How Women Saved the World’s Fair in Philadelphia

Philadelphia historian and author Tom Keels will present an overview of the Sesqui Centennial, the forgotten World’s Fair of 1926 ,and how Philadelphia women defied a corrupt organization to create some of the fair’s most memorable monuments.

One of the few bright spots of the Sesqui-Centennial was the High Street of 1776, a recreation of a Federal-era Market Street lined with 22 reconstructions of vanished historic structures, from William Penn’s Slate Roof House to the Jefferson Declaration House. Created by the Women’s Committee, the Street of 1776 was the Sesqui’s most popular single attraction, and one of the few to turn a profit. Other popular attractions created by women included Sulgrave Manor, a replica of the ancestral English home of the Washington family.

About Tom Keels:

Tom Keels is the author or co-author of seven published books on Philadelphia history: Wicked Philadelphia: Sin in the City of Brotherly Love; Forgotten Philadelphia: Lost Architecture of the Quaker City; Philadelphia Graveyards and Cemeteries; Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square; Chestnut Hill, and Philadelphia’s Golden Age of Retail (with Lawrence M. Arrigale).