On April 30, 1939, New York City welcomed the world to Flushing Meadows Park for the futuristic New York World’s Fair. This souvenir booklet expresses some of the exposition’s ambition with illustrations of a rocket port within the Transportation Building, the Speed sculpture by Joseph E. Renier, and a luminous Westinghouse Electric Building designed by architects Skidmore and Owings. The booklet’s introduction is steadfast in its optimism:
Thus the fair becomes a prophecy. It sounds a bit out of place in these troubled times to speak of peace and progress when everything sounds of war and retrogression, but we firmly believe that the underlying truths which have been initiated by science and education are irresistible, and will not be stopped in their ever-increasing march toward “The World of Tomorrow.”
Exposition Souvenir Corp. Views of the New York World’s Fair. 1939. New-York Historical Society.
One of the highlights of the Fair was Joseph E. Renier’s equestrian “Speed”:
On April 30, 1939, New York City welcomed the world to Flushing Meadows Park for the futuristic New York World’s Fair. This souvenir booklet expresses some of the exposition’s ambition with illustrations of a rocket port within the Transportation Building, the Speed sculpture by Joseph E. Renier, and a luminous Westinghouse Electric Building designed by architects Skidmore and Owings. The booklet’s introduction is steadfast in its optimism:
Thus the fair becomes a prophecy. It sounds a bit out of place in these troubled times to speak of peace and progress when everything sounds of war and retrogression, but we firmly believe that the underlying truths which have been initiated by science and education are irresistible, and will not be stopped in their ever-increasing march toward “The World of Tomorrow.”
Exposition Souvenir Corp. Views of the New York World’s Fair. 1939. New-York Historical Society.
One of the highlights of the Fair was Joseph E. Renier’s equestrian “Speed”:
