Philadelphia’s 1876 World’s Fair set the stage for this years 250th shebang
The 1876 World's Fair set the stage for Philadelphia to earn the late 19th century moniker of "Workshop of the World."
Planning for America’s 100th birthday started in 1866 when John L. Campbell, a math professor in Indiana, approached Philadelphia city officials with the idea to host a grand celebration centering our country’s advances in science and technology.
Philadelphia was not only America’s birthplace, it was, by many accounts, the center of the world’s second industrial revolution as shiny new factories were being built throughout the city, making everything from clothing to car parts.
After 10 years of planning — including a monthlong 1874 exposition in honor of The Franklin Institute’s 50th birthday — The Centennial Exhibition opened May 10, 1876 on West Philadelphia’s sparkling new fairgrounds.
North America’s first World Fair will be celebrated this Saturday at a firstival in Memorial Hall’s Please Touch Museum, one of 200 buildings erected for the 1876 World’s Fair still standing today.
Firstivals are weekly day parties thrown by the Philadelphia Historic District marking events that happened in Philadelphia before anywhere else in America and often the world. They are a part of the city’s yearlong celebration of America’s 250th birthday.
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The Centennial started at 9 a.m. that morning with a welcome address from President Ulysses S. Grant. Ten million visitors from 37 countries descended upon Philadelphia for 172 days, many lining up along Market Street to take shuttles to the 450-acre Centennial Campus.
Fairgoers saw Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone and the Remington typewriter — the first apparatus with the QWERTY keyboard. They tasted root beer, courtesy of Philadelphia-based manufacturer Hires Root Beer, popcorn, and ketchup for the first time.
They calculated sums on mechanical calculators, rode the monorail — the single-track train that, today, transports people around amusement parks — and celebrated the Baldwin locomotive, by a Philly-based train manufacturer. Locomotives, still their infancy, were on the cusp of revolutionizing how America’s traveled.
Some were lucky enough to climb the right hand of the not-quite-finished Statue of Liberty. Earlier that year, French artisans started building the massive statue and sent the finished arm holding the torch to the Centennial Exhibition to gauge interest and raise funds.
This summer the Center City Foundation will sponsor a pop-up museum honoring the legacy of the World’s Fair called “Revisit 1876″. It’s scheduled to open June 25 and will run through the end of 2026.
Market East’s Lits Building — the former home of Ross Dress for Less — will house replicas of the first telephone, Remington Typewriters, and other products that debuted in Philadelphia more than 150 years ago. It will show how yesteryear’s inventions impact our lives today.
“In celebrating America’s 250th, we wanted to look back at the things that got us here,” Paul Levy, executive director of the Center City District Foundation told the Inquirer earlier this year.
“The ‘then’ and ‘now’ will connect Philadelphia to its past and recapture history that has been forgotten,” Levy said.
In other words, “Revisit 1876″ will honor America’s 250th birthday, and teach today’s Philadelphians how the city earned its late 19th century moniker “Workshop of the World.”
This week’s Firstival is Saturday, May 23, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Please Touch Museum, 4231 Avenue of the Republic.
The Inquirer will highlight a “first” from the Philadelphia Historic District’s 52 Weeks of Firsts program every week. A “52 Weeks of Firsts” podcast, produced by All That’s Good Productions, drops every Tuesday.
