Eager fairgoers gathered at Brookings Hall on Dedication Day of the 1904 St. Louis World�s Fair, which celebrated the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase. Exhibits from America and fifty countries from around the world occupied 1,200 acres of the city. Whether you fancied contortionists turning bodies into pretzels or a reenactment of the Boer War, the fair transformed St. Louis into a captivating slice of the world.