Book excerpt: With nearly 800 stunning illustrations, experience the most comprehensive contemporary visual tour of the great 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Built to celebrate the 100th anniversary of The United States, the Great Centennial Exhibition of 1876 will forever be remembered as one of the most successful World's Fairs in American history. This massive collection of images, period accounts, and journalism from the era details every step of the Exhibition with digitally scanned engravings enhanced with modern tools from an oversized master source. Millions of visitors enjoyed the Exhibition in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park and now, modern readers can enjoy what they saw through the eyes and the tools of the world's most talented contemporary artists. Witness the construction of the Fair, the crowds, the opening, the parties, the buildings, the triumphs, and the tragedies. The writer's intent was to "furnish a permanent, truthful, and beautiful chronicle of the Congress of Nations assembled in friendly competition in Philadelphia in 1876," and "to afford a complete history of exhibitive effort in the past, and an artistic and discriminating record of the Great Centennial, the entire work illustrated in the highest style of art, and forming altogether a magnificent Memorial of the Colossal Exhibition in Fairmount Park." -Lavishly illustrated with nearly 800 illustrations drawn for this work -Digital remastered and enhanced from an 1876 oversized print -Brand-new cover design created for this enhanced version -Crisp black and white engravings that show details from the event -Contemporary accounts of the fairgrounds, buildings, and events.