7.2 St. Louis
127
stretched in the form of a wedge, starting around New Orleans in Louisiana
on the Caribbean Sea, stretching out to the width of about the current states
Montana and North Dakota and even a bit across the current Canadian border; the area comprised fourteen of today’s states or parts thereof. The amount
involved was 15 million $ (that is, between three and five hundred million
Euros or dollars today); the purchase roughly doubled the surface area of the
United States. The World Exhibition was finally held in 1904, under the name
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, popularly known as the Saint Louis World
Fair, after the city where the event took place. Formally, it was the fourteenth
World Exhibition, which lasted almost the entire year of 1904. The Summer Olympics of that year were also held there, although participation from
Europe was not very large due to the high cost of travel and accommodation;
for example, there was no participation from the Netherlands.
As part of the exhibition, congresses were also organized, the largest in the
week from September 19 to 24. The theme of this ‘International Congress
of Arts and Sciences’ was the advancement of mankind since the Louisiana
Purchase and covered all possible fields of science, technology and art. There
would be about one thousand participants. The group of organizers was chaired
by Simon Newcomb. On July 15, 1903, about a year before the event, he sent
a letter to Kapteyn, announcing that he would be officially invited to give
a lecture at the congress. Newcomb offered Kapteyn a sum of five hundred
dollars (now that would be just over eleven thousand e) to cover his expenses,
and remarked that he would not have to spend all of it if he came by himself.
Enchanted as he apparently was by Mrs. Kapteyn since his visit to Groningen
and Vries, he suggested that she could come along, although she would have
to carry her own expenses.
Traveling was a costly affair at those times, partly because it was time consuming and there were a lot of overnight stays and meals to pay for. After some
hesitation, Kapteyn accepted the offer and announced that if he could afford
it, he would bring his wife along. Newcomb invited them to visit him and his
wife in Washington, which the Kapteyns indeed did on the way back from the
Congress.
During the Congress, which was held on the Washington University campus
in St. Louis, and for which the facilities were barely sufficient, three astronomy
sessions were held at the Astronomy and Earth Science Symposium, each with
two lectures (see Fig. 7.4). The most important American astronomers were
present and gave a lecture or chaired a session. Jöns Oskar Backlund (1846–
1916), director of the Pulkovo Observatorium near St. Petersburg, and Herbert Hall Turner (1868–1938) from Oxford also gave lectures. Important for
the further course of Kapteyn’s career were Edward Charles Pickering (1846–
1919), director of the leading Harvard College Observatory near Boston, and
127
stretched in the form of a wedge, starting around New Orleans in Louisiana
on the Caribbean Sea, stretching out to the width of about the current states
Montana and North Dakota and even a bit across the current Canadian border; the area comprised fourteen of today’s states or parts thereof. The amount
involved was 15 million $ (that is, between three and five hundred million
Euros or dollars today); the purchase roughly doubled the surface area of the
United States. The World Exhibition was finally held in 1904, under the name
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, popularly known as the Saint Louis World
Fair, after the city where the event took place. Formally, it was the fourteenth
World Exhibition, which lasted almost the entire year of 1904. The Summer Olympics of that year were also held there, although participation from
Europe was not very large due to the high cost of travel and accommodation;
for example, there was no participation from the Netherlands.
As part of the exhibition, congresses were also organized, the largest in the
week from September 19 to 24. The theme of this ‘International Congress
of Arts and Sciences’ was the advancement of mankind since the Louisiana
Purchase and covered all possible fields of science, technology and art. There
would be about one thousand participants. The group of organizers was chaired
by Simon Newcomb. On July 15, 1903, about a year before the event, he sent
a letter to Kapteyn, announcing that he would be officially invited to give
a lecture at the congress. Newcomb offered Kapteyn a sum of five hundred
dollars (now that would be just over eleven thousand e) to cover his expenses,
and remarked that he would not have to spend all of it if he came by himself.
Enchanted as he apparently was by Mrs. Kapteyn since his visit to Groningen
and Vries, he suggested that she could come along, although she would have
to carry her own expenses.
Traveling was a costly affair at those times, partly because it was time consuming and there were a lot of overnight stays and meals to pay for. After some
hesitation, Kapteyn accepted the offer and announced that if he could afford
it, he would bring his wife along. Newcomb invited them to visit him and his
wife in Washington, which the Kapteyns indeed did on the way back from the
Congress.
During the Congress, which was held on the Washington University campus
in St. Louis, and for which the facilities were barely sufficient, three astronomy
sessions were held at the Astronomy and Earth Science Symposium, each with
two lectures (see Fig. 7.4). The most important American astronomers were
present and gave a lecture or chaired a session. Jöns Oskar Backlund (1846–
1916), director of the Pulkovo Observatorium near St. Petersburg, and Herbert Hall Turner (1868–1938) from Oxford also gave lectures. Important for
the further course of Kapteyn’s career were Edward Charles Pickering (1846–
1919), director of the leading Harvard College Observatory near Boston, and