Machinery Hall, Centennial Exposition 1876, Philadelphia Essays

Machinery Hall, centenary Exposition 1876, PhiladelphiaThe 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 centenary Exposition was Americas maiden successful Worlds Fair. The fairish celebrated the one hundred year day of remembrance of the Declaration of Independence and Americas start as a sovereign nation. It was at the centenary Fair that Americans were given a chance to display their companionship and power in the growing industrialized world.Long gone were the age 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 narration Hall, the Main Building, Machinery Hall, Horticultural Hall, the Wom ens 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 suffer the countrys technological wonders of the past century (Snyder).Machinery Hall, four periods the space of St. Peters in Rome (Bruce, 150) covered an bea 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 masking ten entries. The first prize was given to Collins & Autenrieth of Philadelphia whose design estimated body structure ... ...usiasts 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 subtile tool for learning about the fairs.BibliographyBruce, Edward C. The C entury 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, specific 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. ARCH SPCEXP T825.B1T7Westcott, Thompson. A Centennial Portfolio. Philadelphia, T. Hunter, 1876.