PRINTED SOUVENIR CARD. United States Centennial Exposition, 1876.
Philadelphia: J. W. Daughaday & Co., 1876. Single card, landscape format [1/15/16" x 3-3/16"], green card stock, 12 lines of text [different size fonts] printed, recto only, with black ink. Now housed in an archival mylar sleeve. Modest wear & soiling. Verso with ink bleed-through. A VG copy. Item #51004
"Printed on the Celebrated Model Printing Press Price, $6.00 to $50.00, On Exhibition in Machinery Hall, Section E, 4, Column 31."
"The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. Officially named the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine, it was held in Fairmount Park along the Schuylkill River on fairgrounds designed by Herman J. Schwarzmann. Nearly 10 million visitors attended the exposition, and 37 countries participated in it.
Machinery Hall was the second largest structure in the exposition and located west of the Main Exhibition Building. With a superstructure made of wood and glass resting on a foundation of massive masonry, it had a main hall painted light blue, 1,402 ft long and 360 ft wide, with a wing of 208 ft by 210 ft attached on the south side of the building. The length of the building was 18 times its height. With eight entrances, it occupied 558,440 square feet, had 1,900 exhibitors, and took six months to construct. The exhibits focused on machines and evolving industries. Machinery Hall was the show case for the state of the art industrial technology that was being produced at the time. The United States of America alone took up two-thirds of the exhibit space in the building.
Price: $95.00