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Centennial Exhibition of 1876
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 The
exhibition opened as scheduled on May 10, 1876, to a vast throng of
visitors. Philadelphia was resplendently decked out for fairgoers
with bunting and with the flags of participating nations. Trains of
out-of-town visitors disgorged at fairground stations. A host of dignitaries
attended also, led by President and Mrs. Grant, Emperor Dom Pedro
II of Brazil and his Empress, and the governors of Louisiana, Massachusetts,
and Pennsylvania. Dom Pedro, whose unassuming manner, intense curiosity,
and admiration for the United States had made him a national celebrity,
was the favorite of the crowds. During the opening ceremonies Richard
Wagner's "Centennial Grand March," John Greenleaf Whittier's
"Centennial Hymn," and Sidney Lanier's "centennial
Cantata" were played and sung. At 12 noon, after an address by
the President, the Centennial Exhibition was opened amid a resounding
artillery salute of 100 guns. Then the official party and the many
notables visited the pavilions.
The Centennial Commission provided for all exhibits to be classified
into seven departments, mining and metallurgy, manufactures, education
and science, machinery, agriculture, art, and horticulture. These
departments were housed in the five major buildings of the Exhibition.
The Main Exhibition Building contained the exhibits relating to manufactures,
mining and metallurgy, and science and education, while each of the
other four departments had its own building.
The largest building at the fair was the Main Exhibition Building,
which covered over twenty-one acres and was 464 feet in width and
1,880 feet in length. This enormous structure of wood, glass, and
iron held an amazing number of exhibits from thirty nations. A seemingly
endless variety of items was put on display, soaps, furniture, books,
tools, medicines, religious tracts, military and naval armaments,
and thousands of others. Some interesting new inventions were also
shown, among them the electric light, the typewriter, the telephone,
and an automatic baby feeder.
Machinery Hall was the second largest of the buildings, covering fourteen
acres and containing almost every conceivable type of machine. On
display were machines for working metal, stone, and wood, for sewing,
spinning, weaving, printing, mining, farming, traveling, and processing
foodstuffs. Power was supplied by the forty-foot-high steam engine
designed by George H. Corliss, inventor and manufacturer. The giant
Corliss engine could be run by one man and was the talk of the Exhibition.
The third major building was Agriculture Hall.
The other major structures were Memorial Hall and Horticultural Hall.
Memorial Hall was designed as a permanent museum of art, and was built
by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the city of Philadelphia.
On display was Peter Rothermel's huge thirty-two by sixteen and  three-quarter
foot painting of the Battle of Gettysburg, which can now be seen at
The State Museum in Harrisburg. Memorial Hall was converted in the
1960s to a recreation center and headquarters for the Fairmount Park
Commission. Philadelphia erected the ornament of the fair, Horticultural
Hall. A Moorish-style palace of glass, iron, and colored brick, this
exotic edifice, filled with trees and shrubs and flowers, was the
most striking of the nearly 200 buildings erected. One of the most
interesting examples of the Moorish style in the United States, and
intended to be permanent, it was razed after receiving damage from
high winds in the early 1950's.
In addition to the five major buildings and the host of lesser structures,
there were other important buildings. Among them were the U.S. Government
Building and the Women's Pavilion. The Women's Pavilion, erected by
the Women's Centennial Committee led by Mrs. Elizabeth Duane Gillespie,
energetic great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin, was an innovation
for an exposition, the first large-scale attempt to exhibit the products
of feminine industry and taste. It showed the relative emancipation
of the women of the United States, while it bombarded visitors with
feminist and women's rights propaganda in its weekly newspaper, The
New Century for Woman.
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