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Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900

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Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900

The Exposition Universelle of 1900 was held in Paris, France from April 14 until November 10, 1900, and celebrated the achievements of the last century in an Art Nouveau style. Over 50,000,000 people attended this worlds fair, which had some 76,000 exhibitors and spanned 1.2 square kilometres. Buildings that survive from the 1900 Exposition include 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 Eiffel Tower, which many people associate with the 1900 Exposition, was actually constructed for the 1889 Exposition that celebrated the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution.

Dr. Alexandre Lion operated a rather sizeable exhibit of incubators and premature newborns at the Exposition, using the equipment and techniques he developed for his “Baby Incubator Charity” at 26, Boulevard Poissonière, Paris. His combination souvenir/entry ticket postcards are ubiquitous on eBay, so a great many of them must have been distributed at the time.

The souvenir card indicates that Lion had incubators (or some kind of presence) at four locations within the Exposition, as well as his well-known permanent location at 26, Boulevard Poissonnière. But I have not found any snapshots of any of the Exposition incubators up until now, and the pictures on the souvenir postcard may just be stock photos he uses for all his postcards.

In addition to Lion’s exhibit, there was an incubator exhibit at the Exposition from the Maternité Sainte-Anne Bruxelles (Maternity Hospital of Saint Anne in Brussels) adjacent to the Eiffel Tower. The incubators are rather odd and quite unique, I have not seen that design anywhere else, and more likely derived from the Tarner/Auvard/Budin design than the Lion design. The ticket also appears to be associated with this exhibit. The postcards below can be found on ebay.fr.

Page 66 of the “Official General Catalog” of the exposition has the following description:

Which Google translate renders as: “Worth noting is the exhibition of the Sainte-Anne Maternity Hospital, which displays—within a charming pavilion—infant incubators and the medical equipment used in this institution, which performs such invaluable work.”

Interestingly, in later years, Martin Couney claimed to have exhibited at the Paris Exposition (for example, see A Patron of the Premies, by A. J. Liebling, The New Yorker, 1939). It appears, however, that this was just more of the “alternate facts” in Couney’s self-created legend. We have found no evidence that Couney was actually an exhibitor at the Paris Exposition.

A map of the exposition is shown below.

Last Updated on 04/20/26