Credits  

This site was created by students at Villanova University as their course project for HIS 2998 "Topics In History: Material Culture," during the Fall Semester of 1998.  Additional projects were added during the Spring Semester of 2003.  After a series of readings in the methodology of material culture studies, the students embarked on a study of the material culture of the Centennial Exhibition, held in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park in 1876.  To our knowledge, at the time of its creation, this was the first close examination of material culture of the Centennial and the first World Wide Web site to present an analysis of this international exhibition.
    Please respect the copyrights of the authors by giving them proper credit for any work that you cite.   

Dr. Charlene Mires
Assistant Professor of History, Project Coordinator
   

Special Thanks to:

The Villanova Institute for Teaching and Learning (VITAL)  

Provided a grant to support course development, materials, and student research expenses.

The Free Library of Philadelphia  

Unless otherwise indicated, black and white photographs are from the Print and Picture Collection.  Thanks also to the librarians in the Central Business Center, the Art Department, the Music Department, and other collections employed in research for this site.

Fairmount Park  

For opening Memorial Hall and the Park Archives for research purposes.

Villanova University's Falvey Library  

Thanks to the staff of the Reserve Room for providing essential research materials.

Villanova University Instructional Technologies (UNIT)  

Including Catherine Kolongowski, Joan Lesovitz, and the staffs of the Multimedia Lab and Tolentine Hall Computer Lab.

Villanova University Department of History  

American Studies Association Crossroads Project  

Site Design by John Biedrzycki  

This project was inspired by the writings of Thomas Schlereth of the University of Notre Dame and by the teaching of Allen F. Davis at Temple University.