The Iron Wheel's Shadow The Centennial Exhibition of 1876 was a spectacle of innovation and progress, but its shadow lies in the labor practices that fueled this growth. Historian Fergus M.
Bordewich notes in his book Centennial: The Great Fair of 1876 and the Invention of America’s Future that the fair's celebration of industrial might belied a country grappling with social inequality and violence.
The exhibition, held on the 100th anniversary of American independence, was a marvel of engineering.