January 10, 2000
Back to the Future via World's Fairs
Tidbit Archive
| The introduction to the first
edition of Technology and the Future opened with a discussion
of the Century of Progress International Exposition held in Chicago in
1933. "In the great world's fair tradition," I wrote in 1972, "this
extravagant celebration aimed to demonstrate what technology was capable
of doing for humanity. In the process, it brought out dramatically
what one author has called 'technology's triumph over man.'" Nowhere was
this more evident than in the Exposition's motto: "SCIENCE FINDS--INDUSTRY
APPLIES--MAN CONFORMS."
World's fairs can reveal a great deal about our changing attitudes toward technology and the future. While most are temporary affairs, many live on on web sites constructed by scholars, fair aficionados, and nostalgia addicts. The links below will take you to some of the best. You'll see Dr. Scholl's scientific shoe exhibit in the Hall of Science (Chicago, 1933) and you'll learn that the organizers of the 1964-65 New York World's Fair asked the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission to provide a mobile nuclear reactor for their event (the AEC declined). You'll see how visitors to the 1939 New York fair were shown "the wonder of long distance telephone calls." And, if you have RealAudio and a high speed connection, you'll even get to visit (on film) General Motors' famed "Futurama." The message you will get, just as the organizers intended, will be, as David Gelernter wrote in 1939--The Lost World of the Fair, "Technology: Good." |
Links:Alan Anderson's site for the 1939-40 New York World's Fair, lovingly constructed, with the author's personal reminiscences, comments from other world's fair enthusiasts, links, and much more
Welcome to Tomorrow -- The New York World's Fair of 1939, an elaborate paean to one of the most famous of all world's fairs -- includes such gems as a photo of the Lucky Strike building (in the shape of giant cigarette pack) and several wonderful film clips
Jeffrey Stanton's site on the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, with clickable maps leading to information about all 140 pavilions
Expo 67 -- The Montreal World's Fair, also by Jeffrey Stanton and similar in structure to the above
World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago , 1893): Idea, Experience, Aftermath, artistically done, with illustrations and analysis, as a thesis in American Studies in the English Department at the University of Virginia
A Century of Progress International Exposition: Chicago, 1933-34, with extensive illustrations and text from the original guidebook
World's Fair Mania, meeting place for world's fair maniacs (er, enthusiasts), hosted by David Prill
Index of World's Fair and Exposition Collectibles at the Forum On-line Antiques Mall (lots of neat world's fair souvenirs for sale)
