John Wannamaker is famous as a pioneer of modern marketing, including creation of the Department Store” concept that dominated American retail sales for most of the 20th. Century. Somewhere in his multi-faceted career he commissioned bronze doorknobs with his name and the date 1904, year of the St. Louis World’s Fair. Wanamaker was not an exhibitor but was a very active buyer of exhibit pieces once the Fair closed down. His most famous purchases were the 10,000 pipe concert organ and the massive bronze eagle from the German exhibit. He also helped the Philadelphia museum purchase Egyptian antiquities. At this time Wannamaker was not involved in any large building projects, so it is unclear where these doorknobs were installed. Possibly he created some special exhibit space, or re-designed his offices. All the Wannamaker knobs are entry size and cast from heavy, dark bronze. This example has somewhere in its life suffered a couple of dents on the finger band, and someone also dropped the set screw down the shank. Despite these apologies this is a fine history knob that ought to be featured in every serious collection.