Editing Centennial Exposition (section)

==Exhibits==
[[File:Collossal hand and torch. Bartholdi's statue of "Liberty.", from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg|thumb|The right arm and torch of [[Statue of Liberty]] at the exposition]]
[[File:Krupp Exhibit - 1876 Centennial Exhibition - Philadelphia - print.jpg|thumb|[[Germany]]'s exhibit of Krupp guns and cannons]]
[[File:Beaver Falls Cutlery Works (940).jpg|thumb|"Largest knife and fork in the world"]]
The right arm and torch of the [[Statue of Liberty]] were showcased at the exposition. For a fee of 50 cents, visitors could climb the ladder to the balcony, and the money raised this way was used to fund the pedestal for the statue.

Technologies introduced at the fair include the [[Corliss Steam Engine]]. [[Pennsylvania Railroad]] displayed the ''[[John Bull (locomotive)|John Bull]]'' [[steam locomotive]] that was originally built in 1831.<ref>{{cite journal |title=American Locomotives and Cars |author=Forney, M. N. |pages=177 |volume=IV |journal=Scribner's Magazine |issue=2 |date=August 1888 |author-link=Matthias N. Forney}}</ref> The [[Waltham Watch Company]] displayed the first automatic screw-making machinery and won the Gold Medal in the first international [[watch]] precision competition. Until the start of 2004, many of the exposition's exhibits were displayed in the [[Smithsonian Institution]]'s [[Arts and Industries Building]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], adjacent to the Castle building.

The [[German Empire]], which had recently been founded after the German victory in the [[Franco-Prussian War]] of 1870–71, did not send a very big contribution. Its main contributor were the [[Krupp steelworks]], which sent in 37 civilian (mainly railway) items and 9 artillery items. Its big [[35.5 cm MRK L/22.5|35.5&nbsp;cm]] gun of 57t was the showpiece of its contribution and drew quite some attention.<ref>{{citation |year=1876 |title=Philadelphia Exhibition 1876, Cast-steel Manufactory of Fried. Krupp |publisher=E.P. Coby & Co., New York |url=https://archive.org/details/caststeelmanufa00cent }}</ref> It was kind of a tradition for Krupp to promote its trade mark by exhibiting its heaviest gun at each world's fair. However, the Philadelphia 57t gun was considerably lighter than the British [[RML 16-inch 80-ton gun|40&nbsp;cm gun of 80t]] which was made at the same time.

The French contribution centered on art. Its showpiece was the [[Gothic Revival architecture|Gothic Revival]] high altar that [[Edward Sorin]], founder of [[University of Notre Dame]], had commissioned from the workshop of Désiré Froc-Robert & Sons in Paris. After the exposition, the altar was installed at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame's campus where it remains to this day.

For Mexico, which was emerging from a long period of internal disorder and foreign invasions, the exposition was an opportunity for the [[Liberalism in Mexico|Liberal]] regime of President [[Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada]] to garner international recognition of his regime and to counter anti-Mexican public opinion in the United States. Prominent Mexican painters including [[José María Velasco Gómez|José María Velasco]], José Obregón, and Santiago Rebull exhibited there. Velasco's work was greatly admired, gaining him international recognition and enhancing his standing in Mexico.<ref>Mauricio Tenorio-Trillo, ''Mexico at the World's Fairs: Crafting a Modern Nation''. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Perss 1996, 39–41, 55.</ref>

The Swedish Cottage, representing a rural Swedish schoolhouse of traditional style, was re-erected in [[Central Park]] in [[New York City]], after the exposition closed. It is now the [[Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre]].

The [[Japan]] exhibit included a pavilion, house, and garden with one of the first "[[Bonsai|dwarfed trees]]" to be displayed outside of Japan.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Del Tredici |first=Peter |date=June 8, 2017 |title=The Introduction of Japanese Plants Into North America |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12229-017-9184-3 |journal=The Botanical Review |volume=83 |issue=3 |pages=215–252 |doi=10.1007/s12229-017-9184-3 |bibcode=2017BotRv..83..215D |s2cid=255561128 |issn=0006-8101 |access-date=June 6, 2023 |archive-date=February 2, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240202084933/https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12229-017-9184-3 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The official state pavilion of [[New Jersey]] was a reconstruction of the [[Ford Mansion]] in [[Morristown, New Jersey]], which served as General [[George Washington]]'s headquarters during the winter of 1779–80. Featuring costumed presenters and a "colonial kitchen" complete with a spinning wheel, the reconstructed mansion was accompanied by a polemical narrative about "old-fashioned domesticity". This quaint hearth-and-home interpretation of the colonial past was counterposed to the theme of progress, with the overarching theme of the exposition serving to reinforce a view of American progress as evolving from a small, hardy colonial stock rather than from a continual influx of multi-ethnic waves of immigration. It sparked an era of "Colonial Revival" in American architecture and house furnishings.

[[Beaver Falls Cutlery Company]] exhibited the "largest knife and fork in the world" made by Chinese immigrant workers, among others.<ref name="Industrious Beaver Falls 1993" >{{cite book |last1=Anon |title=Industrious Beaver Falls |date=1993 |publisher=Beaver County Industrial Museum |location=Darlington, Pennsylvania |chapter=Gone but not forgotten: the Beaver Falls Cutlery Company}} This is based on {{cite book |last1=Anon |title=The Beaver Countian Vol III no.1 |date=1992 |location=Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania |pages=1–3 |chapter=The history and lore of Beaver Co.: the Chinese in Beaver Falls 1872}}</ref>