Centennial Exposition opens in Philadelphia (1876)

The Centennial International Exhibition opened in Philadelphia on May 10, 1876, marking the first official world's fair in the United States. The event coincided with the centennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence's adoption in the city on July 4, 1776. City Council resolved to hold the exposition in January 1870, and Congress appropriated funds in February 1876. The fair ran until November 10, 1876.

Episodes

Background and detail

Background. Philadelphia, the most populous city in Pennsylvania, served as the capital of the United States on five occasions between 1776 and 1800. In 1876, the city's industry was celebrated in the Centennial Exposition, the first official World's fair in the U.S. The City Council resolved in January 1870 to hold the Centennial Exposition in the city in 1876, referencing numerous events of national importance related to Philadelphia.

Preparation. Congress appropriated $1.5 million in a loan on February 11, 1876. The Centennial National Bank was chartered on January 19, 1876, to serve as the financial agent of the board, receiving and accounting for daily receipts. Schwarzmann began working for the Fairmount Park Commission in 1869, which administered the site of the 1876 Centennial Exposition.

Legacy. After the exposition, Memorial Hall reopened in 1877 as the Pennsylvania Museum of Art and included the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art. The event coincided with the centennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence's adoption in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776.

People involved

Sources

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.