Turn-of-the-Century Midwestern Corn Festivals: Kiosks and Crop Art as American Icons

Abstract

Turn-of-the-Centtlry Midwestern Corn Festivals: Kiosks and Crop Art as American Icons Pamela H. Simpson I n r899, corn fairs, carnivals and festivals seemed to be proliferating everywhere in the Midwest. Anyone who made a trip through Iowa, Nebraska or Kansas, said a Harper's Weekly contributor, would find "every other town preparing for a corn celebration." At one such festival, he heard an orator proclaim, "from the beginning of Indiana to the end of Nebraska, there is nothing but corn, cattle and contentment."' A bumper crop that year gave farm communities reason to celebrate, and they did it by creating street kiosks decorated with corn, parade floats covered with grains and grasses, and costumes made of cornhusks. As many festivals as there were in r899, it was not the first time for such celebrations, or the last. Atchison, Kansas, had been holding corn carnivals since r895 when E.W. Howe, the founder of local newspaper The Atchison Globe, first suggested it as a project to promote the city. "Why couldn't Atchison have a Corn Carnival?" he asked, ''A dozen things could be done to amuse visitors during the day, and at night we could have a carnival on the streets, and blow horns and wear masquerade costumes, and rejoice like the Indians do over a big corn crop.... VVho will jump in and work it up?"2 Apparently, with Howe's leadership, a great many people were willing to "jump in and work it up." Atchison held seven corn carnivals between r895 and 1912.3 Often multi-day events, the celebrations attracted huge crowds, many arriving on special excursion trains to see the parades, bands, baseball games, vaudeville performances, fireworks , and balloon ascents. The r899 event, for example, drew a crowd of 25,ooo to see the fourteen bands and nearly one thousand entries in the parade (fig. r). Atchison merchants filled their store windows with displays of corn art and the Fig. r. Atchison Corn Carnival Parade, r899. (Atchison County Historical Society) ARRIS I PAMELA H. SIMPSON Fig. 2. Window Display by Atchison merchant. Miniature house made ofcorn stalks and popped corn. Atchison Corn Carnival, r895. (Atchison County Historical Society) Fig. 3· Corn Fort sponsored by the Missouri Pacific Railroad, Atchison Corn Carnival, 1902. (Atchison County Historical Society) regional railroad companies sponsored corn buildings and colossal corn statues (figs. 2 and 3). Built of corn husks, cobs and kernels, King Corn loomed over the street (fig. 4).4 Newspapers from all over the Midwest and as far away as London carried stories on the Atchison festival.5 Mrs. William Allen White wrote in the Emporia, Kansas, Gazette that "The love, the passion, the unselfishness, the fervor which the people of Oberammergau put into their Passion Play, the people ofAtchison put into their Corn Carnival."6 Atchison's corn carnival soon became a model for other Kansas towns, and in r899 dozens of similar festivals were being celebrated.l In Abilene, leaders of the Commercial Club decided to organize a carnival and sent Mrs. Hornaday, chair of the decorating committee, to Atchison to bring home ideas.8 The local newspaper mentioned corn costumes, corn dolls, parade floats and music as among the features being considered .9 Abilene held its first corn carnival in October, r899. More than ro,ooo visitors came. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad shipped its giant Corn King statue to the city and all the businesses decorated. An elected Corn Qyeen was enthroned at the town's main intersection . Prizes were awarded for best costumes, floats and corn product displays (fig. s). Belleville, Kansas, also adopted the fad. The local newspaper asked in August r899, ''Atchison has for the last few years had a corn carnival, but their corn crop doesn't equal Republic County'sso if they can have a successful corn carnival, Why not we?"ro And they did with a parade, dinner, concert, baby show, cakewalk, drill teams, races and baseball games. Republic County continued to hold yearly carnivals through 1904. ElDorado in Butler County, Kansas, started a variation of the festival in r9rr, with a "Kafir Corn Carnival." A type of sorghum, Kafir corn had been introduced...