Philadelphia's 1876 Centennial Exhibition

By Linda P. Gross and Theresa R. Snyder

Held in Philadelphia from May 10 through October 10, the 1876 Centennial Exhibition celebrated the 100th anniversary of American independence. Philadelphia hosted 37 nations in five main buildings and 250 additional structures on 285 acres of land. The celebration looked backward to commemorate the progress made over the 100-year period, and it announced to the world that American invention and innovation was on a par with that of our foreign counterparts. Patriotism abounded, as did messages of industrial and commercial prowess that promised a brighter future for all. Over nine million people attended this awesome consumer spectacle, an event that set the tone for a long series of world's fairs yet to come.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781439632611

Linda P. Gross

Linda P. Gross is the reference librarian at the Hagley Museum and Library in Greenville, Delaware, and Theresa R. Snyder is the deputy director for library administration. They have researched extensively on the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition and prepared the Hagley exhibit entitled Centuries of Progress: American World�s Fairs, 1853 to 1982.

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EXHIBITS

PREFACE

The Hagley Museum and Library is an internationally regarded research institution whose mission is to collect, preserve, and interpret the unfolding history of American enterprise. It houses important collections of manuscripts, pamphlets, trade catalogs, broadsides, and artifacts documenting the history of American business and technology. The library, founded by Pierre S. du Pont in 1953 as the Longwood Library, merged with the Hagley Museum, the site of the original DuPont Company powder works, in 1961. Since then our collections have grown to include more than 30,000 linear feet of manuscript and archives; more than 220,000 books, serial titles, pamphlets, and trade catalogs; and more than one million photographic images. Finally, the museum counts 45,000 historic artifacts, from buildings to tools and machinery.

World’s fairs celebrated progress, promoted the exchange of manufacturing information and technological advances, introduced new consumer products, and exposed visitors to art, architecture, and new forms of popular amusements. Studying the world’s fairs sheds light on the formation of our present culture over time.

Because the world’s fairs of the past provide insight into the history of business and technology, the Hagley Museum and Library actively collects exposition-related materials. To that end, in October 2003 the library purchased an important collection of printed books, ephemera, and photographs related to the 1876 Centennial Exhibition. The photographs in this book include many images from our recent acquisition. In all, Hagley’s collections document more than 100 different fairs, with thousands of items.

We are grateful to Kathy Buckalew, photographer at the Hagley Museum and Library, for the care she provided in producing the photographic reproductions in this volume.

INTRODUCTION

The Centennial Exhibition (formally called the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine), held in Philadelphia from May 10 to November 10 in 1876, acted as a catalyst to an expanding national marketplace and growing consumer society. Many factors contributed to these changes: population growth, east-to-west and rural-to-urban migrations, a large immigration influx, a well-developed industrial structure, an end to subsistence farming, and a growth in per-capita income. The Centennial Exhibition represented a convergence of technology and the emerging international marketplace into one major consumer spectacle of a magnitude unseen before on American shores.

The idea for the Centennial Exhibition came to John L. Campbell, professor of mathematics, natural philosophy, and astronomy at Wabash College in Indiana, while he was lecturing at the Smithsonian Institution in 1866. After four years and four committees working independently or jointly, a plan for the fair was presented before the U.S. Congress, and on March 3, 1871, legislation was passed to establish the Centennial Commission. The president of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, appointed the commissioners, one from each state and territory, upon the recommendation of the respective governors.

While the fair was an international exposition of huge proportions, its beginnings were less than stellar. Initial dissension over the selection of the exhibition site, with many favoring New York City, Boston, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Chicago over Philadelphia, led to greater problems, including an initial lack of support from the press. This dissent proved troublesome to the commissioners, as the initial lack of positive publicity challenged their congressional mandate to secure all of the financial resources necessary to execute the celebration—a task made all the more challenging by the financial panic of 1873. The Women’s Centennial Committee, led by Elizabeth Gillespie, raised more than $100,000 of the early funds. In February 1876, Congress appropriated $1.5 million to cover the remaining costs, stipulating that the government be repaid. In the end, the total costs for the exhibition amounted to almost $6.725 million.

From the start, the official purpose of the Centennial Exhibition was to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The choice of Philadelphia was fitting, then, and the work of the commission began in earnest at Independence Hall. Appeals for both financial support and commitments to participate through displays were filled with patriotic rhetoric. Imagery on commission publications also conveyed the patriotism—from the Genius of American Independence portrayed on the medals to John Trumbull’s The Declaration of Independence on the stock certificates. Exhibitors also seized on the patriotic theme, filling their advertisements with images of the Colonial era, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin (along with some of the other founding fathers), the flag, the Liberty Bell, Abraham Lincoln, and any other image that conveyed love of country.

As awe inspiring as this display was, the Centennial Exhibition represented more than patriotism. Patriotism represented the mechanism to convey the sense that American invention and innovation led to