American Exhibition

The American Exhibition was a world's fair[1] held at Earls Court in West Brompton,[2] London, in 1887 in the year of Queen Victoria's golden jubilee.

[3] The American aim of participating was to display the latest agricultural, mechanical and textile products and inventions from the United States,[4] but the main attraction was the Wild West show[3] featuring Buffalo Bill,[4] part of Colorado's contribution.

)[8] Transporting Buffalo Bill's Wild West from New York to the UK represented an enormous undertaking, bringing to London a large number of people and animals.

The Wild West brought into the UK a large number of animals — "180 horses, 18 buffalo, 10 elk, 5 Texan steers, 4 donkeys, and 2 deer" as well as 10 mules[9] — with customs officials suspending normal quarantine requirements in spite of a local outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease.

The Queen enjoyed the show and recorded in her journal meeting Cody, Annie Oakley,[10] Lillian Smith, Chief Red Shirt, and a number of indigenous American women and children.

An aluminium token coin from the American Exhibition. At the time, aluminium was complex to produce and more valuable than silver