Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1875 — Centennial Affairs. [ARTICLE]

Centennial Affairs.

Tint Women’a Centennial Executive. Committee have raised $30,000 for the erection of a pavilion in which to exhibit every kind of women’s Work. To this collection women of all nations are ex to contribute. . PowEit 1P the Machinery Hall will be chiefly suppTTM fey a P a >r of monster Corliss engines. Each ovjinder is forty inches in diameter, with a stniSo of ten teet; the fly-wheel is thirty-one feet ip diameter, and weighs fifty-five tons; the hor«e-power is 1,400, and the number of boilers is twenty. This engine drives about a mile of shafting. The Secretary of the Navy has arranged' that a United States war vessel shall call next spring at convenient European ports to collect and transport hither to the Exhibition the works of American artists resident in Europe. Amon£ the ports thus far designated are Southampton for England, Havre for France, Bremen for Germany and Leghorn for Italy, to which, il desirable, others may be added.

Mr_ Bell, lhe eminent English sculptor, who designed the groups for the plinth for the great Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, London, is reproducing in terra cotta, at the celebrated works in Lambeth, the one which symbolizes America. The figures in this group are colossal, covering a ground space of fifteen feet square. It will probably be placed in the great central gallery, opposite the principal entrance.

An important special exhibition will be made by the United States Government and is being prepared under the supervision of a board of officers representing the several executive departments of the Government. Affine building of four and one-half acres is provided for the purpose, space in which will be occupied by the War, Treasury, Navy, Interior, Postoffice and Agricultural Departments and the Smithsonian Institution. The Machinery building, like the others, is already fully covered by applications. Tliere are about 1,000 American exhibitors in this department, 1.50 English and 150 from other European countries — which is about 250 more than entered the Vienna Machinery Exhibition. Extra provision is being made for annexes to accommodate the hydraulic machinery, the steam hammers, forges, hoisting engines, boilers, plumbers, carpenters, etc. The Centennial grounds are situated on the western bank of the Schuylkill River, and within Fairmount Park, the largest public park in proximity to a great city in the world, and one of the most beautiful in the country. The park contains 3.160 acres, 450 of which have been inclosed for the Exhibition. Besides this tract there will lie large yards near by for the exhibition of stock, and a farm of forty-two acres has already been suitably planted for the tests of plows, mowers, reapers and other agricultural machinery. The Art Exhibition will include in addition to the works of contemporary artists representative productions of the past century of American art—those, for instance, of Stuart, Copley. Trumbull, West, Alston, Sully, N eagle, Elliot, Kensett, Cole. These, as well as the works offered by living artists, will be passed upon by the Committee of Selection, who will visit for the purpose New York, Boston, Chicago and other leading cities, in order to prevent the needless transportation to Philadelphia ot works of art not up to the standard of admission.

The Exhibition buildings are approached by eight lines of street-cars, which connect with all the other lines in tlie city, and by the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroads, over the tracks of which trains will also run from the North Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroads. Thus the Exhibition is in immediate connection with the entire railroad system of the country, and anyone within ninety miles of Philadelphia can visit it at no greater cost than that of carriage hire at the Paris or Vienna Exhibition. For the Art Exhibition the most eminent American artists are understood to be at work, and it maybe confidently stated that, especially in the department of landscape painting, the United States will present a finer display than the public has been led to expect. Quite aside from the contributions of American artists, applies-, tions from abroad call for more than four times the exhibiting space afforded by the great Memorial Hall. Provision for the surplus he made in temporary fireproof buildings, though all exhibiting nations will be represented in the central Art Gallery. The list of special buildings is constantly increasing and present indications are that their total number will be from 200 to 250. Most of the important foreign nations England, Germany, Austria, France, Sweden, Egypt, Japan and others —are putting up one or more structures each for exhibiting purposes or for the use of the Commissmners, exhibitors and visitors. Offices and headquarters of this kind, usually of considerable architectural beauty, are provided by the States ot Pennsylania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Missouri, Kansas, Virginia, West Virginia, Nevada, Wisconsin, lowa and Delaware ; and it is likely that others will follow the example. The articles to be exhibited have been classified in seven departments, which, for the most part, will be located in appropriate buildings, whose several areas are as follows: Department. Bulldingt. Amt Covered. 1. Min’g <t Met’l’gy, 1 2. Manufactures, j-Maln Building 21.47 3. Kdncat'n and Set. ) 4. Art Art Gallery -. 1.5 5. Machinery Machinery Build’? 14. t. Agriculture Agricultural Building.. .10. -fr-Hertieattarr,:..ltorticaiturat Bnfiarug. .~ES~ Total 48.47 This provides nearly ten more acres for exhibiting space than there were at Vienna, the largest International Exhibition yet held. Yet the applications of exhibitors have been so numerous as to exhaust the space, and many important classes of objects must be provided for in special buildings. A number of trade and industrial associations, which require large amounts of space, will be provided for in special buildings. Among these are the photographers, the I carriage builders, the glass makers, ' the cracker bakers, the .boot and shoe manufacturers, Irides quite a number of individ/tml exhibitors. The great demands for space will probably render this course necessary to a considerable extent, especially for exhibitors who have been tardy in making their applications. In tlie. main Exhibition building, for example/ 2 833,300 square feet of space had been ap plied for by the beginning of October by American exhibitors only; whereas, the aggregate space which it has been possible to reserve for the United States Department is only IGO,OOO square feet, about one-third oi which will be consumed by passage-ways.