Cotton States and International Exposition (1895)
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The 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition was held at the current Piedmont Park in Atlanta, Georgia. It is most remembered for the Atlanta Compromise speech given by Booker T. Washington on September 18, 1895.
The exposition was designed to promote the region to the world and showcase products and new technologies as well as to encourage trade with Latin America. The Cotton States and International Exposition featured exhibits from several states including various innovations in agriculture and technology. President Grover Cleveland presided over the opening of the exposition.
In late September Charles Francis Jenkins demonstrated an early movie projector called the Phantascope.
The great American band master John Phillip Sousa composed his famous march, King Cotton for the exposition, and dedicated it to the people of the state of Georgia.
Nearly 800,000 visitors attended the event in the fall of 1895. After the exposition, the grounds were purchased by the City of Atlanta and became Piedmont Park, which was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed New York’s Central Park.
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| Atlanta history 1861 Atlanta in the Civil War | 1864 Atlanta Campaign | 1868 Georgia State Capitol moved | 1881 International Cotton Exposition | 1888 Coca-Cola invented | 1890 Grady Memorial Hospital opens | 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition | 1915 Leo Frank lynching | 1926 Candler Field opens | 1935 Techwood Homes opens | 1946 CDC opens | 1960s American civil rights movement | 1979 MARTA opens | 1980 Hartsfield Airport opens | 1988 Democratic National Convention | 1989 Underground Atlanta reopens | 1994 Super Bowl XXVIII | 1996 Centennial Olympics | 2000 Super Bowl XXXIV |
