Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, 1876
Following the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, major world cities celebrated their views of technology, progress, and national and civic pride, in increasingly popular world's fairs. The first entry by the United States was Philadelphia's Centennial Exhibition, held in Fairmont Park, which opened on May 10, 1876. In total, almost nine million people visited the fair, roughly one-fifth of the US population.
The Women's Pavilion
When visitors first entered, their first sight was of a woman running a steam engine,
symbolizing the new opportunities for women opening in the Gilded Age. Following
the larger fair theme of progress and technological innovation, the Women's Building
celebrated woman inventors and mechanics and displayed labor-saving devices for the
household. Dress reform--the movement to free women from restrictive corsets and heavy
dresses was also a major aspect of the exhibit. The women's displays suggested that
women were being allowed into traditionally male areas, for instance women in the
medical professions (the American Medical Association admitted its first woman
member during a meeting in Philadelphia during the fair), women's colleges, and
women writers (the best selling book of 1876 was Family Secret, by Eliza Frances
Andrews). Some women were pleased by the inclusion of a Women's Pavilion, believing
that its inclusion signaled movement toward gender equality. Nonetheless, the
segregation of women into their own building upset others. Suffragists wanted
to use the fair as a platform to demand the vote. Some suggested that the exhibit
include a legal complaint that had been issued against women trying to vote.
Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and others surprised visiting
dignitaries by presenting them a Declaration of the Rights of Women at a
July 4 ceremony. As if to emphasize that women were denied the franchise,
the Centennial Exhibition's Women's Day was election day, November 7th, so
that women could have their run of the fair while men were off voting.
After the Philadelphia world's fair, the next international exhibition in the United States was the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
Web Resources
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Web site provides an overview of the Centennial Exhibition.
For further information and views of the Women's Pavilion, consult: http://libwww.library.phila.gov/CenCol/tours-womenspav.htm
The Free Library of Philadelphia has created a Web site with more than 1200 photographs of the Exhibition.