June 12 & 13, 2021

This spring, travel 145 years back in time at the National Museum of Industrial History hosts 1876 World’s Fair Weekend, a celebration of engineering, industry, and culture.

Visitors can watch as a 115-ton steam engine comes to life, climb aboard a working Bethlehem Steel locomotive, or hear the melodies of the Antebellum Marine Band. ‘President Grant’ will recreate his historic speech opening the Centennial International Exhibition and engineers of all ages can try their hand at running an 1876 printing press while creating their own souvenir.

Philadelphia hosted the Centennial International Exposition in 1876, the country’s first World Fair, on a sprawling 450 acre campus that drew almost 10 million visitors from 37 countries across the span of six months.

The Exposition’s Machinery Hall, the second largest building on the grounds, plays an important role in the country’s industrial history and in the halls of NMIH. Everything from massive steam engines to intricate woodworking machinery were on display, fully introducing America’s industrial might on the world’s stage for the first time.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

11:30AM

Corliss Demo

Machinery Hall

Our massive 115-ton Corliss steam engine is a focal point of the museum’s 13,000 square foot exhibit space, where it has been mechanically restored to its former glory and repainted its original color. Join us as we operate the engine and learn more about this fascinating piece of industrial history from the museum’s historian, Mike Piersa.

12:00 PM

Meet & Greet with President Grant

Machinery Hall

Travel back in time and have a conversation with the 18th President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant! Hear about his life experiences, from his time in the Civil War to his presidency, and what it ws like to live during the 19th Century.

12:30 PM

Victorian Parlor Games

Museum Plaza

Join Victorian-era re-enactors for some old-fashioned fun! In a time before technology, parlor games were excellent entertainment for dinner parties and social events. Put on your thinking cap and get ready for some 19th century amusement!

1:30 PM

Locomotive Demo

Foundry Park

The museum’s 1941 Whitcomb diesel-electric locomotive was used at Bethlehem Steel in the electric Furnace Melt Shop where it moved charging buggies filled with scrap metal. Restored by volunteers and staff to working condition, the train operates on a little over 100 feet of demonstration track.

2:00 PM

Antebellum Marine Band

Machinery Hall

The 1876 World’s Fair Weekend will kick off each day with live music by the Antebellum Marine Band, which presents the U.S. Marine Band of the 1800’s, its look and its music, with a full woodwind section to compliment the brass.

2:30 PM

Corliss Demo with President Grant

Machinery Hall

The 18th President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, opened the 1876 World’s Fair with great fanfare. After music and a speech he led the crowds to Machinery Hall, where he and Emperor Dom Pedro of Brazil turned on the mighty Corliss engine, an engineering marvel. Join us as we re-enact this historical moment in the 21st Century!

3:00 PM

Meet & Greet with President Grant

Machinery Hall

Travel back in time and have a conversation with the 18th President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant! Hear about his life experiences, from his time in the Civil War to his presidency, and what it ws like to live during the 19th Century.

saturday only

Lecture: Bethlehem Steel and the World’s Fairs

Education Center

For over a century Bethlehem Steel and its predecessors made history at many World’s Fairs. By studying the company’s involvement in these events we can trace not just exciting displays and projects related to the fairs, but use them as a lens to take a deeper look at the diverse employees behind the products, the changing nature of work in the Lehigh Valley, and the still-evolving sense of place and community that was reflected to a global audience.

3:30 PM

Victorian Parlor Games

Museum Plaza

Join Victorian-era re-enactors for some old-fashioned fun! In a time before technology, parlor games were excellent entertainment for dinner parties and social events. Put on your thinking cap and get ready for some 19th century amusement!

Locomotive Demo

Foundry Park

The museum’s 1941 Whitcomb diesel-electric locomotive was used at Bethlehem Steel in the electric Furnace Melt Shop where it moved charging buggies filled with scrap metal. Restored by volunteers and staff to working condition, the train operates on a little over 100 feet of demonstration track.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Mike Piersa

NMIH Historian

NMIH Historian Mike Piersa. Mike graduated with a bachelor’s in history from Moravian College and a master’s in history from Lehigh University. He has been with NMIH for over 17 years and has been instrumental in the research and interpretation behind the museum’s collections as well as the restoration of historical industrial equipment both at the museum and at outside facilities. His quarry machinery preservation work resulted in him becoming an MSHA Certified Miner and taking leading roles in important restoration and preservation projects across the country, including the Bangor Quarry Hoist Project, a collaboration between the Totts Gap Arts Institute, the American Industrial Mining Company Museum, and the Borough of Bangor, PA. Mike has presented across the country on his work with industrial heritage and in 2019 published The Big Green Machine, a short book detailing the history, preservation, and operational restoration of NMIH’s 115-ton stationary steam engine.

Kenneth J. Serfass

Gunnery Sgt USMC – retired, President Grant re-enactor 

Gunnery Sgt Kenneth J. Serfass was born in Bethlehem, PA on June 18th, 1966. A US Marine since 1984, his final tour was with the First Marine Division Band during Operation Iraqi Freedom, retiring from the Marine Corps in July of 2004 to become a music teacher. Ken WAS a civil war reenactor but now is a first-person impressionist with forty-nine years of study of his childhood hero, US Grant. As a full-time professional living historian portraying Ulysses S. Grant, he presents between 11 and as many as 23 appearances each month all year long. He jokes that with some of his free time working part time as a brakeman at the Strasburg Rail Road, all his work is dependent on time travel.

It is with a profound honor that he tells the story of one of America’s greatest military leaders and Ken takes it very seriously to reaffirm Grant’s place of honor among the most respected people of our nation’s history.  His passion for the subject is evident in his presentation, and it is hard not to be affected by his enthusiasm for his subject and believe that you’ve met US Grant in living history.

1876 World’s Fair Weekend is sponsored by:


Lehigh Valley Engaged Humanities Consortium, with generous support provided by a grant to Lafayette College from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Antebellum Marine Band

 

Civil War Round Table of Eastern PA

 

Wilbur Chocolate

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