William Aiken Walker

Private Collection, Gloucester, United Kingdom

Acquired by descent from the above by the present owner

In 1884, the city of New Orleans held the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition - a World's Fair designed to celebrate the production of cotton in the United States. At the time of the Centennial, nearly one third of all cotton produced in the United States was handled in New Orleans, and the fair attracted more than one million visitors to the city in order to celebrate this achievement. While vendors displayed their product inside the exposition's main structure, artists and other tradesmen set up booths across the two hundred and forty-nine acre property to appeal to the crowds of tourists visiting the fair. William Aiken Walker sold painted bronze and copper plates, similar to the present work, as tourist commodities on the grounds of the Cotton Centennial that year.