You may or may not know this about me but I have a "thing" for the 1904 World's Fair :)
The grandeur, the beauty, the excitement, the innovation, it all intrigues me.
I have started a little collection of things from the 1904 World's Fair but it is really small.
Items from the World's Fair are not only really hard to come by, they are also a bit on the pricey side.
My grandpa's best friend, Ruthie, who passed away when I was a child, actually attended the 1904 World's Fair and my dad inherited a few souvenirs of hers, including the "Official Guidebook to the 1904 World's Fair." I have read through this book and a few others and became more and more mesmerized.
After all of my reading and researching, I knew that there was ONE thing that I HAD to have in my collection. This would have been the item I would have purchased had I been present at the fair.
The 1904 World's Fair in a Nutshell.
Seriously, it's this tiny nutshell filled with photos from the fair in a little fold out. There are about 50 tiny photos printed into this foldout inside of a nutshell. The nutshell is then tied closed with a delicate red, white and blue ribbon. I had been searching online, antique malls, collectors, everywhere and I simply couldn't find one anywhere :(
Until a few weeks ago...
My mom and I were visiting the antique mall where we have a case. We had browsed the mall and I was ready to leave. My mom asked me if I wanted to look at a case that I usually checked every time (it is filled with World's Fair souvenirs) and I said no. She said she was going to look anyway so I followed her.
I literally screamed, like my mom thought maybe I was having a heart attack and rushed to see if I was ok.
There it was, the little teeny tiny nutshell.
106 years old, in it's original box, waiting to make my day.
Here it is :)
so yeah, I'm really excited about it :)
Why don't they make cool souveniers like this anymore?
Do you have any random collections?
xo
janel
