Held in Philadelphia from May 10 through October 10, the 1876 Centennial Exhibition celebrated the 100th anniversary of American independence. Philadelphia hosted 37 nations in five main buildings and 250 additional structures on 285 acres of land. The celebration looked backward to commemorate the progress made over the 100-year period, and it announced to the world that American invention and innovation was on a par with that of our foreign counterparts. Patriotism abounded, as did messages of industrial and commercial prowess that promised a brighter future for all. Over nine million people attended this awesome consumer spectacle, an event that set the tone for a long series of world's fairs yet to come.
Designing the Centennial is an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the planning of America's first important world's fair -- the 1876 United States Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. The conflicts between the players -- scientists and engineers, planners and politicians, organizers and their audience -- demonstrate wider cultural clashes between a traditional view of things as object lessons and our more current understanding of things as commodities. Bruno Giberti uses the official reports of the U.S. Centennial Commission and photographs of the Centennial Photographic Company, as well as the ephemera of the exhibition and literary accounts in books, magazines, and newspapers to examine the concept of world's fairs, contrasting the 1876 event with other nineteenth- and early twentieth-century exhibitions and related institutions. The author goes beyond previous works on world's fairs by investigating the design process and by considering the nature of display -- what people were looking at and how they were looking.
Explores the art exhibits at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, along with the circumstances of their creation, the ideological positions expressed through their installation, and the responses of viewers, including critics, collectors, and the general public.
Fair Park Deco is a fascinating tour of the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition. Like every American exposition in the 1930s, it began in economic depression. Although its economy had been buoyed by major oil discoveries in the early '30s, Texas agriculture was hard hit by the Great Depression. By the middle of the decade, state officials had set their sights on a great centennial celebration to help stimulate the economy and attract tourist dollars. "If during the next six months the people of the state could become filled with the idea of holding a big celebration on the one hundredth anniversary of the establishment of Texas independence," the state's centennial commission speculated in July, 1934, "it would have the effect of creating a general forward-looking spirit through the state. It would be more stimulating than anything we can think of, and this effect would be immediate." This book focuses specifically on the Art Deco art and architecture of Fair Park--the public spaces, buildings, sculptures and murals that were designed for the 1936 exposition. Most of the chapters in the book represent different areas of Fair Park, with buildings and artwork effectively arranged in the same order that a visitor to the Texas Centennial Exposition might have seen them. The art and architecture are featured in original photography by Jim Parsons and David Bush as well as in historic photographs. Fair Park is one of the finest collections of Deco architecture in the country, but it is so much more: the embodiment of Texan swagger, it is a testament to the Texanic task of creating a dazzling spectacle in the darkest days of the Depression.
Frank Leslie's illustrated historical register of the Centennial Exposition is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1876. Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine, and other genres.As a publisher we focus on the preservation of historical literature.Many works of historical writers and scientists are available today as antiques only. Hansebooks newly publishes these books and contributes to the preservation of literature which has become rare and historical knowledge for the future.
Irving Penn (1917-2009) was among the most esteemed and influential photographers of the twentieth century. Over the course of a nearly seventy-year career, he mastered a pared-down aesthetic of studio photography that is distinguished for its meticulous attention to composition, nuance, and detail. This indispensable book features one of the largest selections of Penn's photographers ever compiled–nearly 300 in all–including famous and beloved images as well as works that have never been published. Celebrating the centennial of Penn's birth, this lavish volume spans the entirety of his groundbreaking career. An enlightening introduction situates his work in the context of the various artistic, social, and political environments and events that affected the content of his photographs. Lively essays acquaint readers with Penn's primary subjects and campaigns, including early documentary scenes and imagery; portraits of cultural figures and celebrities; fashion; female nudes; peoples of Peru, Dahomey (Benin), New Guinea, and Morocco; and still lifes. Rounding out the book are discussions of Penn's advertising pictures and his painstaking printing processes, as well as an illustrated chronology. Irving Penn: Centennialis essential for any fan of this artist's work or of the history of twentieth-century photography.
The Tennessee Centennial Exposition, which celebrated Tennessee's 100th year of statehood, opened May 1, 1897, at Nashville's Centennial Park and enjoyed tremendous success during its six-month run. Citizens from all over Tennessee--and the nation--honored the state's history by sponsoring exhibits at the event, and thousands of visitors flocked to the fairgrounds each day to experience the excitement it offered. In this fascinating collection of over 200 images combined with informative, well-researched text, author Bobby Lawrence takes us on a journey into the past to relive the optimism and wonders of another time. Take a relaxing gondola ride on one of the park's four lakes or stroll the 200-acre grounds and visit a variety of buildings and exhibits featuring everything from ancient artifacts to scientific inventions, from on-site farms to international restaurants, from the thrilling Vanity Fair, a midway attraction comparable to today's amusement parks, to one of the first large displays of electric lights.
Robert W. Rydell contends that America's early world's fairs actually served to legitimate racial exploitation at home and the creation of an empire abroad. He looks in particular to the "ethnological" displays of nonwhites—set up by showmen but endorsed by prominent anthropologists—which lent scientific credibility to popular racial attitudes and helped build public support for domestic and foreign policies. Rydell's lively and thought-provoking study draws on archival records, newspaper and magazine articles, guidebooks, popular novels, and oral histories.
With nearly 800 stunning illustrations, experience the most comprehensive contemporary visual tour of the great 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Built to celebrate the 100th anniversary of The United States, the Great Centennial Exhibition of 1876 will forever be remembered as one of the most successful World's Fairs in American history. This massive collection of images, period accounts, and journalism from the era details every step of the Exhibition with digitally scanned engravings enhanced with modern tools from an oversized master source. Millions of visitors enjoyed the Exhibition in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park and now, modern readers can enjoy what they saw through the eyes and the tools of the world's most talented contemporary artists. Witness the construction of the Fair, the crowds, the opening, the parties, the buildings, the triumphs, and the tragedies. The writer's intent was to "furnish a permanent, truthful, and beautiful chronicle of the Congress of Nations assembled in friendly competition in Philadelphia in 1876," and "to afford a complete history of exhibitive effort in the past, and an artistic and discriminating record of the Great Centennial, the entire work illustrated in the highest style of art, and forming altogether a magnificent Memorial of the Colossal Exhibition in Fairmount Park." -Lavishly illustrated with nearly 800 illustrations drawn for this work -Digital remastered and enhanced from an 1876 oversized print -Brand-new cover design created for this enhanced version -Crisp black and white engravings that show details from the event -Contemporary accounts of the fairgrounds, buildings, and events.
