1893 439,730
1894 285,631.

CHAPTER VI.

THE EXPOSITION OF 1876

[1876]

It was fitting that the one hundredth anniversary of a great industrial
nation should be celebrated by a World's Fair. Such a plan was first
publicly proposed for the United States in 1870, by an association of
Philadelphia citizens. It was adopted by Congress in the following year,
when an act was passed creating a Centennial Commission, to consist of a
delegate and an alternate from each State and Territory. The commission
organized for the great and difficult work before them by choosing
General J. R. Hawley, of Connecticut, president, and by appointing an
executive committee, a board of directors, and heads of various
administrative bureaus.

The Government declined to assume the financial responsibility of the
enterprise, but in 1872 Congress appointed a Centennial Board of Finance
with power to raise a capital stock of $10,000,000. Shares to the amount
of $2,400,000 were soon sold to private citizens. Philadelphia
appropriated $1,500,000, and Pennsylvania $1,000,000. In 1876 Congress
made a loan to the Board of $1,500,000. Thus the great problem of a
financial basis for the enterprise was solved.

[Illustration: Pedestrians walking among large buildings.]
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 Uni