In The Cradle of Industry and Liberty

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Birdseye View of Fairmount Park,
Philadelphia, with the Buildings of the
Centennial Exposition, 1876.
The 1876 Centennial was a huge success,
attracting some ten million visitors to
Philadelphia. This view looking eastward
down the Schuylkill River shows the
buildings of the Centennial on the right
(behind the flag pole), along with the
smokestacks of dozens of city industries
across the river to the left. Note that by this
time industries had largely been removed
from the upper Schuylkill River area
(center and lower portions of the image).
PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION,
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
THE
CENTENNIAL
Philadelphia manufacturing really came
into world view when the city hosted the 1876
International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures
and Products of the Soil and Mine, commonly
known as “The Centennial.” From May to
November of 1876 Philadelphia welcomed
the world to this huge celebration of the
one hundredth anniversary of the nation’s
founding. The Centennial was the first
official World’s Fair in the United States
and America’s first great opportunity to share
its history and accomplishments on an
international scale. Some ten million visitors
from all corners of the globe were treated to
a variety of exhibits and activities, including
numerous displays of American technology
and manufacturing. The world was actually in
the midst of a severe depression at this time,
following the financial Panic of 1873, but the
Centennial was a great success nevertheless.
Philadelphia manufacturers were front and
center at the Centennial, both in its planning
and in its displays of industry and technology.
One of the prime movers behind the event
was William Sellers (1824-1905), owner of
one of Philadelphia’s largest machine tool
works. William Sellers & Company operated
from 1855 to 1947, most of that time at
Sixteenth and Hamilton Streets, next to
Baldwin Locomotive. A mechanical engineer
and inventor who filed more than ninety
patents, Sellers’ great contribution to industry
was the standardization of the screw
thread, which he proposed in an 1864
paper before The Franklin Institute (of
which he was president). Prior to this,
dimensions of threads on screws produced
in different shops had varied considerably,
making interchanging of machine parts
very problematic. The Sellers’ standard was
soon adopted by prominent manufacturers,
including Baldwin, and eventually became
the national standard.
Philadelphia lamp and gas fixture manufacturer
Cornelius & Sons supplied much of
the illumination for the Centennial and
local pharmacist Charles Elmer Hires introduced
his new soft drink, Hires Root Beer.
City firms were also well represented among
the winners of awards for products exhibited
IN THE CRADLE OF INDUSTRY AND LIBERTY
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