The 1939-1940 New York World's Fair

The theme of the 1939-1940 World's Fair was "Building the World of Tomorrow." Built on the site of an ash dump in Flushing Meadow, New York, the architecture of the fair's buildings, gateways, and monuments was strictly modern: straight lines; flat roofs; liberal use of stainless steel, glass, and stucco; streamlined art deco decoration; and pastel colors. The symbols of the Fair were a 700-foot high spire called the Trylon, and a 200-foot diameter sphere called the Perisphere. Inside the Perisphere was a multi-media display of a conceptual City of Tomorrow, to show how the world might look in the year 2039, one hundred years hence. The exterior surfaces of the steel-framed Trylon and Perisphere were coated with white plaster and were lighted at night in such a way as to make them seem ethereal and floating.

Many of the products we routinely use today were introduced during the two-year-long fair. RCA exhibited color televisions, AT&T introduced long-distance telephone service, Ford and Chrysler exhibited automobiles with safety glass and seatbelts, Borden displayed a working farm where cows were automatically milked, and dozens of companies showed off their latest innovations in frozen and pre-packaged foods. All of these products were designed to relieve the drudgery and tedium of everyday tasks, and to allow consumers the luxury of leisure time.

At the east side of the fairgrounds, near the Flushing River, was the Lagoon of Nations where the pavilions of over sixty foreign nations were constructed. About twenty of the foreign pavilions contained opulent restaurants that served the best native cuisine each nation had to offer.