Archives Puzzles: A Centennial Celebration

Have a little fun with images from our collections that have been designated as open access. Anyone can now download, transform, share, and reuse millions of images as part of Smithsonian Open Access.

Each Monday, sit back, relax, and ease into the work week with puzzles created from images in our collections that have been designated as open access. Anyone can now download, transform, share, and reuse these images as part of Smithsonian Open Access, launched in 2020.

One hundred years after nearly ten million visitors explored the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, the Smithsonian Institution opened 1876: A Centennial Exhibition in the Arts and Industries Building in 1976.

Following the major world’s fair to commemorate one hundred years of American independence, Smithsonian Secretary Spencer F. Baird convinced many of the original exhibitors to donate their specimens and objects to the United States National Museum. As a result, the Smithsonian acquired 62 boxcars of materials in 4,000 cartons.

In 1976, the Arts and Industries Building was restored to resemble the Centennial Exhibition. On its opening day, Secretary S. Dillon Ripley and Chief Justice Warren E. Burger arrived in the horse-drawn carriage that had carried President Ulysses S. Grant to the 1876 exhibition. This week’s puzzle is an interior view of displays in 1976.

The Original

Interior view of the Arts and Industries Building when 1876: A Centennial Exhibition was on display.

The Puzzle 

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