Finding Aids

The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 celebrated the one hundreth anniversary of American Independence. Held in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, it was the first major U.S. world's fair. This collection contains Centennial Exhibition photographs, albums, scrapbooks, and ephemera

World's Fairs or International Expositions are large-scale exhibitions highlighting technology, agriculture, and other innovations of national or cultural significance. The New York World's Fair occurred in Flushing Meadows, Queens, from April 30, 1939, to October 31, 1940. The theme was "The World of Tomorrow." This souvenir diary and photograph album combines official drawings and photographic images of buildings at the 1939 New York World's Fair with a personal photograph album and diary section, in which the reader was to record his or her own memories of the fair. The diarist who completed this souvenir remains unidentified.