This exhibit is a sampling of the Ephemeral and Graphic Materials in the World's Fair Collection owned by the Architecture Library at the University of Maryland, College Park. The site contains a virtual exhibition gallery for each fair in the collection.
The collection contains books as well as ephemeral and graphic materials for over 30 fairs and international expositions. The fairs represented range from the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, held in London in 1851, to the Japan World Exposition (Expo '70), held in Osaka in 1970. Holdings are strongest for the 1851 London exhibition, the Centennial International Exhibition held in Philadelphia in 1876, and the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893.
The Ephemeral and Graphic Material Collection contains nearly 1,700 items. The ephemera include postcards, tickets, trade cards, menus, souvenir ribbons and scarves. The graphic materials include photographs, stereographs and a stereograph viewer, prints, periodicals and periodical illustrations, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, maps, and sheet music.
To learn more about the collection, visit