PHOTO: ST. LOUIS PUBLIC LIBRARY

Visitors to the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition experienced an early form of augmented reality with a simulated voyage to Paris inspired by Jules Verne. Guests at the "Under and Over the Sea" exhibit boarded a semblance of a submarine where they marveled at painted panoramas of exotic sea creatures that appeared to pass by the windows. Fictitiously transported to the City of Lights, riders boarded a mock dirigible that seemingly rose above a faux French landscape and encountered a thunderstorm – complete with wind and rain from nearby fans and water buckets – as it crossed the Atlantic.