The Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876 was held in Fairmount Park to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This fair was an international exhibition where 26 states and 49 foreign countries contributed exhibits in technology and in the arts and sciences. This exhibition took ten years to plan, cost more than $11 million, and covered more than 450 acres of Fairmount Park. This international trade fair was the first of its kind in the United States, and was opened on May 10, 1876, by President Ulysses S. Grant. For the next six months until November 10, this fair attracted more than 10,000,000 people and showed the works of 30,000 exhibitors. The admission for a single person was 50 cents. This fair made many people aware of new inventions such as; the self binding reaper, the typewriter, the telephone, the air brake, the refrigerator car, Edison’s duplex telegraph, portland cement, and the continuous-web printing press. It is clearly seen that this fair celebrated the arrival of the United States as an internationally important industrial power.
Figure 1
Opening ceremonies at the Centennial Exhibition
Figure 2
Main building of the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition