Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/551

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FAIRS AND EXHIBITIONS.
531

which probably became a dead letter at the fall of the imperial régime.

Among the state fairs of a limited character, I find mention of those held in Toluca, 1851-2, 1870-1; Aguascalientes, 1851, 1852, 1856, 1857, and 1871; Zacatecas, 1853; Yucatan, 1865, at which Carlota, Maximilian's wife, was present. Puebla in 1857 decreed that an annual exhibition of the natural and industrial products of the state should be held at her capital.[1]

Busto in 1880 gives an account in detail of the exhibitions held at Mexico in 1875, at Mérida, Yucatan, in 1879, and at Puebla in 1880. Mexico has been invited to take part in the several world's exhibitions, but she did so only at those held in Paris in 1855, and in Philadelphia in 1876,[2] at both of which she was quite respectably represented by her natural and industrial products, etc. At the Paris fair she had 107 exhibitors, among whom were awarded four medals of first class, eight of the second, and seven honorable mentions. There were, besides, awarded one gold, four silver, and three bronze medals to the members of the Mexican commission.[3] At Philadelphia the result could hardly have been more satisfactory, for there were 73 diplomas and 47 medals awarded to the Mexican exhibitors, besides an extraordinary diploma to the Mexican government. Among the awards were 15 for objects coming within the nomenclature of manufactures.[4] The republic has likewise been creditably represented at the exhibitions held at Saint Louis and Chicago, in the United States, in 1879–80.

  1. Expos., in Juicio de las Expos., no. 7, 26, 44-5; El Univers, Nov. 5, 1850; Oct. 15, 1852; Mex., Diario Ofic. Aug. 5, 1870; Feb. 8, May 18, 1871; Gonzalez, Hist. Est. Aguascal., 194; El Español, Feb. 21, 1852; El Pensamiento, May 7, 1856; Diario de Avisos, Dec. 11, 1856; El Eco Nac., May 12, 1857; El Diario del Imp., Jan. 26, 1866; El Estandarte Nac., Sept. 14, 1857.
  2. She was prevented from sharing in the London exhibition of 1851 by the cholera epidemic; and in the second of the same city and others, by war. Mex., Mem. Coloniz., etc., 28-30; Archivo Mex., Col. Leyes, vi. 310-11.
  3. Escandon, La Industria, etc., 230-2; Rep. Mex. Catal. des Produites, in Juicio de las Excpos., no. 10, 1-54; Silíceo, Mem. Fomento, etc., 113, and annex lvi. 81-110.
  4. Rive Palacio, Mem. Fomento, 1877, 531, 535-6; Anales Min. Fomento, 1877, Feb., i. 207-8; Busto, Estadíst, Rep. Mex., i. 31 pt 11.