At the Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, 1876.
The first thought had been to make the exposition exclusively national, but subsequent deliberation made it seem best to widen the plan so that the arts and industries of the entire world should be represented. President Grant formally proclaimed the Exhibition in 1873, and in the following year foreign governments were invited to participate. Thirty-three cordially responded.
Meanwhile, the commission was pushing preparations. Philadelphia, the birth-place of the nation, was rightly chosen as the place for this unique memorial of that event. In the beautiful and spacious Fairmount Park, on the high bank of the Schuylkill River, an area of 285 acres was inclosed, and here five main buildings were soon rising rapidly as by magic. Besides these, there were at the time of opening, smaller structures to the number of 175, filling every available space.
On May 10th the Exposition was opened with appropriate exercises, in the presence of 100,000 people. Wagner had composed a Centennial March for the occasion. Whittier’s Centennial Hymn was sung by a chorus of 1,000 voices. The restored South chanted the praises of the Union in the words of Sidney Lanier, the Georgia poet. President Grant, in a short speech, then declared the International Exhibition open. A procession of dignitaries moved to Machinery Hall, where the President of the United States and Dom Pedro II., Emperor of Brazil, set in motion the great Corliss engine, and with the whirr of spindle and clatter of machinery the world’s seventh great fair began.
Weeks and months of inspection were necessary to grasp the Exhibition as a whole and in detail, but an imaginary stroll through the grounds will give the reader some general idea of it.
Entering through one of the 106 gates, the sight-seer naturally turned his eye first toward the colossal Main Building. A parallelogram in form, 1,880 feet long by 460 wide, and 70 high, it covered twenty acres. At the centre and ends were projecting wings, large buildings in themselves. In the middle and at the four corners rose towers. In spite of its size the building seemed light and almost graceful. Its brick sub-structure, seven feet high, stood upon massive masonry foundations. The rest of the building was mainly glass and iron. The iron trusses of the roof rested upon 672 slender iron pillars. This hall had been erected in a year, at a cost of $1,700,000.
In the Main Building manufactures were exhibited, also products of the mine, along with various other evidences of the condition of science and education. The broad aisles ran the whole length of the interior, flanked on either side by exhibits. More than one-third of the space was reserved for the United States, the rest being divided in varying proportions among foreign countries. The products of all climates, tribes, and times were here crowded together under one roof. The mighty states of Great Britain, France, and Germany exhibited the work of their myriad roaring looms side by side with the wares of the Hawaiian Islands and the little Orange Free State. Here were the furs of Russia with other articles from the frozen North; there the flashing diamonds of Brazil and the rich shawls and waving plumes of India. At a step one passed from old Egypt to the latest-born South American republic. Chinese conservatism and Yankee enterprise confronted each other across the aisle. All civilized nations but Greece were represented—more than ever before took part in an international fair.
From the novelty of the foreign display the American visitor returned proudly to the display made by his own land. Textiles, metal work, arms and tools, musical instruments, watches, carriages, cutlery, books, and furniture—a bewildering array of all things useful and ornamental—made Americans realize as never before the wealth, intelligence, and enterprise of their native country and the proud station she had taken among the nations of earth.
Machinery Hall came next to the Main Building in size. Of plain architecture, built of wood, with iron ties, 1,402 feet by 360, it covered, with an annex, about thirteen acres. Here, with infinite clatter and roar, thousands of iron slaves worked their master’s will. Three-fourths of the space was taken up with American machines. Visitors from the foremost foreign nations marvelled at the ingenuity of the Yankee mind here displayed. Great Britain led the foreign nations in the size and number of articles exhibited. Canada, France, Russia, Sweden, Brazil, and other countries sent ingenious or powerful machines.