Mill Talk: 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in Historic 3D Stereophotographs
Mill Talk: 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in Historic 3D Stereophotographs revisits the first major international World’s Fair held in the United States. The 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition marked the nation’s 100th anniversary and showcased America’s post–Civil War industrial and commercial growth, attracting more than 10 million visitors to its extensive exhibition grounds.
Presented by George L. Mutter, Professor of Pathology Emeritus at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Photoarchive3D, the talk uses digitized 19th-century stereophotographs projected in high-resolution 3D. The images offer a window into the fair’s mechanical, agricultural, artistic, domestic, international, and women’s exhibition halls, as well as innovations including an early monorail, an arm of the Statue of Liberty, a gasoline engine, and the enormous Corliss steam engine. The presentation uses original vintage photographs rather than AI-generated imagery, and 3D glasses will be provided.
When: Wednesday, November 18, 2026
Showtimes: 7:00 PM–8:00 PM
Tickets: Free to the public. Registration is required.
Presenter: George L. Mutter, Professor of Pathology Emeritus at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Photoarchive3D.
Content: The presentation draws on a selection of approximately 40,000 original stereo images in the Photoarchive3D collection. Many of these photographs have not been publicly seen for a century.
About the presenter: George Mutter and Bernard Fishman have more than five decades of combined experience studying and collecting historic stereophotographs. Mutter trained in medicine at Harvard and Columbia, has written more than 120 scientific papers, and has given invited lectures internationally.
Technology: The stereophotographs will be shown in high-resolution 3D as originally intended, and glasses will be supplied.
Run time: One hour.
Venue: Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation, 154 Moody St, Waltham, Massachusetts 02453.
Note: Mill Talks are made possible with support from the Lowell Institute.