Philadelphia hosted the 1926 Sesquicentennial Exposition, a major event marking 150 years since American independence.
The exposition ran in South Philadelphia from May to November 1926. Its name refers to a sesquicentennial, or 150th anniversary. Philadelphia was selected because of its central place in the founding story: the Continental Congress met there, the Declaration was adopted there, and the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall were powerful national symbols.
The event included exhibition buildings, entertainment, industrial displays, and an art museum intended to become the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Attendance was lower than organizers hoped, and the exposition faced financial and management problems. Even so, it formed part of the United States’ sequence of major anniversary observances: the centennial in 1876, the sesquicentennial in 1926, the bicentennial in 1976, and the semiquincentennial in 2026.