Everything about United States Centennial totally explained
The
Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official
world's fair in the
United States, was held in
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the
Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. It was officially the
International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures and Products of the Soil and Mine. It was held in
Fairmount Park, along the
Schuylkill River. The fairgrounds were designed by
Hermann Schwarzmann. About 10 million visitors attended, equivalent to about 20% of the population of the United States at the time (though many were repeat visitors).
Planning
The idea of the Centennial Exposition is credited to John L. Campbell, a professor of mathematics,
natural philosophy and astronomy at
Wabash College,
Crawfordsville, Indiana. In December 1866, Campbell first suggested to
Philadelphia's mayor that the
United States Centennial be celebrated with an exposition in Philadelphia. The idea had detractors; there was concern that the project wouldn't be able to find funding, whether other nations would attend and that if they did, would the United States' exhibitions be able to stand up against foreign exhibits. Despite the concerns the plan moved forward.
The
Franklin Institute became an early supporter of the exposition and asked the
Philadelphia City Council for use of
Fairmount Park. In January 1870 the City Council resolved to hold the Centennial Exposition in the city in 1876. Both Philadelphia City Council and the
Pennsylvania General Assembly created a committee to study the project and seek support of the
U.S. Congress. Congressman
William D. Kelley spoke for the city and state and
Daniel Johnson Morrell introduced a
bill to create a United States Centennial Commission. The bill, which passed on
March 3,
1871, provided that the U.S. government wouldn't be liable for any expenses.
The United States Centennial Commission organized on
March 3,
1872 with
Joseph R. Hawley of
Connecticut as president. The Centennial Commission's commissioners were made up of one representative from each state and territory in the United States.
In 1873 the Centennial Commission named
Alfred T. Goshorn as the director general of Exposition. The Fairmount Park Commission set aside of West Fairmount Park for the exposition which was dedicated on
July 4,
1873
To accommodate people visiting the city for the Exposition, temporary
hotels were constructed near the Centennial's grounds. A Centennial Lodging-House Agency made a list of rooms in hotels,
boarding houses and private homes and then sold tickets for the available rooms in cities promoting the Centennial or on trains heading for Philadelphia. Also to accommodate crowds,
streetcar lines increased service and the
Pennsylvania Railroad ran special trains from Philadelphia's
Market Street,
New York City,
Baltimore and
Pittsburgh. The
Philadelphia and Reading Railroad also ran special trains from the
Center City part of Philadelphia. A small
hospital was built on the Exposition's grounds by the Centennial's Medical Bureau, but besides a
heat wave during the summer no mass deaths or epidemics occurred.
Structures
There were more than 200 buildings constructed within Exposition's grounds which was surrounded by a fence nearly three miles long. The Centennial Commission sponsored a
design competition for the principal buildings. There were two rounds, winners of the first round had have details such as construction cost and time prepared for the runoff on
September 20,
1873. After the four design winners were chosen, it was determined that none of them allowed for enough time for construction and limited finances.
The Centennial Commission turned to
engineers Henry Pettit and Joseph M. Wilson for design and construction of the Main Exhibition Building. A temporary structure, the Main Building was the largest building in the world covering twenty-one and a half acres.
Right to the west of the Main Building was Machinery Hall. Machinery Hall was also designed by Pettit and Wilson and was similarly designed except that the building's frame was just made of wood. The building, which took six months to construct, was the second largest building at the Exposition and was long and wide. There was a by wing attached on the south side of the building. Exhibits displayed at Machinery Hall revolved around machines and industry. The third largest structure at the Centennial was Agricultural Hall. Designed by James Windrim, Agricultural Hall was long and wide. Made of wood and glass, the building was designed to look like various
barn structures pieced together. The building's exhibits included products and machines in
agriculture and other related businesses.
Unlike most of the buildings constructed for the Exposition, Horticultural Hall was meant to be permanent. Horticultural Hall was designed by Hermann J. Schwarzmann. Schwarzmann, an engineer for the Fairmount Park Commission, had never designed a building before. Horticultural Hall had an iron and glass frame on a brick and marble foundation and was long, wide and tall. The building was styled after
Moorish architecture and designed as a tribute to
The Crystal Palace from
London's
Great Exhibition. The building's exhibits specialized in
horticulture and after the Exposition it continued to exhibit plants until it was badly damaged by
Hurricane Hazel in 1954 and was demolished. After the Exposition, Memorial Hall reopened in 1877 as the Pennsylvania Museum of the School of Industrial Art. In 1928 the school moved to another location and became the
Philadelphia Museum of Art. The building continued to house art afterwards and was taken over by the Fairmount Park Commission in 1958. The building was later used as a police station and is now being renovated to house the Please Touch Museum which will open in Memorial Hall in 2008.
The British buildings were extensive and among other things showed to America the evolved bicycle with Tension Spokes and
a large front wheel. Two English manufactures displayed their high wheel bikes (called "Ordinary bikes" or slang "penny farthings") at the Exposition: Bayless Thomas and Rudge. It was these displays which caused Col. A Pope to decide to begin making high wheel bikes in the USA. He started the Columbia Bike Company and within a few years was publishing a journal "LAW Bulletin and Good Roads". This was the beginning of the good roads movement by the bicycling faternity which led to the AAA pushing further in 1903.
Twenty-six U.S. states had their own building of which the Ohio House is the only one that still exists. Not including the United States, eleven nations also had their own building. The
United States government had its own cross shaped building that held exhibits from various government departments. The Women's Pavilion was the first structure at an international exposition devoted to showing off the work of women. The rest of the structures at the Centennial consisted of corporate pavilions, administration buildings, restaurants and other buildings designed for public comfort.
Exposition
The formal name of the Exposition was the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and products of the Soil and Mine, but the official theme was the celebration of the United States Centennial. At the same time, the Exposition was designed to show the world the United States' industrial and innovative prowess.
Cooling temperatures, news reports and word of mouth began increasing attendance in the final three months of the Exposition, with many of the visitors coming from farther distances. In September the average daily attendance rose to 94,000 and to 102,000 in October. The highest attendance date of the entire Exposition was
September 28. The day, which saw about a quarter of a million people attend, was Pennsylvania Day. Pennsylvania Day celebrated the 100th anniversary of the
Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 and Exposition events included speeches, receptions and
fireworks. The final month of the Exposition, November, had an average daily attendance of 115,000. By the time the Exposition ended on
November 10, a total of 10,164,489 had visited the fair.
Exhibits
Technologies introduced at the fair include the
Corliss Steam Engine.
Waltham Watch Company displayed the first automatic screw making machinery and won the Gold Medal in the first international
watch precision competition. Until the start of 2004, many of the fair's exhibits were in the
Smithsonian Institution's
Arts and Industries Building in
Washington, DC, adjacent to the Castle building. During the Exposition the Turkish delegation presented marijuana to the United States for the first time, becoming one of the most visited exhibits of the fair.
Consumer products first displayed to the public include:
A reconstruction of a "colonial kitchen" replete with spinning wheel and costumed presenters sparked an era of "Colonial Revival" in American architecture and house furnishings. The Swedish Cottage, representing a rural Swedish schoolhouse of traditional style, was re-erected after the Exposition closed, in
Central Park, New York. It is now the
Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre.
The New Jersey official State Pavilion was a reconstruction of the Ford Mansion, which served as General George Washington’s Headquarters during the winter of 1779-80 in Morristown, New Jersey. The reconstruction had a working "colonial kitchen" featuring a polemical narrative of "old-fashioned domesticity." This quaint hearth and home view of the colonial past was juxtaposed against the theme of progress, the overarching theme of the exhibition serving to re-enforce a view of American progress evolving from a small hearty colonial stock and not from a continual influx of multi-ethnic waves of immigration.
The right arm and torch of the
Statue of Liberty were showcased at the Exposition. For a fee of 50 cents, visitors could climb the ladder to the balcony, and the money raised this way was used to fund the rest of the statue.
The building housing the Japanese pavilion was, after the Exposition, dismantled and moved to
Strafford, Pennsylvania, where it still stands, serving as
that community's train station.
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