The Centennial International Exhibition, officially the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine, was held in Philadelphia from May 10 to November 10, 1876. It was the first official world's fair to be held in the United States, and coincided with the centennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence's adoption in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776.
An illustration of opening day ceremonies at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia on May 10, 1876
The Great Sanitary Fair in 1864 was the model for the Centennial Exposition; it raised $1,046,859 for medicine and bandages during the American Civil War.
Joseph Roswell Hawley, president of the U.S. Centennial Commission
A stock certificate for five $10 shares issued by the Centennial Board of Finance
Frank Heyling Furness was an American architect of the Victorian era. He designed more than 600 buildings, most in the Philadelphia area, and is remembered for his diverse, muscular, often inordinately scaled buildings, and for his influence on the Chicago-based architect Louis Sullivan. Furness also received a Medal of Honor for bravery during the Civil War.
University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia (1891), now the Fisher Fine Arts Library
Main Reading Room, looking north
Germantown Unitarian Church (1866–67, demolished ca. 1928)