Centennial Exhibition: Exhibition Facts

Centennial Timeline

Further Reading: Centennial Web Sites

For more and different perspectives of the Centennial Exhibition and life in 1876, visit some of these sites:

1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition http://www.lib.csufresno.edu/SubjectResources/Special Collections/ WorldFairs/1876Philadelphia.html: Selected half stereopticon views from The Donald G. Larson Collection on International Expositions And Fairs, 1851-1940, at the California State University, Fresno Sanoian Special Collection Library.

Baird and The Centennial Exposition http://www.si.edu/organiza/offices/archive/ihd/baird/bairdd.htm: Explains how the displays at the Centennial Exhibition came to be the basis of the collections of the National Museum (now the Arts & Industry Building) at the Smithsonian Institute, under the aegis of Spencer Fullerton Baird.

Bright Lights, Bold Adventure: 1846-1878 http://www.150.si.edu/chap4/four.htm: From the book, The Smithsonian: 150 Years of Adventure, Discovery, and Wonder by James Conaway, © 1995 Smithsonian Institution. Includes color /images from the Smithsonian's collection.

Declaration and Protest of the Women of the United States http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/rbpebib: @field(TITLE+@band(Declaration+and+protest+of +the+ women+ of+the+ United+States+National+suffrage+association)): Broadside from 1876 in the American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress.

The Digital Archive of American Architecture http://infoeagle.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/1876fair.html: The Boston College Fine Arts Department presents scanned /images from The Illustrated History of the Centennial Exhibition, by James D. McCabe, published in Philadelphia, 1876, and Frank Leslie's Die Weltaustellung in Philadelphia, 1876. New York, 1876. Searchable by location, architect, building types, and style.

Exposition Records of the Smithsonian Institution and the United States National Museum http://www.si.edu/archives/archives/faru0070series_1.htm: Finding Aids to Official Records of the Smithsonian Institution and the United States National Museum, 1867-1939.

The Fairmount Park System: For the Health and Enjoyment of Citizens http://www.phila.gov/exhibit/fairmount/tl.htm: An exhibition mounted by the Fairmount Park Commission and the City of Philadelphia Department of Records. /images of materials from the City Archives on the Centennial include a letter from Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, sculptor of the Statue of Liberty, a plan of Memorial Hall, and a map of the grounds.

Fairsnet: A History of Fairs and Expositions http://www.fairsnet.org/fhist.html#philly: From the Encyclopedia Britannica Online and the Western Fairs Association.

Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music 1870-1885 http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/sm/smintro.html: American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress contains thousands of pieces of post-Civil War era sheet music. The music includes popular songs, compositions for piano, band and orchestra, choral music, solo instrumental music, method books, and instructional materials. The collection provides a unique window into American music and how it defined and was defined by its time in history.

National Gallery of Art - Philadelphia Exhibition 1876: Centennial Exposition Map http://www.nga.gov/resources/dpa/1876/map.htm: This map of Fairmount Park shows the exhibition buildings and the transportation circuit. While 450 acres of the park were made available to the fair committee, only 285 were actually developed as fairgrounds, as seen here.

The Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition http://park.org/Pavilions/WorldExpositions/philadelphia.text.html: Brief overview from the Internet 1996 World's Fair.

Philadelphia Timeline: 1876 http://www.ushistory.org/philadelphia/timeline/1876.htm: Timeline presented by the Independence Hall Association, adapted from Happenings in ye Olde Philadelphia 1680-1900 by Rudolph J. Walther, 1925, Walther Printing House, Philadelphia, PA.

Progress Made Visible: American World's Fairs and Expositions http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/cent.htm: The Special Collections Department of the University of Delaware Library presents a wide variety of primary source materials relating to the World's Fairs and Expositions held in the United States between 1876 and 1939.

Soft Drinks Conquer America http://www.globaled.org/curriculum/ffood5.html: Handout from curriculum activities developed by The American Forum for Global Education.

Victorian Web http://landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/victov.html: Designed as a resource for courses at Brown University, this site includes a wealth of material on literature, history and culture during the Victorian age. Sections include political history, social history, gender matters, philosophy, religion, science, technology, visual arts, and design.

Wisconsin Electronic Reader: Old Abe the War Eagle http://www.library.wisc.edu/etext/WIReader/WER1300.html: Old Abe was a live war eagle from Wisconsin who was exhibited at the Centennial and described in detail in Frank Thomas' diary. This site provides his history and a number of images, part of a cooperative digital imaging project of the University of Wisconsin-Madison the State Historical Society of Wisconsin

World's Fairs and Expositions Defining America and the World, 1876-1916 http://www.boondocksnet.com/expos/centennial.html: This site provides a directory of hundreds of online resources about the world's fairs and expositions held from 1876 to 1916. It draws heavily upon resources available in the Making of America project at Cornell University and the University of Michigan, the Library of Congress, and local documents on the later fairs that are less fully documented in the major archives. The Centennial section provides access to numerous digitized articles and other documents published at the time.