Great Central Fair, Philadelphia, 1864

In June of eighteen sixty-four, Logan Square became the site of one of the largest civilian fundraising events of the Civil War. The United States Sanitary Commission organized the Great Central Fair here from June seventh through June twenty-eighth, filling the square with exhibits, entertainment, and auctions to raise money for Union soldiers and their families.

The Commission had been formed to coordinate the overwhelming volunteer effort by women across the North, who organized into thousands of local aid societies supplying hospitals, distributing food, and supporting the wounded. The Philadelphia fair raised more than one million dollars in three weeks, an enormous sum. President Abraham Lincoln made his only official public appearance in Philadelphia during the fair, addressing the crowd on June sixteenth and praising the volunteers as indispensable to the war effort. The square where you're standing now witnessed that speech.