Sesqui: The World’s Fair that FloppedWatch ONLINE via ZOOM from the safety and comfort of your home. A link with instructions will be provided one hour prior to this virtual lecture.
presented by Thomas H. Keels
The Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition of 1926, held in South Philadelphia, was meant to be the greatest world's fair since the 1876 Centennial. Thanks to political corruption, poor planning, and the wettest summer on record, it became a crumbling, sodden, bankrupt mess, the “flop heard round the world.” Sesqui: The World’s Fair that Flopped explores how the fair became an unwitting battleground for many of the social struggles convulsing America in the 1920s: racism, anti-Semitism, women's rights, the Ku Klux Klan, eugenics, and Prohibition. It also studies the architecture of the Sesqui, from its original dazzling inception along the new Fairmount Parkway to its depressing realization as shoddily built pavilions in the swamps of South Philadelphia.
Thomas H. Keels is the author or co-author of seven books on Philadelphia history, including Sesqui: Greed, Graft and the Forgotten World’s Fair of 1926; Forgotten Philadelphia: Lost Architecture of the Quaker City; Philadelphia Graveyards and Cemeteries; and Wicked Philadelphia: Sin in the City of Brotherly Love. He is a lecturer and commentator who has addressed many of Philadelphia’s leading cultural and historical organizations. He has also appeared in numerous documentaries, including several episodes of History Making Productions’ Philadelphia: The Great Experiment.
$15 | General Admission
$10 | Alliance Member
Free | Students*
Part of Preservation Alliance's 2021 Fall Speaker Series
Series Passes are available!
$70 for Preservation Alliance members
$110 for non-members, includes a one-year individual membership.
Event Venue
pinPreservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, Philadelphia
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