, silver, and bronze, two-and-one-half inches in
diameter, with a figure of the Parthenon on one side and the Tennessee seal on the other.
There was time and money to make improvements to the railroad depot. An ornamental
iron porte-cochere was erected from the station entrance to the street to protect passengers from
the weather while waiting for carriages.
Rainfall during the night of April 30 caused concern, but when opening day dawned, the
sky was clear and a cool north wind was blowing. Again, a parade from downtown Nashville led
to the Centennial grounds and its shiny new building, neat paved walkways, flower beds, and
artificial lakes. The 1896 election had changed the cast of characters. Instead of Governor Turney,
newly elected Governor Robert L. Taylor addressed the packed auditorium that day. Instead of
Grover Cleveland, President William McKinley pressed the button in the White House to start the
wheels turning at the Centennial grounds and officially open the Exposition.
President McKinley visited the Exposition on June 11 and 12, accompanied by a large
press corps representing the wire services and newspapers in Washington, New York, Chicago,
Boston, Cincinnati, and Baltimore. A parade took him from the railroad station to the Exposition
grounds, where he was greeted by a crowd of 50,000, one of the largest of the six-month
event.
Before leaving Nashville on June 12, McKinley held a public reception in the U.S.
Government Building. With UT's President Dabney at his side, McKinley shook hands with the
hundreds that filed past. Ironically, it was at such a reception at the Pan-American Exposition in
Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901, that McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist in the
moving line of well-wishers.
There were other important visitors and speakers during the Exposition. On September
22, Booker T. Washington, president of Tuskegee Normal College, was the speaker. A large
crowd turned out on October 8 to hear the silver-tongued orator William Jennings Bryan.
Among the special days was "Knoxville Day," held on June 17. Hundreds poured into
Nashville from East Tennessee for the occasion. They heard speeches by Edward T. Sanford, UT
alumnus and a future U.S. Supreme Court justice; and Joshua W. Caldwell, 1875 graduate and
president of the UT Alumni Association at the time. Mary Fleming Meek, who later would write
the UT alma mater, sang "My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice."
An occasion with special meaning for many Tennesseans, Texas Day, was held on June
23, a few days after completion of a replica of the Alamo, where Davy Crockett and other
Tennesseans died.
"The reproduction here is perfect," one local newspaper declared. A description of the
historical shrine closed with: "Like the original, it has no floor."
On July 17, the Nashville Relief Society had a day for the city's poor. Some 400 were
treated to lunch and a visit to the Vanity Fair midway.
Music was a daily highlight. A large pipe organ in the auditorium was a novelty to many
visitors. Bands, orchestras, vocalists, and choruses attracted large audiences. Perhaps the most
popular was the Twenty-Second Regiment Band of New York, conducted by Victor Herbert,
composer of a number of light operas. His "The Wizard of the Nile" had been produced in 1893,
and his more notable works, "Babes in Toyland" and "Naughty Marietta," would appear in later
years. Herbert and his band performed daily to enthusiastic crowds during a month's engagement,
August 2 to September 8.
During the hot summer nights, visitors were treated to fireworks displays, including
dazzling scenes such as the bombardment of Fort Sumter and the sinking of the Monitor.
The Exposition went off with few hitches. Late in the season, there was a flurry of
excitement on the midway. Five young ladies in the Vanity Fair Beauty Show were arrested "for
violating a Centennial ordinance prohibiting the appearance in public places of women in indecent
dress."
The newspaper pointed out that "the officials of the guard notified these people one or
more times that in their ballahooing [sic] in front of the theater they would have to don longer
skirts or suffer the consequences. They seemed not to heed the warnings and the result was the
arrests."
Among the countless attractions, none was more popular than UT's X-ray demonstration.
Nashville newspapers were generous with space devoted to this mysterious and exciting exhibit.
Two weeks after the Exposition opened, one paper printed a lengthy article about the machine.
Professor McColl had just demonstrated the machine's use before the State Medical Society. At
that demonstration, X-rays were made of the hands of Governor Taylor and other prominent
citizens. "The machine [is] to be exhibited at the Exposition to show the application . . . in
surgery, its use in locating bullets and other metal objects in humans, show broken bones, etc.,"
the newspaper explained.
On June 6, the Nashville Sun ran a front-page article with photographs showing X-rays of
the hand, foot, and arm, and urging readers to "visit the northwest corner of the Hygiene and
Education Building . . . where the University of Tennessee of Knoxville has three X-ray machines
on exhibition."
In a generous mood, the newspaper declared that Professors Perkins and McColl were so
efficient in demonstrating the machine that "what they don't know about them, Roentgen himself
never found out!"
As head of the UT School of Physics and Electrical Engineering, Perkins had introduced
his students to the mysteries of Roentgen's discovery. The college catalog of 1897 lists among
studies in his school, "Photography by Rontgen [sic] rays," and a graduate student in engineering,
Arthur B. Reynders of Shelby County, was in "immediate charge" of the demonstrations at the
Exposition. "The only purpose of the University is to show the application in surgery, and a small
charge is made for the pictures to defray expense of operating the machine," the paper said.
On October 26, as the Exposition neared a close, award winners were announced. UT was
among the winners, receiving "A Diploma of Honor with Gold Medal" in the hygiene category.
The citation read: "University of Tennessee, general exhibit: For exhibits in the various
departments showing admirable methods of instruction and inventive genius on the part of
professors and technical skill acquired by students. A gold medal was also recommended to this
same exhibit by the Committee on Education, but under the rule only one gold medal can be
awarded to one exhibit."
The Exposition closed on October 30 with a parade and numerous speeches. One speaker
estimated that Tennessee's population would be 15 millions in 100 years--a slight overestimation.
Attendance for the six-month birthday party totaled 1,676,000.
Neal O'Steen is a regular contributor to (and former editor of) the Tennessee Alumnus. He
lives in Knoxville.
Read more about UT history from 1794-1844,
1844-1894,
1894-1944, and 1944 to the present
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