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Clermont-Ferrand Exposition du Centre de la France, 1910

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Clermont-Ferrand Exposition du Centre de la France, 1910

The Exposition du Centre de la France, also known as the Exposition de Clermont-Ferrand, ran from late spring to the end of September 1910. Its promoters described it as Clermont’s turn in the annual cycle of French cities mounting a large fair, and Gil Blas called it an “exposition internationale,” though in practice it was regional and national in scope. The grounds spanned three zones: the main palais of industries diverses, beaux-arts, and agriculture at Place Gambetta, with formal gardens; a reconstructed “Vieille-Auvergne” village off the rue de la Vieille-Auvergne; and the Jardin Lecoq, which held the paying attractions and the evening illuminations. It opened daily from 9 a.m., at 1 franc by day and 50 centimes in the evening, with season passes; a “Festival permanent de musique” rotated regional bands and the Casino ran the Cinéma Pathé. Attendance topped 10,000 on Sunday 12 June. President of France Fallières toured the fair, Royat, and the Hôtel-Dieu on July 3rd, and spoke at a municipal banquet of 300.

The Jardin Lecoq attractions are the best-documented and most historically fraught part of the fair. Its centerpiece was a “Village Noir,” a human zoo of roughly eighty men, women, and children billed as Senegalese and Sudanese, who embarked at Dakar on 21 May aboard the Formosa and performed staged dances (fétiches, sabre, lion, Sudanese wrestling) through the summer; it outlasted the main fair, closing around October 19. In the same amusement cluster stood a “Pavillon des couveuses d’enfants,” an Alexandre Lion infant-incubator concession advertising living babies, documented by contemporary postcards but unmentioned in the press accounts, which is consistent with the pattern of Lion’s later exhibits being treated as routine fixtures. A folklore competition of bourrées, vielles, musettes, and cornemuses was held on 28 August under the “section des industries rurales.” One durable legacy emerged: the Musée régional assembled by the Veillée d’Auvergne, singled out by Fallières, was preserved on mayor Fabre’s initiative and rehoused as a permanent folklore museum.

Source: Author’s collection.
Source: Author’s collection.

The online documentation of the 1910 Clermont-Ferrand Exposition is thin, with no official guide, catalog, or rapport found in the usual archives. What survives online is scattered stories in the 1910 national and regional press, a run of commercial postcards which can be found on the usual auction sites, and recent journalism. La bibliiotheque numérique du patrimoine of the Clermont-Auvergne Metropole has the Catalog Officiel and a number of photographs in its holdings for consultation on-site.

Press Sources

  • Le Courrier du Puy-de-Dôme, 19 May 1910. Village Noir: eighty “indigènes,” embarkation at Dakar 21 May aboard the Formosa. Caveat: paper’s own ethnonyms are “sénégalaises et soudanaises.”
  • La Démocratie cantalienne, 8 June 1910. Postponement of the presidential visit pending the Pluviôse funerals.
  • La Croix d’Auvergne, 19 June 1910. Attendance over 10,000 on 12 June; hours and admission prices.
  • Gil Blas, 28 June 1910, “Le Gil Blas visite l’Exposition de Clermont-Ferrand,” L. Begon. Framing and exhibitor coverage. Caveat: marked “à suivre”; the promised continuation naming further exhibitors has not been located.
  • Le Mémorial de la Loire et de la Haute-Loire, 30 June 1910. Presidential programme for 2 and 3 July.
  • Le Figaro, 4 July 1910. Vigé’s prior expositions; exhibitor notes.
  • Le Courrier du Puy-de-Dôme, 10 July 1910. Village Noir programme; attractions roundup (which omits the couveuses).
  • Le Courrier du Puy-de-Dôme, 24 July 1910; Journal du Cher, 28 July 1910. Announcement of the 28 August folklore concours.
  • Le Voltaire, 4 September 1910, “Bourrées auvergnates,” Chassaigne de Neronde. Review of the concours; jury including Léon Melchissédec. Caveat: largely an ethnographic essay rather than fair reportage.
  • L’Auvergnat de Paris, 17 September 1910. Preservation of the Musée régional on Fabre’s initiative; Musée d’Arles comparison.
  • Le Mémorial de la Loire, 28 September 1910. Award to André Arlin (photogravure, Lyon).
  • L’Écho de Paris, 30 September 1910; reprinted as Le Réveil, 1 October 1910 (L.B.). Near-closing notice; awards to Salmson, Thouvenin, Ruggieri. Caveat: Le Réveil is a reprint of the Écho de Paris text, not independent testimony.
  • La Démocratie cantalienne, 1 October 1910 (fair “vient de prendre fin”; sapeurs-pompiers awards) and 12 October 1910 (awards to Landes et Vaurs, Barreau et Girad).
  • L’Émancipateur, 2 October 1910. Award to La Capitalisation.

Online Sources

  • Groupe de recherche Achac, “L’Exposition de Clermont-Ferrand 1910,” achac.com. Relays Le Moniteur du Puy-de-Dôme, 19 October 1910 (“sans tambour ni trompettes”) and Pierre Belin’s “La Ballade des Nègres.”
  • France 3 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, “‘Village Noir’ au jardin Lecoq…”, 28 November 2025, france3-regions.franceinfo.fr. Cites AD Puy-de-Dôme 10 Fi 3628 and the Village Noir tracts; tied to the Histoires Crépues festival “Auvergne (Dé)coloniale”
  • Ville de Clermont-Ferrand, “Historique” (Jardin Lecoq). Records the “Bonne Auberge” built at the Jardin Lecoq for the 1910 fair and later demolished.

Offline Sources

  • Archives départementales du Puy-de-Dôme, Clermont-Ferrand (Croix-de-Neyrat). Iconographic “10 Fi” series (including 10 Fi 3628); ciné-photographique database (roughly 100,000 images); Village Noir advertising tracts; probable administrative file on the exposition. Finding aids at archivesdepartementales.puy-de-dome.fr.
  • Bibliothèque du Patrimoine de Clermont Auvergne Métropole. Auvergne dépôt légal, affiches, cartes postales, and any surviving guide, programme, or rapport; digital library Overnia. Closed since 1 August 2025 for relocation, reopening autumn 2026 at the Bibliothèque Métropolitaine, Hôtel-Dieu. Remote reference and reproduction via SARA (bibliotheque.patrimoine@clermontmetropole.eu).
  • Archives municipales de Clermont-Ferrand. Conseil municipal deliberations and municipal administration of the fair under mayor Fabre.
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Last Updated on 09/17/26