The exposition, held for 100 days each year on 45 acres (180,000 m2) immediately south of Central Park, which is now the St. James-Belgravia Historic District, was essentially an industrial and mercantile show.

U.S. President Chester A. Arthur opened the first annual exposition on August 1, 1883.

One highlight of the show was the largest to-date installation of incandescent light bulbs, having been recently invented by Thomas Edison (a resident of Louisville sixteen years before), to bring light to the exposition in the nighttime.

The contract with the Louisville Board of Trade was for 5,000 incandescent lamps.

George H. Yater writes in his book Two Hundred Years at the Fall of the Ohio: The Exposition was the first large space lighted by incandescence and many electrical pioneers felt that the Louisville success did more to stimulate the growth of interior electric lighting than any other Edison plant.