Help Bring 1876 Back to Life
In the summer of 1876, Philadelphia made history, hosting the first World's Fair in North America and drawing 10 million visitors from 37 countries when the U.S. population was only 46 million. It was a celebration of our founding and our emergence as a global center for innovation and industry.
Now, 150 years later, help us recreate that experience just two blocks from Independence Mall.
The Center City District Foundation is proud to present a new exhibit, opening this summer on the ground floor of the Lits Building at 8th and Market streets. The exhibit will recreate the sights, stories, and spirit of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition and draw connections to Philadelphia's current destinations and some of our challenges. Your donation today can help us staff this exhibit and make it even better.
The 1876 fair was unlike anything the world had seen. Visitors marveled at the giant Corliss steam engine, a Baldwin locomotive built right here in Philadelphia, and scores of machines. They encountered the typewriter and the telephone for the first time. They tasted popcorn and Hires Root Beer. And they stood before or climbed into the arm of the Statue of Liberty, displayed to raise funds for the full monument not completed for another decade.
Designed by Drexel University's Lenfest Center for Cultural Partnerships, IS Architects and Art Guild set design, the exhibit will appeal to visitors, residents, adults and school children, inviting them to explore destinations across the city from the Please Touch Museum on the Centennial fairgrounds to the Franklin Institute, City Hall, and many locations in between.
We need your support to make this exhibit as engaging as possible and enable staffing six days a week. Thanks to the generosity of the Connelly Foundation, the Philadelphia Funder Collaborative for the Semiquincentennial, the Aker Family Charitable Trust, and other local donors, we have a strong foundation, but you can help us do even more!
The exhibit will feature stories that history often leaves out: the first women's pavilion at a World's Fair, the inclusion of Native American art and international cuisine, and a sober look at racial and ethnic inclusion and exclusion in 1876. It will trace the birth of Philadelphia's tourism industry, the rise of new modes of transportation, and even 19th-century versions of Instagram and Airbnb.
A gift of any size brings us closer to opening in time for America's 250th anniversary celebration. Whether you give $250, or $2,500 or even more, you'll be part of recreating a moment that changed the world, right here in the city where it happened.
DONATE NOW
Thank you for your support.
