Louisiana Worlds Fair
The Louisiana World Fair was held in New Orleans in 1984 – on the one-hundredth anniversary of the previous one held there in 1884, the World Cotton Centenial. I remember the Fair in 1984. My parents had tickets for the entire six months for them and my two sons, which were expensive. The four of them went many times without me – I didn’t have the money for tickets. On the last day of the Fair, though, they bought me a ticket. There were many interesting things, like an oil rig platform with an acquarium underneath that you walked through with fish from the Gulf of Mexico. Also of interest to me was the space shuttle. I was surprised at the immense size of it.
Most World Fairs cost the host city and country a tremendous amount of money with no financial return from it. However, this one was beneficial over the long term for the city, for New Orleans. The site of the Fair was along the Mississippi River, upriver next to the central business distinct. There were old, vacant docks and warehouses from when the city was a major port for trade with South America, in particular for fruit and vegatables. The city acquired and tore down these old warehouses on the waterfront, improved the roads accessing it, and built the Fair there. Afterwards, they used the cleared site to build a convention center, which greatly improved the revenues of the city for convention business – making it the top destination, along with Las Vegas, for hosting conventions. Additionally, with the cleaned up waterfront, the small warehouses on the streets near the waterfront were converted into hotels and condominiums. It’s now an expensive neighborhood for professionals, generally without children. Forty years later, the city is still prospering from that World Fair.
Note
The next sub-album, that I call King Days, is related to a shift in American attitudes in which the diversity of America is appreciated and shown in its commemorative stamps. The stamp on the second row of Roberto Clemente, a Puerto Rican baseball player, and the stamp at the end of the third row celebrating Hispanic Americans, are examples of this. These two are signs of the coming of inclusivity – and Martin Luther King day. There is a small portion of America that is trying to make America racially and nationally exclusive, but those days are gone. They’re wasting their time and making everyone miserable – including themselves. The U.S. is an inclusive, diverse, and global nation. Pretending and trying to undo that is impossible and doomed to fail.
Contains 13 spots: own 13 – 13 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed May 9, 2025
Stamp Details
The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.
spot |
own |
catalog |
subject |
description |
comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
✓ |
2087 |
20c (may 1984) |
|||
✓ |
2105 |
20c (oct 1984) |
|||
✓ |
2092 |
20c (jul 1984) |
|||
✓ |
2097 |
20c (aug 1984) |
Ad Council & Other Programs
✓ |
2096 |
20c (aug 1984) |
|||
✓ |
2102 |
20c (sep 1984) |
|||
✓ |
2106 |
Nation of Readers |
20c (oct 1984) |
Other
✓ |
2086 |
20c (may 1984) |
|||
✓ |
2109 |
20c (nov 1984) |
|||
✓ |
2103 |
20c (oct 1984) |
Christmas & Holidays
✓ |
2108 |
20c (oct 1984) |
|||
✓ |
2072 |
20c (jan 1984) |
|||
✓ |
2107 |
Madonna & Child |
20c (oct 1984) |
Footnotes
Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.
