A Cyclorama of Washington State
Secretary of State I. M. Howell reveals plans for a high-tech state exhibit at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.
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Secretary of State I. M. Howell recently returned from California, where he outlined plans for Washington’s display at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. The state will feature a cycloramic relief map showing every aspect of Washington: its mountains, forests, sage-brush, wheat fields, and bustling cities. The display will include automatically moving trains and automobiles to demonstrate the state's progress and infrastructure. Through lectures and the distribution of literature, the state hopes to convince visitors of its fitness for home-making and business, specifically aiming to turn the tide of travel northward into Washington.
“Let the eye see and the brain must comprehend and the heart yearn for.”
This promotional push for the 1915 Exposition highlights the early 20th-century obsession with selling the 'frontier' as a modern, accessible, and industrialized landscape. It marks a pivotal moment in the state's branding, which shifted from wild territory to organized, productive statehood.
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