Manufacturers in Miniature: The Booths of the PPIE
The PPIE had 80,000 exhibition booths spread over 3,731,500 square feet—the equivalent of 85 acres or 64 football fields. In order to stand out amongst the other exhibitors, industries and trades had to be creative with their booth design. While striving to catch the eyes of fairgoers, exhibitors were required to erect booths that conformed to exposition-defined standards. These standards included prescribed heights for display cases, tabletops, cornices, and railings, among others. Even signage had to be “moderate in size and of neat design.” Behavior within the confines of each respective booth was also regulated—eating was off limits, promotional materials like brochures had to be approved by the chief of that exhibition department, and goods could only be ordered and not directly sold from each booth. The drawings displayed on this page would have either been located in the Palace of Manufacturers which housed goods deemed “more refined” or the Palace of Varied Industries.