Join us for the first lecture in a series of three presentations on Sesqui! Greed, Graft, and the Forgotten World's Fair of 1926 by local historian Thomas Keels in commemoration of America's 250th anniversary.

The Sesqui Sinks: The Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition of 1926, held in South Philadelphia, was meant to be the greatest world's fair since the 1876 Centennial. Thanks to political corruption, greed, egotism, and the wettest summer on record, it became a crumbling, sodden, bankrupt mess, Philadelphia's "forgotten fair." The Sesqui served as a symbol for the city's monolithic Republican Organization, where one boss (Congressman William S. Vare, the "Duke of South Philadelphia") could kidnap an entire world's fair and transfer it from the newly completed Fairmount Parkway to the swamps of South Philly, his congressional district. This talk also explores how the Sesqui became an unwitting battleground for many of the social struggles convulsing America in the 1920s: racism, anti-Semitism, women's rights, the Ku Klux Klan, eugenics, and Prohibition.

Register for the next lectures in this series The Ladies of the Street on Monday, July 13 and With Liberty and Justice for A Few on Monday, July 20.

About the presenter: Thomas H. Keels is a lecturer, writer, and commentator specializing in Philadelphia history and architecture. He is the author or co-author of seven published books on Philadelphia history, including Sesqui! Greed, Graft, and the Forgotten World’s Fair of 1926; Wicked Philadelphia: Sin in the City of Brotherly Love; Forgotten Philadelphia: Lost Architecture of the Quaker City; and Philadelphia Graveyards and Cemeteries. A confirmed taphophile (Greek for “lover of graves”), Tom has been a tour guide at Laurel Hill Cemetery for thirty years. Visit his website at www.thomaskeels.com.

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