|
The
Centennial Exposition
Held
in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park, the Centennial Exposition cost
$11 million and attracted more than ten million visitors.
Many
of the exhibits focused on mining, manufacturing, and agriculture.
There was also a Women's Pavillion, where Susan B. Anthony was
barred from reading "A Declaration of Rights for Women."
The
exposition's defining symbol was a 1,400 horsepower Corliss steam
engine. Among the inventions introduced at the fair were the typewriter
and Alexander Graham Bell's telephone. The fair generated renewed
interest in the colonial era. It popularized the flagmaker Betsy
Ross, saw the completion of Archibald Willard's "Spirit of
'76," and heightened interest in colonial architectural styles.
Some
300 Indians from 53 tribes were exhibited at the exposition "to
show, in as perfect a degree as is now possible, the original
inhabitants of this country and their mode of life."
Questions:
1.
What does the fair tell us about the nation's self-image in
1876 and what it wanted to celebrate?
2.
What does the fair reveal about the nation's attitudes toward
women and minorities?
Resources
for the Centennial Exposition
(Links open in a new window; close that window to return to this
page)
|
