What was the official name of Philadelphia’s 1926 fair marking 150 years of American independence?

Philadelphia’s 1926 fair was officially called the Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition.

The exposition marked the 150th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. It also commemorated the 50th anniversary of Philadelphia’s 1876 Centennial Exposition, making the event both a national anniversary and a retrospective on the earlier world’s fair.

The fair opened on July 4, 1926, in Philadelphia. Its name used sesquicentennial, the established term for a 150th anniversary. President Calvin Coolidge was the national president during the exposition, and the event included large exhibition grounds, architectural displays, and commercial attractions.

The 1926 celebration is a useful predecessor to America250. The United States’ major anniversary sequence is commonly described as the centennial in 1876, sesquicentennial in 1926, bicentennial in 1976, and semiquincentennial in 2026.