Sep 24, 2020 - Sale 2546

Sale 2546 - Lot 181

Price Realized: $ 1,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(PENNSYLVANIA.) Charles E. Wriggins. Detailed memoir of eight visits to the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. 2 volumes. 3-122; 106 manuscript pages. 4to, original marbled boards, rebacked with book tape, minor wear; hinge split in first volume with first leaf (a title page?) apparently lacking and 3 leaves detached, otherwise minimal wear to contents. Philadelphia, 1876-77
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

Charles E. Wriggins (1853-1935) was a 23-year-old typesetter living with his parents in Camden, NJ when he wrote this exhaustive account of the Centennial Exposition. He visited the fair site on several occasions, and then wrote this account from December 1876 to June 1877. His first-hand observations begin with a visit to the construction site in August 1874, where he debunked an unpleasant rumor that the work was all being done by Italians. Pages 8 to 34 are devoted to his description of the construction, preliminary ceremonies, and the controversy over whether to allow attendance on the Sabbath. He describes his attendance at the 10 May 1876 opening ceremonies from pages 35 to 51, Independence Day ceremonies and parade on pages 52-75, and subsequent visits on 22 July, 24 July, 23 August, 22 September, 28 September (Pennsylvania Day), and 21 October--eight visits in total.
Among the many wonders described are the "Alligretti iceberg refrigerator" in which he observed the same frozen fish and fruit on display over multiple visits, miraculously unspoiled (page 91). Dozens of exhibition buildings and displays are described in loving detail, as are meals at various fair restaurants. He was seated next to two "Chinamen" on one visit and devoted 3 pages to these "new specimens of humanity" (pages II:16-18). He also "heard the negroes in the Virginia tobacco plantation sing a number of songs" (page I:23). The first volume closes with an earnest appeal to the future, hoping that any surviving family members might read his account during the next centennial in 1976. This is likely one of the most detailed unpublished accounts of the Exposition in existence. At 226 pages, it may be one of the most detailed accounts of anything.