Marina Moskowitz in her book Standards of Living goes to great lengths to demonstrate the importance of the Centennial Exhibition to making silver plate a normal and acceptable part of American households. It also helped to overcome the prejudice that people had against silver plate as being an object that was poorly made. Her work focuses on Reed and Barton and its involvement in this process. She mentions how awards from these exhibitions were used in advertisements as well as allowing people to view the wares. She also mentions that news coverage of exhibitions also provided important advertisement in educating and shaping public opinion.
This article from the New York Times Archive dated December 17 1876 covers the involvement of the Meriden Britannia Company. It covers their signature finish and how they were received by the public.
You can read the full article in .pdf format here.
I have not done any research there yet, but there is a digital collection of material from the Centennial Exhibition.
You can check it out here. If you find something interesting let me know.
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