Power & posterity: American art at Philadelphia's 1876 Centennial Exhibition

Introduction : writing history : a national reckoning in Fairmount Park

Confrontation in Philadelphia : artists create a canon of American art

The American art exhibition : arguments on the walls

Experiencing the nation's first blockbuster exhibition

Critics' responses : American progress and imaginary exhibitions

The foreign exhibitors and the American "taste test"

The collectors' riposte : the New York centennial loan exhibition

Conclusion : rewriting history : the awards controversy and the afterlives of the centennial exhibition.