Opening day of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia was a spectacular festival of flags, music, and a one-hundred gun salute. After President Grant gave his opening address, the signal was given to unfurl and raise every flag and insignia simultaneously on the entire fairground. A chorus of one thousand began to sing, accompanied by an orchestra and chimes, and the barrage of one hundred rifles symbolized a century of independence for the United States of America (McCabe). This was the first major international world's fair in North America, and while many foreigners argued the United States did not have anything to show, the country shone through displaying its growth into a major industrial power.

Philadelphia, the location of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was chosen as the site for the fair. Its central location also played in its favor. The Building Committee hired twenty-seven year-old H. J. Schwarzmann as chief engineer. He not only planned the layout of the grounds, but also designed Memorial and Horticultural Halls, the two structures intended to be permanent. The fairgrounds were about two miles north-west from the center of Philadelphia, across the Schuylkill River in a portion of Fairmount Park. One of the world's largest municipal parks, it was devised in 1682 by the founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn. As he was navigating the Schuylkill River, Penn noticed a grand bluff and exclaimed, "What a faire mount!" (Klein). The natural park-like setting, and the proximity to colonial Philadelphia, created a unique atmosphere for the fair.

The two artifacts depicted here are a bird's eye view showing the main buildings of the exhibition, and a map of the exhibition grounds. The bird's eye view is a very artistic interpretation of the fair. The illustration is on a five by seven inch reproduction card, belonging to a larger set of six cards. These cards were most likely sold to visitors as souvenirs of the fair. Each of the other cards depicts one of the main buildings, and the set was sold for a price of twenty-five cents. The original envelope that held the six cards is still intact and all of these items can be found in the Special Collections room of the University of Maryland Architecture Library. The three-dimensional representation on this card is stylized to emphasize only the main buildings, omitting the minor ones to reduce clutter. The largest structures, at the base of the illustration are, from left to right, the Machinery and Main Exhibition Buildings. The other three buildings that follow the Schuylkill River are, from top to bottom, Agricultural, Horticultural, and Memorial Halls. The remaining structure toward the left of the view is the Government Building.

The artistic decorations in the border framing the bird's eye view, are particularly eye catching. The style is very classical, perhaps an attempt by the delineator to link the Philadelphia fair to the exhibitions in Europe, especially to those organized by the French, who dominated the fine arts. In each corner of the illustration are putti. Putto in Italian means "boy," and has come to denote a plump, nude young boy, much like a cupid. Often in Renaissance books the first letter of a manuscript was enlarged and decorated with putti acting out a scene or carrying symbolic artifacts (Armstrong). This traditional form of representation ennobles the image of the fair. In the image, each putto represents an aspect of the fair; clockwise from the top left, Industry, Science, Art, and Nature. The Industry putto is holding a gear and crank, Science is pouring a chemical through a funnel into a bottle, Art is painting on an easel, and Nature is surrounded by flowers and fruit. The rest of the border also displays classical ornamentation. At the top are objects of the type displayed at the exhibition: farming equipment, an anchor, and a cannon. The inscriptions underneath the two bottom putti state the publisher, Thos. Hunter, and his address.

The landscape is noticeably simplified, not only by leaving out minor buildings, but also by omitting trees and other vegetation. The natural landscape of the exhibition was a unique characteristic, and fair officials of the fair granted much attention and effort to maintain it. "From almost any point a beautiful landscape extended before the gazer, and afforded a pleasant and grateful contrast to the lines of buildings which stretched away on every hand." (McCabe). One major attraction was the large lake, spanning five acres. The lake and its fountain can be seen to the north of Machinery Hall.

The map shows less of the landscape and natural beauty, and is a more practical and organized depiction of the Centennial Exhibition. It is actually very small, pasted in the back of a pocket-sized souvenir book entitled Centennial Souvenir. This book contains lithographs of the main buildings of the fair which are labeled in French, German and English. It most likely served as a memento for visitors, a way to remember their fair experience. It is doubtful that the map was very useful for navigation purposes due to its small size. Compared to other maps in the University of Maryland Architecture collection, this one appears to be accurate, although it is difficult to read and omits a few buildings and attractions. In the upper left corner of the map are the dimensions of the main buildings, perhaps to help the visitor remember the grand scale of the fair. This map also shows the railroad lines constructed for the fair, one following the Schuylkill River, the other along the base of the map. The Centennial was the first world's fair to put a great effort into transporting visitors to the fair grounds.

There are still some remnants of the fair in Fairmount Park today. The railroads still exist, and Junction Rail Road as seen on the map, now runs alongside a major highway. Of the major buildings, both Horticultural and Memorial Hall (the Art Gallery) remained after the fair, but only Memorial Hall remains today. Memorial Hall served as the city's art gallery until the Philadelphia Museum of Art was constructed. While the hall is now closed to the public, private dances and receptions are occasionally held there and a scaled model of the Centennial fair is displayed in the basement. Along States Drive the only structure remaining is the Ohio pavilion, which now serves as the park's information center. Another notable feature of the park is the Japanese House. While the dwelling was built in 1953, it rests on the same site of the Japanese pavilion that created so much interest at the Centennial Exposition.

While only a few tangible objects remain from the Centennial Exhibition, the overall effects of the fair have remained. The exhibition provided a chance for the United States to show the world its industrial achievements. U.S. involvement in previous expositions had not been government sponsored, and therefore the exhibits were not as spectacular as they could have been. Up to this point, not only did Europe view America as an "aspiring country," but US citizens themselves felt inferior. After the fair, many experts revised their opinions, vowing that American industry was overtaking the British, even going so far as to say that Britain had more money, but America had more brains (Maass). The Centennial Fair also influenced future fairs, that adopted the model of a picturesque park setting, with both large and small pavilions, an extensive transportation system, and public services. On the last day of the Exhibition, John Welsh, the president of the Centennial Board of Finance, said good-bye: "Our work has its place in the annals of the nation. If the memories of it be pleasant to our countrymen, we have done well." (Maass). Looking back at the exhibition's accomplishments, it is fair to say they did well.

-Katie Chiles

Armstrong, Lilian. Renaissance Miniature Painters and Classical Imagery. Harvey Miller Publishers. London, England. 1981.

Klein, Esther M. Fairmount Park. Harcum Junior College Press. Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. 1974.

McCabe, James D. The Illustrated History of the Centennial Exhibition. The National Publishing Company. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1975

Post, Robert C. 1876: A Centennial Exhibition. The National Museum of History and Technology Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. 1976.

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This picture of Memorial Hall is printed on a scarf. Scarves and ribbons were common souvenirs at the early world's fairs. Many visitors, especially those from a different region or country would purchase and wear them to show that they had traveled to the exposition, much like the T-shirt industry today.

The massive domed building in Fairmont Park, Philadelphia, is the only major structure remaining from the Centennial Exhibition in 1876. Memorial Hall served as the Art Gallery for the fair and was designed to become a permanent museum. The building was commissioned and paid for by the State of Pennsylvania and the city of Philadelphia. The budgeted amount for the hall was $1,500,000 and it cost just $64,000 more than planned.

Although smaller than other major buildings at the 1876 fair, Memorial Hall is massive. Its footprint takes up an acre and a half. It is 365 by 210 feet, and 59 feet tall, with a 150-foot dome sitting on top. Below the building is a 12-foot deep basement. Perched atop the dome is a statue of Columbia standing 23 feet 6 inches tall. Three arched doorways each 15 feet wide and 40 feet high mark the entrance to the hall. The doors of the archways are made of iron and have bronze panels with reliefs of the coat of arms of each state and territory. The United States coat of arms is in the center. Between the arches are two clustered columns crowned with small statuettes symbolizing Science and Art. Around the base of the dome are four statues, set on the corners, representing Commerce, Industry, Mining, and Agriculture.

The main entrance opens to a hall 82 feet deep, 60 feet wide, and 53 feet high. From this room three doors lead into the central hall, which is 83 feet square with a ceiling raised to 80 feet under the dome. To either side of the central hall are the main galleries, each measuring 98 by, 84 feet, and 35 feet high. When the temporary dividers are removed and the galleries join the main hall, they create what was at the time the largest hall in the country. This combined hall can be 287 feet long, by 85 feet wide, enough to hold 8,000 people. Above the hall is a grand balcony promenade 275 feet long and 45 feet wide, from which one can overlook the beautiful northern quadrant. Overall the building provides 75,000 square feet of wall surface for paintings and 20,000 of floor space for sculptures.

Raised on a six-foot platform overlooking the Schuylkill River, Memorial Hall housed the first international art exhibit in the United States. Participating countries contributed so many works that even this massive structure could not showcase them all. An additional Art Annex was erected about a hundred feet behind Memorial Hall and covered about an acre. It consisted of 36 skylight galleries. An entire additional building was needed to house photographic art. As fireproofing was a major concern Memorial Hall was built without wood, using only granite, glass and iron. The walls of the Art Annex were lined with asbestos, making them fireproof as well. Memorial Hall was further adorned by two very large bronze statues of Pegasus on either side of the entrance.

The architect of Memorial Hall was Hermann J. Schwarzmann (1846-1891), who studied engineering as a military cadet. He continued his training in Germany before coming to the United States. In 1869 he was appointed assistant engineer at Fairmont Park where he soon became a key player in making it the best urban park in the country. When he designed Memorial Hall he was still a young and inexperienced architect. It is believed that he was inspired by the winning design for a Palace for An Exhibition of Fine Arts, the topic proposed for the Paris École des Beaux-Arts Prix de Rome competition in 1867 (for an illustration of this Premier Grand Prix, see Drexler, 241). It is worth mentioning that Schwarzmann built a large outer cupola to catch the light and then a smaller flatter dome inside to direct illumination to the desired places.

Memorial Hall became the prototype, both from a stylistic and organizational standpoint, for other museums such as the Art Institute of Chicago (1892-1893), Milwaukee Public Museum (1893-1897), Brooklyn Museum (1893-1924), and Detroit Institute of Art (1920-1927). Libraries like the Library of Congress, New York Public Library and Free Library of Philadelphia also emulated its form. And the organizers of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition followed the precedent established by Memorial Hall when they decided to erect their Art Building as a permanent structure.

-David Coleman

Drexler, Arthur (ed.) The Architecture of the École des Beaux-Arts MIT Press Cambridge Massachusetts, 1977

Maass, John Memorial Hall 1876 Architectura; 1971-72 p, 127

Magee, R Magee's Illustrated guide of Philadelphia and the Centennial Exposition R. Magee, Philadelphia 1876.

Sandhurst, Phillip The Great Centennial Exposition P. W. Ziegler &Co. Philadelphia 1876.

Trout, Silas The Story of the Centennial of 1876 Lancaster 1929

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The "International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine, in the city of Philadelphia" was opened on the 10th day of May in the year 1876. As it was more commonly known, the "Centennial Exposition" was America's first successful World's Fair. The fair celebrated the one hundred year anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and America's start as a sovereign nation. It was at the Centennial Fair that Americans were given a chance to display their knowledge and power in the growing industrialized world.

Long gone were the days of single-structure exhibitions. The Philadelphia organizers peppered Fairmont Park with exhibition buildings and attractions, giving visitors much to look at. At the fair the United States sought to establish itself among the major countries of the world. The major buildings of the fair: Memorial Hall, the Main Building, Machinery Hall, Horticultural Hall, the Women's Pavilion and several national and state pavilions provided a suitable architectural framework for the exhibited materials. The most popular of these buildings was Machinery Hall, built to house the country's technological wonders of the past century (Snyder).

Machinery Hall, "four times the space of St. Peter's" in Rome (Bruce, 150) covered an area of 558,440 square feet (including its annex). Fairmont Park was at the time the "largest and finest urban park in America" (Mass, 16). After selecting the site for the fair, the Centennial Commission held a competition for the design of the exhibition buildings offering awards to the top ten entries. The first prize was given to Collins & Autenrieth of Philadelphia whose design estimated construction costs of $10,050,000 (Mass, 32). However, the jury selected the entry by Calvert Vaux and George Kent Radford instead as it was less expensive. Finding in turn that the latter design was also over budget the commission approached next Joseph M. Wilson and Henry Pettit, engineers for the Pennsylvania Railroad (Mass, 33), who were hired to design the Main building and Machinery Hall. As built, Machinery Hall was the "second of the exhibition buildings with regard to size" surpassed only by the Main building, and it covered more then 12.82 acres of land (Trout, 93). The final cost for the Hall was $542,300 (Trout, 96).

Machinery Hall was well received, often earning praises for its design and appearance. The building was painted a "light and pleasing blue" which must have been striking among the other more boldly colored buildings (Trout, 94). Eight entrances served to break up the fa‡ade and relieve its monotony. With a length "eighteen times its height" Machinery Hall had an almost never-ending silhouette (94). Builders made sure to create a strong foundation, erecting "piers of masonry, upon which (were) erected solid timber columns" (Westcott, 4). Machinery Hall follows the tradition of exhibition architecture that began with the Crystal Palace and Joseph Paxton in 1851. It displayed large glazed areas first used in greenhouses. As was often the case at the time, the structure was built mainly with wood and. Trends in exhibition architecture would rise and fall through the one hundred and fifty years of fairs to date and would influence permanent building types as well.

Machinery Hall was a great step up from the Crystal Palace of 1851 with its crowded exhibition spaces and stuffy aisles. Conveniences were also provided for visitors of Machinery Hall. Windows were designed to open for ventilation and "Louvre ventilators along the avenues and aisles" were meant to lessen any discomfort created from a mainly glazed structure (a problem that arose in 1851). Amenities such as "rolling chairs," "telegraph offices," and a restaurant, which promised to furnish a good dinner for the moderate sum of fifty cents were all provided (Trout, 96).

Americans wished to display their progress in the world of industry. Though it was not the first time a building was used to display industrial products, Machinery Hall was by far the most successful to date. As stated by Edward Bruce in The Century and its Fruits and its Festival, "No part of the exposition more vividly illustrates the changes of the century and accelerates it at pleasure" (150). The displays featured both marvels of technology and timeworn objects such as the "Ephrata printing press of 1745, on which the Declaration of Independence was 'worked off'"(151). The most marvelous and popular exhibit was the great Corliss engine, rising forty feet above the platform, which powered all the machinery in the hall. It became an icon of the fair, and was used to symbolically draw an end to the event when President Grant and Mr. Wm. Barrett, the Engineer, shut it down on November 10, 1876 (Trout, 99).

Though Machinery Hall no longer stands today, several of the exhibits it housed, along with displays from other exhibition buildings, are found in the Arts and Industries Building on the Mall in Washington, DC. Many souvenirs remain from the fair ranging from ticket stubs and personal photographs to official programs and collectible books. World's Fairs have been widely documented since the Great Exhibition of 1851, through advertisements, postcards, prints and pamphlets.

The print of Machinery Hall displayed in the World's Fair Ephemeral and Graphic Materials Collection at the University Of Maryland is among one of many similar prints created for sale at the exhibition. It belongs to a small collection of nine images composed of several important buildings in the Fair and the city of Philadelphia. Included in this collection are views of the New and Old Independence Halls, the New Masonic Temple and City Public Buildings. The rendition of Machinery Hall is approximately three by four inches in size, printed on a three by five inch section of card stock, similar in appearance to a modern post card. The building is depicted in a simple graphic manner, without color or superfluous detailing. Decorative flags top the roof, which gives the image an artistic charm. Artists who came to the fair illustrated the buildings and exhibits in hopes of selling their work to visitors. At a time when photography was in its early years fairgoers would purchase small prints or albums of scenes from memorable exhibits. Just as tourists today collect postcards, those vacationing at the Centennial Exposition in 1876 would buy images from the fair, such as the one seen on the screen.

Prints showing fair pavilions had also a documentary purpose. These images were included in official reports and souvenir books. Sometimes images such as these were the only views of the fair seen by people unable to attend. It was important for these prints to be both intriguing and historically correct. At times the accuracy of such prints was secondary to the artistic rendering of the building. This image of Machinery Hall gives the sense that it stood alone in Fairmont Park when in actuality it was positioned "about 550 feet west of the Main Exhibition, its north front being upon the same line, so that, viewed from the interior of the grounds, this building appears to be a continuation of the other" (Westcott, 4). The building seems to float among the clouds and fairgoers.

Machinery Hall, like many exhibition buildings was meant to be a temporary structure. It no longer stands on Fairmont Park and only exists in printed form. It was created to house one hundred years of progress in American technology and it stood as a testament to the hard work put forth by the new country in the ten decades since its independence. Artistic renditions of fair pavilions such as Machinery Hall allow twenty-first century fair enthusiasts to see what it was like to visit the fair first hand. Though these images are not always completely historically correct, they serve as an excellent tool for learning about the fairs.

-Elizabeth Creveling

Bruce, Edward C. The Century: Its Fruits and its Festival. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1877.

Maass, John. The glorious enterprise: the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 and H. J. Schwarzmann, architect-in-chief / John Maass. New York. American Life Foundation. 1973.

Snyder, Iris. (February 2000) "The Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, 1876" University of Delaware, Special Collections Department http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/cent.htm(25 February, 2001).

Trout, Silas E. The Story of the Centennial of 1876. Lancaster, 1929.
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Westcott, Thompson. A Centennial Portfolio. Philadelphia, T. Hunter, 1876.

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