How the nation’s 150th celebration in Philadelphia went very wrong

How the nation’s 150th celebration in Philadelphia went very wrong

In the first years of the 1920s, the mayor of Philadelphia was the city’s biggest proponent of having a Sesquicentennial to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the nation’s founding. “W. Freeland Kendrick was a real publicity hound. He understood the value of media. He was much more of a modern politician than many of his contemporaries. He knew that hosting a successful World’s Fair would put Philadelphia on the world map, that all cameras would…