1881 marked the ninth Cincinnati Exposition since the first post-civil war event in 1870. Eight years after the first event, in 1878, a new building complex was completed where both the May Festival and the Exposition could be held, hence the complex’s name: the Cincinnati Music Hall and Exposition Buildings.
At the 1881 event, attendance after ten days totaled just over 60,000 visitors, while the 1880 fair totaled over 80,000 after ten days. A heatwave was cited as the principle reason attendance slowed. To help muster attendance, one day the expo celebrated Mexican Veteran Day, to honor those that fought against Mexico, while another day was christened Sailor and Soldier Day.
For those veterans and their families visiting in 1881 there was plenty to see. A September 15, 1881, article in the Cincinnati Daily Gazette explained at length what awaited visitors. The Floral arrangements were particularly good and charming that year. The industrial applications in the science wing proved impressive, with phones, switchboards, magnets, burglar alarms, call bells, and much more. A new calculating machine was something to behold. There was, of course, plenty to see in the Art Department, though there is no evidence Farny entered any of his works that year.
In fact, it seems the one thing the Expo lacked was a guide to help visitors know what they might see. Henry Farny, too, saw that visitors needed some kind of guide, so he drew his own guide, The Cincinnati Exposition Sketchbook. For 25ยข, visitors could buy a 38-page booklet to aide their experience, with the Exposition’s approval for the sale of them.
The booklet is full of Farny’s illustrations, accompanied by text written by someone with the pseudonym of “Clara De Vere”. Readers of the Cincinnati Daily Gazette were told that the Nom-de-Plum should be familiar to them, but I had no luck locating that name in any other reports. So, the writer remains a mystery.
The newspapers of the day suggest that Farny was the driving force behind it, though he doesn’t list himself as the illustrator anywhere in the book, nor does he give himself credit for the illustrations.
You can view the complete guide at the Cincinnati Public Library. The Cincinnati Library Museum also has a copy of it within the Henry Farny Archives.
Here is the cover page along with a sampling of pages:
If the newspaper reviews are accurate, the Sketchbook was a big hit. It was so popular, that in 1882 the Exposition put out its own guide.
