Stock Certificate for 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia — Framed

Updated on October 15, 2026: This has been sold.

One share of stock issued to Charles F. Snyder by the Centennial Board of Finance and signed on July 7, 1875. (#1829). 

This is an original certificate and in extraordinary condition.

This explanation accompanied later souvenir certificates issued by the Centennial Alumni Association:

"The stock certificate of the Centennial Exposition . . .  was engraved in the United States Treasury Engraving Department, and is a remarkably fine specimen of that class of work. The design is pyramidal, America forming the apex, with Fame and Art, personified, sitting at her feet. 

"The busts of Washington and Grant on either side, typical of the commencement and end of the century.

"America is represented as welcoming the representatives of foreign nations, who bear samples of their national industries and resources, Independence Hall and the National Capital are in the background. Beneath the former stand Fulton and Fitch, with their steamboat models, and under the latter, Franklin and Morse, with electrical and telegraphic instruments. On the right, facing the figure of America, is Howe offering his sewing-machine, also a shipwright with a model of a clipper.

"The Freedman, Continental, and Federal soldiers and mechanics form a group on the right, and a farmer, miner, trapper, and Indian, with evidences of their labor, on the left. In the centre of the base is Trumbull's painting of "The Signing of the Declaration of Independence," on the right of which is exemplified Progress—a busy manufacturing city in contrast with a neglected windmill. To the left of the base is represented Civilization—combining the railroad, telegraphs, steamship, and reaping-machine, in contrast with a Conestoga wagon, mail-rider, sailing-vessel, and a laborer with a sickle. The legend in the body of the certificate was engraved by a by a new and ingenious process, and is most creditable, as is also the printing, the Department evidently being determined to make the work worthy of the nation and the grand commemorative occasion."

Note that in the lower right hand corner, it appears that a Native America is despondent, head in hands, perhaps having surveyed the vast expanse of manufacturing facilities.

Note that this is an original, not a souvenir issued later by the Centennial Alumni Association that was reproduced from an illustration in Frank Leslie's Historical Register. 

Size of frame: 23.25" x 29.25"

Size of certificate: 16.5" x 22.5" (visible, not examined outside of frame)

Shipping: $45. Please allow two weeks for shipping.