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, also known as International Expositions, are large-scale exhibitions that highlight technology, agriculture, and other innovations of national or cultural significance. The Century 21 Exposition, also known as the Seattle World's Fair, ran from April 21 to October 21, 1962. It began as an effort by Seattle city councilman Al Rochester (1895-1989) to revitalize the downtown core and recreate the success of the city's Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909. It evolved within a few years under the direction of general manager Ewen Dingwall (1914-1996). He changed the initial "Festival of the West" theme to "America's Space Age World's Fair." This item is a first edition souvenir commemorative album documenting the first transcontinental telephone call via the groundbreaking Telestar Satellite from U.S. Senator Warren G. Magnuson (1905-1989) and Senator Robert Kerr (1896-1963), calling Washington State Governor Albert Rosellini (1910-2011) and Ewen Dingwall from atop the newly constructed, 600-foot-high Space Needle.

The Exposicion Internacional del Centenario commemorated the centennial of the May Revolution in Argentina and its consequent independence from Spain. It was an international exhibition that was held in 1910 between May and November in the capital of Buenos Aires. The photographs in the album consist of views of France's exhibit and include the exterior and interior of the pavilion.

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.