Perseverance and Progress: Industry & Art at the Centennial Exhibition

Held in Philadelphia over a period of six months in 1876, the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine—commonly known as the Centennial Exhibition—was a watershed event in American art and industry. Commemorating the United States’ first one hundred years, the event was impressive in scale even among the spectacular world’s fairs of the nineteenth century. In exhibits of emphasizing the technological innovations and economic strength of participating countries, the category of “artistic manufactures”—ceramics, furniture, glass, metalwork, textiles, wallpaper, and other decorative arts—excited significant attention not only as markers of industrial prowess, but also for the powerful statements they made about nations’ cultural legacies and artistic ambitions. Colin Fanning, a curator at Philadelphia Museum of Art, will explore how encounters with a global spectrum of tangible goods at the Centennial would alter the shape of American art, craft, and industry in decades to follow.

Photo credit:

Centennial Exhibition Handkerchief, 1876
Made by L. & G. Cramer (Düsseldorf, Germany, dates unknown)
Printed cotton plain weave, 24⅞ × 24¼ in. (63.2 × 61.6 cm)
Philadelphia Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. William D. Frishmuth, 1913-223