The Exposition Universelle of 1900 was a world's fair held in Paris, France, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate development into the next. The style that was universally present in the Exposition was Art Nouveau.

http://www.nga.gov/feature/nouveau/exhibit_fair.shtm

The World's Fair (Exposition Universelle) held in Paris in 1900 announced Art Nouveau as a significant new style in architecture and design. Visited by fifty-one million people, the fair included Art Nouveau architecture, furniture, jewelry, ceramics, posters, glass, textiles, and metalwork. While some pavilions were state sponsored, others were private. The greatest achievements of the new style were shown in the pavilion organized by Siegfried Bing, the art dealer and entrepreneur who in 1895 opened a shop and art gallery in Paris called L'Art Nouveau, which gave the movement its name. In his pavilion, visitors could see interiors by Georges de Feure, Eugène Gaillard, and Édouard Colonna, in which the furniture, fabrics, and decoration were all part of a "total work of art" unified by the same design. A pavilion designed by French architect Henri Sauvage housed the performances of the American dancer Loïe Fuller, whose wild dance with veils, in which she transformed herself into a flower, inspired many Art Nouveau artists. Jewelry by René Lalique was also exhibited at the fair. His famous dragonfly woman brooch, the most talked-about creation in his display, demonstrates the French jeweler's fascination with the world of nature and the theme of metamorphosis.

Lalique was born in France in 1860. In 1885, having learned his craft in Paris and London, he set up a workshop in Paris. During his early artistic career he concentrated mainly on jewellery-making for his wealthy clients including the legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt. He went on to win numerous awards at international fairs.

Lalique was one of the most accomplished designers of the Art Nouveau movement. Using nature for his inspiration, he produced some of the most stunning jewellery designs of the period. His exquisite hair combs, buckles, pendants, brooches, necklaces and tiaras are fashioned from combinations of gold, enamel, horn, glass, and a stunning array of gemstones. 

Lalique opened a glass workshop in 1909, and from then on he concentrated mainly on the production of fine art glass. He died in 1945.

The exquisite dragonfly brooch pictured here is a wonderful example of Lalique's work. 

Details of the Exposition Universelle

Plan Pratique

Alexandre III bridge

The exhibition lasted from 15 April until 12 November 1900. More than 50 million people attended the exhibition (a world record at the time), it turned a profit for the French government of 7,000,000 Francs. The fair included more than 76,000 exhibitors and covered 1.12 square kilometres of Paris.

A number of Paris' most noted structures were built for the Exposition, including the Gare de Lyon, the Gare d'Orsay (now the Musée d'Orsay), the Pont Alexandre III, the Grand Palais, La Ruche, and the Petit Palais. The first line of the Paris Metro also began operation to coincide with the Exposition. Although completed in just 18 months, it was nevertheless slightly late, taking its first paying passengers to the Ancien Palais du Trocadéro site on 19 July 1900. The Salle des Machines ("Machines' Room") was later turned into an indoor cycling track, the Vélodrome d'hiver, which became infamous during Vichy France.

Part of the Exposition was the Second Olympic Games, which were spread over five months. The games also marked the first participation by female athletes and, in such sports as tennis, football (soccer), polo, rowing and tug of war, teams were multinational.

Achievements

The Exposition Universelle was where talking films and escalators were first publicized, and where Campbell's Soup was awarded a gold medal (an image of which still appears on its label). At the Exposition Rudolf Diesel exhibited his diesel engine, running on peanut oil. Brief films of excerpts from opera and ballet are apparently the first films exhibited publicly with projection of both image and recorded sound. The Exposition also featured many panoramic paintings and extensions of the panorama technique, such as the Cinéorama, Mareorama, and Trans-Siberian Railway Panorama.

The centrepiece of the Palais de l'Optique, was the 1.25 m (49.2 inch) diameter "Great Exposition Refractor". This telescope is the largest refracting telescope built. The optical tube assembly was 60 meters long and 1.5 meters in diameter and was fixed in place due to its mass. Light from the sky was sent into the tube by a movable 2-meter mirror.

Photos of the Hampton Institute by Frances Benjamin Johnston, which were displayed in the Exposé nègre to demonstrate Afro-Americans' positive contributions to American society.

The Paris Expo included a "Negro exposition" (Exposé nègre), during which photos by Frances Benjamin Johnston, a friend of Booker T. Washington, of his black students of the Hampton Institute were presented. Partly organized by Booker Washington and Edward Du Bois, this exhibition aimed at showing Afro-Americans' positive contributions to American society. Unfortunately, at a time when lynchings were peaking, a Human Zoo diorama was also present at the exposition, entitled 'Living in Madagascar'.

The Finnish Pavilion at the Exposition was designed by the architectural firm of Gesellius, Lindgren, and Saarinen. It was published in Dekorative Kunst 3 (1900): 457-63 and in L'Architecture á l'Exposition Universelle de 1900, p. 65, Pl. X. Paris: Libraries-Imprimeries Réunies, 1900.

A special committee, led by Gustave Eiffel, awarded a gold medal to Lavr Proskuryakov's project for the Yenisei Bridge in Krasnoyarsk.

Russian sparkling wine defeated all the French entries to claim the internationally coveted 'Grand Prix de Champagne'.