The Lewis and Clark Exposition, 1905

The Lewis and Clark Exposition was hosted by the city of Portland from June 1 to October 15, 1905 in fairgrounds on the northwest edge of town. Covering over 400 acres, the fair showcased exhibits from various nations and states, and it promoted the economic potential of the Pacific Northwest region. The exposition had 1,588,000 paying visitors, of which more than 400,000 were from outside the Pacific Northwest. Portland had a population of only 120,000 at that time.

“The formal layout imitated the “White City” of Chicago’s magnificent Columbian Exposition of 1893. The majority of the exhibition buildings overlooked the lake from the ridge where the Montgomery Ward (now Montgomery Park) building would later stand. A wide staircase led downslope to the lake, the amusements, and the U.S. government buildings on a peninsula in the middle of the lake. The buildings (which were cheaply made from lath and plaster and intended for quick demolition) were in the “Spanish Renaissance” style with domes, cupolas, arched doorways, and red roofs. The federal building looked like a cross between a railroad depot and a Mexican cathedral.” — Source: Oregon History Project

“The Trail” was an 800 foot-long street that featured amusements and carnival attractions, and included one of Martin Couney’s incubator baby exhibits. Not much is known about his exhibit here. In the following 10 years, he seems to have focused on his business of permanent exhibits at amusement parks, including Denver, Atlantic City, Chicago, Coney Island, and Minneapolis, although there may have been others. His next known exhibit at a Worlds Fair was at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915l

Below, a map and birds-eye view of the exposition.

• Lewis and Clark Exposition in the Oregon Encyclopedia
• Lewis and Clark Exposition in The Oregonian
• Lewis and Clark: From Expedition to Exposition in the Oregon History Project

Martin Arthur Couney

• Short biography of Martin Couney
• Martin Couney, Wikipedia
• Martin Couney’s Obituary, from The New York Times, March 2, 1950.

Martin Couney Exhibits in World’s Fairs and National Expositions

• Victorian Era Exhibition at Earl’s Court, 1897
• Trans-Mississippi Exposition, Omaha, 1898
• Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, 1901
• Lewis and Clark Exposition, Portland, 1905
• Panama-Pacific International Exposition San Francisco, 1915
• Century of Progress International Exposition, Chicago, 1933-34
• New York World’s Fair, New York, 1939-1940

Martin Couney Sideshows in Amusement Parks

• Coney Island Sideshow at Luna Park
• Coney Island Sideshow at Dreamland
• Lakeside Amusement Park, Denver.
• Luna Park, Pittsburgh
• Wonderland – Minneapolis and St. Paul
• Wonderland – Revere Beach
• Boardwalk – Atlantic City
• White City Amusement Park – Chicago
• White City Amusement Park, Indianapolis, Indiana
• White City Amusement Park, Cleveland, Ohio

Recent Books

• The Strange Case of Dr. Couney, by Dawn Raffel, Blue Rider Press, ISBN 0399175741
• Miracle at Coney Island, by Claire Prentice (Kindle or audiobook)

General Articles

General articles about Martin Couney and his exhibits are linked below. Additional links may be found in specific posts about his participation in expositions or sideshows.

Keep in mind that many of these were written before the full facts about Martin Couney’s background became known, or have not incorporated that new information, so they include information from his self-invented background legend.

• Incubator Baby Sideshows, by William Silverman, from Pediatrics.
• Postscript to Incubator-Baby Sideshows, by William. Silverman, from Pediatrics
• Martin Couney’s Story Revisited, by William Silverman, from Pediatrics
• Martin Couney’s Obituary, from The New York Times, March 2, 1950.
• A Patron of the Premies, by A. J. Liebling, from The New Yorker
• The Coney Island Baby Laboratory, by Gary R. Brown, from American Heritage Invention and Technology Magazine
• American Characters: Martin Couney, by Richard Snow, from American Heritage Magazine
• The Man Who Ran a Carnival Attraction… by Claire Prentice, from Smithsonian Magazine
• Life under Glass, audio documentary by Claire Prentice, from the BBC
• Martin Couney and Incubator Exhibits from 1896 to 1943, from the Embryo Project
• The Incubator Baby and Niagara Falls, by Arthur Brisbane, from The Cosmopolitan
• Babies on Display, from NPR
• Beginner’s Luck, from Family Circle Magazine 1993
• Coney Island’s Incubator Babies, by Rebecca Rego Barry, from JSTOR Daily
• The Infantorium, by Katie Shornton, from 99% Invisible
• How One Man Saved a Generation of Premature Babies, from BBC News
• Baby Incubators: From Boardwalk Sideshow to Medical Marvel, by Erin Blackmore, from History.Com
• Babies in Sideshows, by Julie Andreson, from Engines of our Ingenuity
• Dr. Martin Couney, from Coney Island History Project
• “The Use of Incubators for Infants,” The Lancet, May 29, 1897.
• “The Victorian Era Exhibition at Earl’s Court,” The Lancet, July 17, 1897.
• Incubator Baby Shows: A Medical and Social Frontier, by Hannah Lieberman, from The History Teacher 35.1, November, 2001.
• The Child Hatchery, from City Pages.

Last Updated on 02/05/23