The 1900 Games were a somewhat bizarre event co-opted by the organizers of the
Exposition Universelle in Paris that year. Baron de Coubertin had hoped to
increase participation and interest in the Games by having them coincide
with another event, but his plan backfired, and the resulting Games were
even less focused than the ones in 1896. Indeed, the confusion was so
great that many participants did not realize they had participated in the
Olympics!
In keeping with the impromptu nature of these Games, there was no official
poster. The one on the left above was created many years later, when
collectors demanded one. It was based on an actual poster for the Exposition
Universelle held in Paris at the same time as the Games, and
is the one the IOC displays at its site. The one on the right was also invented
for collectors, and is presumably based on some other poster or magazine cover
of the era, but I have been unable to determine its source.
There were no poster stamps or labels created for the 1900 Games - at least none
has surfaced to date.
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12/15/18 - I insist there were no poster stamps for these Games, but eBay
sellers and other collectors keep saying that ANY label created for the 1900
Exposition Universelle is an "Olympic label."
Wrong, but just because there are so MANY of them, and many are quite beautiful, I have added a page to
display some of them.
CLICK HERE to view my page of vignettes from the
1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris!
(And thanks to Alvaro Trucchi for his contributions to that page.)
If you don't care to see the full display, the
sheetlet below is my favorite, first for its Art Nouveau flair, and
second, for the train!
Poster stamps for the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris
They were printed in
many different colors.
Here's another spectacular example, also with a train.
There were no postage stamps created for the 1900 Games.
There were no winter games in 1900.
