This jug commemorates the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876, an international fair that marked the 100th anniversary of the United States’ independence. Two transfer-printed images signify the milestone dates:  Independence Hall for 1776 and the Centennial’s Memorial Hall for 1876. Thirty-eight stars, one for each state then in the union, surround the rim of the jug, while the names of the 13 original colonies encircle its neck. 

The Centennial Exhibition was an enormous undertaking that sprawled over 285 acres of Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park with some 250 structures and pavilions. The fair was open from May to November of 1876; at a time when the nation’s population was approximately 46 million, attendance at the fair was nearly 10 million. Almost all the structures built for the fair were intended to be temporary. Memorial Hall, which is depicted on the jug and which housed an art exhibition during the fair, was one of the few intended to be permanent, and is the only major structure from the fair that remains.