Centennial Exploration

History – Discovery – Invention

Throughout the new museum, families can explore and take in the magnificent architecture and history of Memorial Hall and the 1876 Centennial Exhibition. Since Memorial Hall is one of the last remaining vestiges of this important piece of American history, a "journey" throughout the building is planned to aid in the visitors’ understanding of the ‘who, what, where, when and why’ of Memorial Hall. The journey takes on a whole new meaning when visitors enter the bustling train station in the Centennial Exploration zone, filled with the sights and sounds of long ago. Visitors can relive the personal histories of everyday and famous people who visited the Centennial and play with and explore inventions unveiled at the Fair: the telephone, the typewriter, root beer and kindergarten, and make comparisons between the world of "then" and "now."

The highlight of this zone is the 20’ by 30’ model of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition created in 1890. In the mid 1880s, John Baird–a former member of the Centennial Board of Finance–started the ambitious project to record the history of the Centennial in miniature. Months of archival research and preparatory drafting led to the hiring of highly skilled mechanics to construct, carve and paint the buildings and other objects depicted in 1 in 192 scale. It was first exhibited in 1889 at the Spring Garden Institute and later gifted by Baird to the City of Philadelphia.