Watch 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. 

Sesqui: The World’s Fair that Flopped

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*

If you have been affected by the pandemic and would like to attend this virtual lecture but cannot afford to do so, please email Vinni Cheng on vcheng@preservationalliance.com for complimentary access.

*Email photo of valid student ID to Vinni Cheng to register as a student.

View speaker schedule at https://www.preservationalliance.com/fall-speaker-series-2021/