Sesquicentennial Exposition
1926 exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
The Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition of 1926 was a world's fair in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its purpose was to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence, and the 50th anniversary of the 1876 Centennial Exposition.
History
Planning
In 1916, the idea for a Sesquicentennial Exposition stemmed from the mind of John Wanamaker, who was the only living member of the Centennial Exposition's Finance Committee. At the time Philadelphia was a booming city, in terms of size and opportunity; however, it suffered from corruption on political and financial fronts. Wanamaker was well aware of the city's corruption, and believed a fair could redeem Philadelphia's reputation. He believed by hosting another world's fair, the restoration of the city's integrity, patriotism, and industry would emerge. By the end of August 1916, Wanamaker received the support of Howard French, the president of the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. In October, plans were underway, and French assigned a committee responsible for planning the "Great International Exposition of Philadelphia in 1926". The Fairmount Parkway, which was under construction, would be the official site of the exposition. In 1917 the United States found itself involved in World War I, which caused the planning for the Sesquicentennial Exposition to be placed on hold.
“Sesquicentennial Exposition” enters the record as 1926 exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Sesquicentennial, Exposition and exposition can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7456097. VIAF identifies the subject as 134841101. Authority coordinates are 39.909, -75.173. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1926, 1876, 1916 and 1917.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sesquicentennial Exposition” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.