Investigate · Paris 1889

Louis-Emile Durandelle, The Eiffel Tower - State of the Construction, 1888

2 clues in this photo

1No work camp

A bare field under the tower

Durandelle's photo of 23 November 1888 shows the ground under the rising tower as a bare, levelled field. No ground cranes or large stockpiles of iron are visible around the piers.

The questionWhere were the material yard and workforce for a tower of this size?

2Repeated motif

The Trocadéro already standing through the arch

Framed in the tower's arch, the finished Trocadéro palace from 1878 stands across the river with its two towers.

The questionHow many of these 'temporary' fair palaces were left standing for the next fair, and what was there before 1878?

Photo: Louis-Emile Durandelle · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Paris 1889 Case file

Same kind of clue, elsewhere

#3No work camp · Philadelphia 1876A 'construction' photo of a finished hallIf this is 'construction,' why is the building already finished and only the displays going in?

No work camp · London 1851A finished interior, statues still shroudedIs this a building being completed, or an existing hall being dressed for opening?

Repeated motif · Philadelphia 1876Medallions and arcades repeated down the naveWere these ornaments cast for 1876, or are they a standard pattern found in other halls of the era?

No work camp · Chicago 1893No cranes, no campWhere did the thousands of workers live and where were the materials staged for about 200 buildings?

Repeated motif · Chicago 1893Erechtheion-style caryatid porchesWhy does the same classical vocabulary turn up fair after fair, city after city?

Repeated motif · Nashville 1897Greece and Egypt on one groundWhy do Greek and Egyptian forms keep turning up together at these fairs?

All clues others missed →