https://shadowfair1939.cargo.site Shadow Fair: The Unfinished Business of 'The World of Tomorrow' Fri, 28 Dec 2018 17:11:52 +0000 https://shadowfair1939.cargo.site en https://shadowfair1939.cargo.site/Introduction Sun, 25 Nov 2018 15:02:36 +0000 Shadow Fair: The Unfinished Business of 'The World of Tomorrow' https://shadowfair1939.cargo.site/Introduction <img width="1256" height="934" width_o="1256" height_o="934" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/166014e34c82531f8bc9f2359efa62cce26100d4b3e4729e15092c2b2c6e3b20/TrylonPerisp-drwg.png" data-mid="31860367" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/166014e34c82531f8bc9f2359efa62cce26100d4b3e4729e15092c2b2c6e3b20/TrylonPerisp-drwg.png" /> A retro-speculative epilogue (Present day—....) The research contained in this site began years ago as a thought experiment in 2018, written in anticipation of the eightieth anniversary of the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair. As a longtime collector of Fair ephemera I used the opportunity of a timely academic 2019 RISD sabbatical to explore the New York Public Library’s official records and visual archive of the Fair as well as other related materials from 1939. As our divisive national politics became more pitched in advance of the 2020 presidential election, contemporary geopolitical alignments with the troubling conditions of 1939 became more and more apparent; I was preoccupied with this historical rhyming during my 2019 sabbatical as I delved into research on the Fair. In the present moment, our precarious democracy is at risk yet again after our 2024 election. What began with an anxious restaging of the 2020 electoral faceoff between the same contenders as a kind of grotesque theater of aged white male ‘unfinished business’ ended with President Biden’s extraordinary decision to step down, putting forward instead Vice President Kamala Harris—our first Black and South Asian woman candidate—who among her many stellar qualifications had previously served as a state public prosecutor and California Senator. She was pitted against a disgraced twice-impeached former president who had falsely claimed his own 2020 victory, engaging fringe militant groups and other supporters to stage an insurrection on January 6, 2021 and breach the Capitol in an unprecedented violent attack. He was subsequently found guilty of thirty-six related felonies, together with other guilty verdicts of rape, fraud, and stealing classified documents. With his shocking return to power, having narrowly (but legitmately) won the 2024 vote for President—and with a trifecta of Republican victories in the House and Senate—this research project’s future-tense voice has become its past. It’s time to re-read Sinclair Lewis’s prophetic 1935 dystopian novel, “It Can’t Happen Here; we have indeed been here before. Now it’s everyone’s duty to read the chilling “Project 2025 Mandate for Leadership: the Conservative Promise” to see where we are likely headed as the lure of authoritarianism has captured the imagination of those currently in power.&nbsp; It’s impossible, or at least beyond the scope of this part of the research, to keep faithful account of all the events that lead us to this present moment—from the murder of George Floyd and the origin of the Black Lives Matter movement; the global COVID pandemic and its lasting effects; the fractious 2020 election and the violent January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol where democracy was tested to its limits; the rapid succession of ultraconservative Supreme Court rulings that are systematically dismantling our democratic rights—to reproductive freedom; to access to free and fair elections; to fair treatment for all under the rule of law, and more—to the dominant global trend toward technocratic oligarchies, the endless wars in the Ukraine and Palestine and across the colonized globe, and the irreversable effects of climate change that are the dark legacy of the very industries the 1939 World’s Fair promoted. This site is now a kind of time capsule, evident in the writing and the links within, but my preoccupations with the themes of the Fair—Democracy and Progress—continue. As each news cyle collapses the world of tomorrow with the events of today, this research itself, for now, remains my own ‘unfinished business.’ — Bethany Sage Johns, 2024 ____________________________ Introduction (2019) Shadow Fair: The Unfinished Business of the World of Tomorrow takes a critical sociopolitical perspective on The 1939–40 New York World’s Fair, using the Fair as a complex social object suspended in time and space (both future-focused and transitory; a physical site that’s now an archive) (1) to reflect on its abstract themes of Democracy and Progress represented as a mix of design, technology, public policy, and business. The 1939–40 World’s Fair was a spectacle designed for citizens to envision a more prosperous future as the nation pulled itself out of the Great Depression, while at the same time global conflict and rising fascism set the stage for the coming world war. It serves as a highly visible marker for the pivotal years of 1939–40, providing images and texts with which (and through which) to contemplate the turbulent conditions of 2019–20, a time of surprising uncertainty and apprehension that in many ways parallels the end of the decade of the 1930s. How did we get here? Have we been here before? This research uses 1939–40 World’s Fair ephemera and related graphic material to explore how the Fair’s historical context, predictions, and legacies resonate within the current social, economic, and political climate these eighty years later. Using the Fair’s designs, ideas, and future speculations to refract our present as the ‘World of Tomorrow’ it imagined, this research reflects on a huge relational field of spatial and material objects, corporate and political ideologies, and spectacular optimism for an enduring democracy in vital balance with material posperity. In essence, this project tries to make sense of Democracy and Progress today by using 1939’s&nbsp;World of Tomorrow as a kind of mediating object. The Fair provides the ‘wealth of potential’ and the ‘interplay between problems’ that Keller Easterling&nbsp;(2) describes in Medium Design (Strelka Press, 2018) (3): “Extrinsic information, contradiction, and mixtures of information systems provide a wealth of potential to disrupt the closed loop and the binary. ...Maybe it is not the existence or content of a [single] problem but the interplay between problems that is important.” Shadow Fair is meant to be make history visible through multiple vectors and intersections. Together with the rich graphic materials of the Fair itself, many other information sources enter into dialogue to crosscut past and present, including the news accounts of both 1939 and 2019 read in tandem. When writing The Grapes of Wrath in 1939, John Steinbeck (4)&nbsp;“wrote furiously and said that the effort nearly destroyed him. ‘I'm trying to write history while it is happening, and I don't want it to be wrong.’” To ‘read the world’ in 2019 is likewise an exhausting and dispiriting task, and is to witness a daily rewriting of many aspects of the troubled global history of 1939. <img width="1036" height="1000" width_o="1036" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/32ff095ad8f7b25f60319e10c96778820a65894587bf588e36774577b3310d7e/IMG_1210FortuneA.D.1939DetSm.jpg" data-mid="56463876" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/32ff095ad8f7b25f60319e10c96778820a65894587bf588e36774577b3310d7e/IMG_1210FortuneA.D.1939DetSm.jpg" /> Fortune magazines from 1939 provide a vivid visual record of corporate narratives, maps of global supply chains and communication networks, and public sentiment polls as the world balanced on the precipice of the coming war. (Above) A spiraling state of disarray illustrated in Fortune, January 1939; (below) partisan disruption as&nbsp;investigations begin in closed-door depositions leading to articles of impeachment of the President, New York Times, November 2019. <img width="1615" height="1172" width_o="1615" height_o="1172" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9eaf4cf461203d563594b927f2a4fd82b9e67c734cf44a9b709977f00dcd09d2/RepublicansBust-Oversight--Intell--andJudic-Committe-closed-deposition.png" data-mid="56463858" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9eaf4cf461203d563594b927f2a4fd82b9e67c734cf44a9b709977f00dcd09d2/RepublicansBust-Oversight--Intell--andJudic-Committe-closed-deposition.png" /> The Fair as form and content invites multiple visual/textual explorations with a nonlinear ricochet of objects, events, places, realms, and theories—aligning past cultural, political, and corporate legacies with the present to question implications for our (next) ‘world of tomorrow.’ Many other texts and design projects (books, collections, exhibitions) exist using the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair as ‘topic’ and its designed forms as ‘collectibles.’ For the purposes of this project, however, the Fair functions more as metonym—a spectacle that represents 1939 at large as a time of contradictory forces that are resonant today. This research prefigures any proposals for possible designed structures that may result from this preliminary stage—and like the Fair itself, it’s possible that this website will be all that remains.&nbsp; As a graphic designer interested in the narrative potential of archives, I aim to use the Fair, as spectacle and document, to examine—through curiosity, association, swerve, digression, discovery, and surprise—the uncanny echoes of historical conditions from past to present. As a politically attuned citizen, I am deeply concerned about today’s fragile state of Democracy,(5) and the perils of unfettered material production in the name of Progress. This project is a thought experiment that holds both past and present at hand to see what if anything we might learn of The World of Tomorrow we may be busy designing, both consciously and unconsciously. Notes/Links: (1) New York World's Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated records1935–1945 [bulk 1939–1940]; (2) Keller Easterling: Medium Design, 2018 Fall Lecture Series, Academy of Art University; (3) Medium Design [excerpt], Strelka Press; (4) John Steinbeck’s Bitter Fruit, Melvyn Bragg, The Guardian; (5) The Democracy Doomsayers Consider 2020, Nicholas Casey, NYT_______________________________________________________________ Note: This site is a repository for graphic material, texts, notes, images, and links. Much of this is preliminary material drawn from my own collection of World’s Fair ephemera; most is from the New York Public Library’s 1939–40 New York World’s Fair archive; some requires access to related archives (Fortune Magazine, etc.); links to other text and image sources that draw past and present into contact are to be updated and added over time. The photos and text are imperfect, the captions are incomplete; the text links to ‘the present’ are practically ‘the past’ within a day of posting; the duties of proper text and image editing, permissions, and data management will follow as the project is focused and refined. https://shadowfair1939.cargo.site/Part-1-Worlds-Within-The-1939-40-New-York-World-s-Fair Fri, 28 Dec 2018 17:11:52 +0000 Shadow Fair: The Unfinished Business of 'The World of Tomorrow' https://shadowfair1939.cargo.site/Part-1-Worlds-Within-The-1939-40-New-York-World-s-Fair <img width="3300" height="2550" width_o="3300" height_o="2550" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4df1233fb4df3e78fdb72902d8d99fd6f018e4ac490201ae18399d477202cfc4/--1.Opener.jpg" data-mid="31408743" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4df1233fb4df3e78fdb72902d8d99fd6f018e4ac490201ae18399d477202cfc4/--1.Opener.jpg" /> The 1939–40 New York World’s Fair serves as a point of origin, an event in time with objects and documents as its traces. Eighty years later, the Fair’s archive at NYPL serves as a beginning focal point for researching visual and cultural parallels to technological developments and unfolding global events of 2019–20 (Part 1.1). Its visual materials act as a catalyst for considering the Fair’s records, designs, publicity photographs, and other graphic ephemera from 1939–40 as material that reveals some of America’s ‘unfinished business’ with its past representations and ideals.&nbsp; In reading the archive, we uncover worlds within the World’s Fair. Part 1.2 looks at the Fair’s structures for its main themes of Democracy and Progress.&nbsp;Part 1.3 probes the shadow interests and endeavors of the Fair’s participating industries: the same industries mounting extravagant exhibits of consumer products were at the same time&nbsp;retooling their factories for the coming war, producing and supplying material, even to the Nazis. Global conflict and war persist to define both ‘the world of tomorrow’ and its shadow industries as the world’s ‘unfinished business.’ Part 1.4&nbsp; introduces the relatively new field of public relations with the Fair as a form of soft power, and shows how planned obsolescence makes its first appearance in introducing new consumer materials. https://shadowfair1939.cargo.site/Historical-Resonance-1939-40-and-2019-20 Sun, 25 Nov 2018 15:02:34 +0000 Shadow Fair: The Unfinished Business of 'The World of Tomorrow' https://shadowfair1939.cargo.site/Historical-Resonance-1939-40-and-2019-20 1. Historical Resonance (1939–40 and 2019–20) <img width="2994" height="2160" width_o="2994" height_o="2160" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/af2bcd4688803bfa209e81084cc4c8c434785c23f00db795a4b87064eb3cca6c/Guide.Cover.jpg" data-mid="31155284" border="0" data-scale="86" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/af2bcd4688803bfa209e81084cc4c8c434785c23f00db795a4b87064eb3cca6c/Guide.Cover.jpg" /> Official Guide to the Fair, outer slipcase, and cover (design attributed to Donald Deskey); introductions by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Grover Whalen, World’s Fair president and promoter: The World’s Fair in New York is a challenge to all Americans who believe in the destiny of this nation...Here millions of citizens may visualize the national life that is to come. (President Franklin Delano Roosevelt)During more than four years we have labored mightily to provide you with this great spectacle... We convey to you the picture of the interdependence of man on man, class on class, nation on nation. (Grover A. Whalen) <img width="2921" height="2230" width_o="2921" height_o="2230" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/88d194911ffffd620b51fd56557c68b8bcf934475e1cf6d4185629eb73e02f87/GuideCover2.jpg" data-mid="31155292" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/88d194911ffffd620b51fd56557c68b8bcf934475e1cf6d4185629eb73e02f87/GuideCover2.jpg" /> <img width="3117" height="1176" width_o="3117" height_o="1176" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9c76550f435c67d73117136a3a0bbdf3df8cb7c5ba72fad02c251d667fe009fe/Guide1939-2039-sprd.jpg" data-mid="31155372" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9c76550f435c67d73117136a3a0bbdf3df8cb7c5ba72fad02c251d667fe009fe/Guide1939-2039-sprd.jpg" />There is no lack of visual and media documentation (1) of the spectacle that was the Fair. It was conceived and produced to promote optimistic visions of the future just as the Nazis invaded Poland at the advent of the outbreak of World War II. The Fair unfolded within concurrent contexts—a nation pulling itself out of the Great Depression reckoned with global conflict and the rise of nationalism and fascism, the implementation of FDR’s New Deal,(2) and efforts of early corporate public relations men&nbsp;(3)&nbsp;to author a vision of The World of Tomorrow as one of endless innovations and products for the modern citizen-consumer. In 2019–20 we’re witnessing many parallels in global conditions (4)&nbsp;to the moments of portent (5)&nbsp;leading to the 1939–40 World’s Fair: contradictory forces for public policy and for corporate control; the testing of democratic ideals by rising nationalism, fascism, and authoritarian rule; (6, 7, 8)&nbsp;the endless production and flow of products to consumers from a group of corporations&nbsp;(9) and entities (10)&nbsp;holding hegemonic control over the people, places, things, and events that shape our interpretations—and experience—of current ‘civilized’ life. (In what is a largely futile effort to ‘keep up’ with the history being written today as it resonates with the history of 1939, part of this project is to assemble a growing&nbsp;spreadsheet&nbsp;(11) of texts and articles as I encounter them to attempt to track and study the then-and-now contours of democracy and progress.) Then (1939–40) Excerpts from On the Concept of History—Walter Benjamin, 1940 (also referred to Theses on the Philosophy of History) The past carries a secret index with it, by which it is referred to its resurrection. Are we not touched by the same breath of air which was among that which came before? Is there not an echo of those who have been silenced in the voices to which we lend our ears today? Progress, as it was painted in the minds of the social democrats, was once upon a time the progress of humanity itself (not only that of its abilities and knowledges). It was, secondly, something unending (something corresponding to an endless perfectibility of humanity). It counted, thirdly, as something essentially unstoppable (as something self-activating, pursuing a straight or spiral path). Each of these predicates is controversial, and critique could be applied to each of them. This latter must, however, when push comes to shove, go behind all these predicates and direct itself at what they all have in common. The concept of the progress of the human race in history is not to be separated from the concept of its progression through a homogenous and empty time. Historicism contents itself with establishing a causal nexus of various moments of history. But no state of affairs is, as a cause, already a historical one. It becomes this, posthumously, through eventualities which may be separated from it by millennia. The historian who starts from this, ceases to permit the consequences of eventualities to run through the fingers like the beads of a rosary. He records the constellation in which his own epoch comes into contact with that of an earlier one. He thereby establishes a concept of the present as that of the here-and-now, in which splinters of messianic time are shot through. Now (2019–20) From The Speculative Time Complex, an interview between Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik Complex societies—which means more-than-human societies at scales of sociotechnical organization that surpass phenomenological determination—are those in which the past, the present and the future enter into an economy where maybe none of these modes is primary, or where the future replaces the present as the lead structuring aspect of time. ….If we are post-contemporary, or post-postmodern, post-internet, or post-whatever — because we are now post-everything—it is because historically-given semantics don’t quite work anymore. If the speculative is a name for the relationship to the future, the “post-” is a way in which we recognize the present itself to be speculative in relationship to the past. We are in a future which has surpassed the conditions and the terms of the past. The speculative isn’t just how the future makes the present. It’s also that the present itself is a speculative relationship to a past that we have already exceeded. ------------- From What is at Stake in the Future? —Alex Williams &amp; Nick Srnicek Every ‘future’ inscribes a demand upon the present. This is so whether at the level of human imagination, or within the sphere of political or aesthetic action necessary to reach towards their realisation. Futures make explicit the implicit contents of our own times, crystallising trajectories, tendencies, projects, theories and contingencies. Moreover, futures map the absent within the present, the presents which could never come into actuality, the wreckage of dreams past and desires vanquished. Futures are speculative, libidinal, suggestive and, perhaps, ultimately unattainable... Democracy and Progress All aspects of the Fair were tasked with visualizing the themes of Democracy and Progress, a gigantic effort of public relations and design to render an optimistic future. &nbsp;Henry Dreyfuss’s&nbsp;Democracity was the 1939 World’s Fair model city for an improved World of Tomorrow, proposing centralized spatial and transportation systems for improved civic life. But in contrast to the optimistic tone of the Fair, the brochure text issues a warning that reveals how truly fragile Democracy was in 1939: The men and women who in the towns and cities you see down there represent all Americans learning to work, to play, to struggle, to sing together. ... But if we do not learn quickly the World of Tomorrow will not come into existence. The World of Today and Yesterday will be destroyed by men who do not believe in creative humanity—One side is the World of Tomorrow built by millions of free men and women, independent and interdependent… On the other side is chaos.’ <img width="1000" height="663" width_o="1000" height_o="663" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2350a57dd302abf1d813508218456c17c3f8d363865245e1871f3278755da402/--democracity_bookletCover_12x18-1.jpg" data-mid="56580499" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2350a57dd302abf1d813508218456c17c3f8d363865245e1871f3278755da402/--democracity_bookletCover_12x18-1.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="667" width_o="1000" height_o="667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ec30fecb43e0add3b80164185ef06fd25b4184e220e0da0571e007411d3dbb11/-democracity_booklet_12x18-2.jpg" data-mid="56580514" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ec30fecb43e0add3b80164185ef06fd25b4184e220e0da0571e007411d3dbb11/-democracity_booklet_12x18-2.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="663" width_o="1000" height_o="663" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/382c47cc68baf9e136dfa3f9f492e9c7ca436afb0bc24e7f123b84083da0c952/-democracity_booklet_12x18-3.jpg" data-mid="56580542" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/382c47cc68baf9e136dfa3f9f492e9c7ca436afb0bc24e7f123b84083da0c952/-democracity_booklet_12x18-3.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="667" width_o="1000" height_o="667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b6a38867dc9d0bec2736f4b22d39ad2f66b6705adad4204be1bf91424d746159/-democracity_booklet_12x18-4.jpg" data-mid="56580528" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b6a38867dc9d0bec2736f4b22d39ad2f66b6705adad4204be1bf91424d746159/-democracity_booklet_12x18-4.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="667" width_o="1000" height_o="667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f502dc3a52d6733c123900447bfaaeaccb8baac0066dffbdc02d96a9ed414207/-democracity_booklet_12x18-5.jpg" data-mid="56580620" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f502dc3a52d6733c123900447bfaaeaccb8baac0066dffbdc02d96a9ed414207/-democracity_booklet_12x18-5.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="667" width_o="1000" height_o="667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/229cca817f59e9fd611a6f91910a3e196254957a8cf46b10ffb6e81831dd94cd/-democracity_booklet_12x18-6.jpg" data-mid="56580647" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/229cca817f59e9fd611a6f91910a3e196254957a8cf46b10ffb6e81831dd94cd/-democracity_booklet_12x18-6.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="667" width_o="1000" height_o="667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9819b7e54c31955227736e0e5f3ee746b4e13d2be5c742bb5432a447634199b7/-democracity_booklet_12x18-7.jpg" data-mid="56580661" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9819b7e54c31955227736e0e5f3ee746b4e13d2be5c742bb5432a447634199b7/-democracity_booklet_12x18-7.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="669" width_o="1000" height_o="669" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/44c85e1389706ff6fc7cab144baaab78545a5784bbc91afb84c2c4cfc6a28406/-democracity_booklet_12x18-8.jpg" data-mid="56580662" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/44c85e1389706ff6fc7cab144baaab78545a5784bbc91afb84c2c4cfc6a28406/-democracity_booklet_12x18-8.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="660" width_o="1000" height_o="660" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/75ee0ddafe8fdabb35d22ff538cee51bda94f3f442f784c4fc616e358169329b/-democracity_booklet_12x18-9.jpg" data-mid="56580679" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/75ee0ddafe8fdabb35d22ff538cee51bda94f3f442f784c4fc616e358169329b/-democracity_booklet_12x18-9.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="667" width_o="1000" height_o="667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/db3efc5400645d5bc6a1557dc56aabb5e0f682d357fa305262308825cf2ebf50/-democracity_booklet_12x18-10.jpg" data-mid="56580684" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/db3efc5400645d5bc6a1557dc56aabb5e0f682d357fa305262308825cf2ebf50/-democracity_booklet_12x18-10.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="667" width_o="1000" height_o="667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/378428f723c045dfcfb3c49b89bfa756d98cd7b9e769d7ac793b32d348ae81f9/-democracity_booklet_12x18-11.jpg" data-mid="56580685" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/378428f723c045dfcfb3c49b89bfa756d98cd7b9e769d7ac793b32d348ae81f9/-democracity_booklet_12x18-11.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="662" width_o="1000" height_o="662" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c85e8cee1fe85ffdb51a6b36b1d1ad2201a09944db7af6ccd8fcd0ef0e596cd6/-democracity_booklet_12x18-12.jpg" data-mid="56580730" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c85e8cee1fe85ffdb51a6b36b1d1ad2201a09944db7af6ccd8fcd0ef0e596cd6/-democracity_booklet_12x18-12.jpg" /> (Above)&nbsp;Your World of Tomorrow brochure accompanying the Democracity exhibition designed by Henry Dreyfuss within the Fair’s signature Perisphere and Trylon theme building. ‘On The Other Side is Chaos’ The world of 1939 which the World’s Fair set out to optmistically display was at odds with actual events of global political discord unfolding in a run-up to World War II. This misalignment is especially resonant in the present moment, as the attention of the world is focused on the fate of democracy&nbsp;(12)&nbsp;itself—with daily recursions of political, economic, and social struggle that are largely ‘unfinished business’ from the past. <img width="3157" height="2085" width_o="3157" height_o="2085" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c234abb6604c364dd1377cf72b08c4304a8ffc56bf4ca336b135ae76c899481d/1939-NYTimesFront-copy.jpg" data-mid="29326201" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c234abb6604c364dd1377cf72b08c4304a8ffc56bf4ca336b135ae76c899481d/1939-NYTimesFront-copy.jpg" /> <img width="581" height="649" width_o="581" height_o="649" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5c13ad112c71154370b65abd93b6edfee4a2d43ca15b1001fcd0a08fc27f253a/TodayAtFair-vol125-AsWar.png" data-mid="29326391" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/581/i/5c13ad112c71154370b65abd93b6edfee4a2d43ca15b1001fcd0a08fc27f253a/TodayAtFair-vol125-AsWar.png" /> Today at the Fair Today excerpt, opening day April 30, 1939, Vol. 125. Today at the Fair was published daily to provide events listings and editorial content, and made scant mention of the onset of World War II with the Nazi invasion of Poland in September, 1939. <img width="2448" height="3264" width_o="2448" height_o="3264" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/262243f5c20f785fddcd8eca023fd8c677c427b0b925f333c2e19ac762679d94/1939-NYTimesDetail.JPG" data-mid="29326205" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/262243f5c20f785fddcd8eca023fd8c677c427b0b925f333c2e19ac762679d94/1939-NYTimesDetail.JPG" /> (top and right) The New York Times front page and excerpt, Monday September 4, 1939, the day war was declared: “On this—perhaps one of the most eventful and anxious days in the world’s history—the New York World’s Fair has had is day of greatest attendance.” <img width="746" height="1000" width_o="746" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c37316d7b6ff3ca4c267d32cd69f4f591e235bbb206c9d8f951423e703a0e97a/1937-40KeesingsContempArchivesCover.jpg" data-mid="56588569" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/746/i/c37316d7b6ff3ca4c267d32cd69f4f591e235bbb206c9d8f951423e703a0e97a/1937-40KeesingsContempArchivesCover.jpg" /><img width="750" height="1000" width_o="750" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/730357ebab8a4d9708d501009dbad26929b28383273168ab9082c81d3da767ae/1937-40KeesingsContempArchives.TP2Sm.jpg" data-mid="56588573" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/750/i/730357ebab8a4d9708d501009dbad26929b28383273168ab9082c81d3da767ae/1937-40KeesingsContempArchives.TP2Sm.jpg" /> Keesing’s Contemporary Archives contains maps of war, news accounts, and key 1939 transcripts of diplomatic speeches and decrees, including Hitler’s Reichstag speech of Sept. 1, Hungary’s Anti-Jewish legislation on Dec. 27, and Roosevelt’s Defense of Democracy speech to Congress on Jan. 4.&nbsp; <img width="651" height="1000" width_o="651" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8e6a192b01a73fa3b1b0c10b4a30d7a0c307a03e8f5d955d1055d4a6cb26d4b3/1939Aug26-Sept3Sm.jpg" data-mid="56588631" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/651/i/8e6a192b01a73fa3b1b0c10b4a30d7a0c307a03e8f5d955d1055d4a6cb26d4b3/1939Aug26-Sept3Sm.jpg" /> <img width="512" height="720" width_o="512" height_o="720" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/89a033907f3c46ac5ac8f457d94c779993a1e64b2a7bc1c699d728c78396debe/1939Hungary.AntiJewishLegislSm.jpg" data-mid="56588640" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/512/i/89a033907f3c46ac5ac8f457d94c779993a1e64b2a7bc1c699d728c78396debe/1939Hungary.AntiJewishLegislSm.jpg" /> <img width="649" height="1000" width_o="649" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c9fef9035bf4dfea1ad1c503a2a8afe37c9d74b03834b96554dea65ff17dd0d6/1939RooseveltDefenceOfDemocracy1-copy.JPG" data-mid="56588650" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/649/i/c9fef9035bf4dfea1ad1c503a2a8afe37c9d74b03834b96554dea65ff17dd0d6/1939RooseveltDefenceOfDemocracy1-copy.JPG" /> <img width="684" height="1000" width_o="684" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2301a71f0d3efdf069a85ea52deb40fe0a8704272af6ccfb703362bd2fe3c97f/1939RooseveltDefenceOfDemocracy2-copy.JPG" data-mid="56588654" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/684/i/2301a71f0d3efdf069a85ea52deb40fe0a8704272af6ccfb703362bd2fe3c97f/1939RooseveltDefenceOfDemocracy2-copy.JPG" /> <img width="602" height="1000" width_o="602" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/41b66f2dfa7ba57770863e7bb6efaa81d68a387f58add8db33f56b4457d69966/1939RooseveltDefenceOfDemocracy3-copy.JPG" data-mid="56588678" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/602/i/41b66f2dfa7ba57770863e7bb6efaa81d68a387f58add8db33f56b4457d69966/1939RooseveltDefenceOfDemocracy3-copy.JPG" /> <img width="663" height="1000" width_o="663" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cce741e4f35146dbd2b1a300d7872aaaeafcd4be08d9dd134d2fd19e59b3e357/1939RooseveltDefenceOfDemocracy4-copy.JPG" data-mid="56588692" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/663/i/cce741e4f35146dbd2b1a300d7872aaaeafcd4be08d9dd134d2fd19e59b3e357/1939RooseveltDefenceOfDemocracy4-copy.JPG" /> <img width="616" height="1000" width_o="616" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0851d0e164b2face7e2140b4a6a05b63a2ccb26785f12e4cd9a58b175d09e04a/1939RooseveltDefenceOfDemocracy5-copy.JPG" data-mid="56588695" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/616/i/0851d0e164b2face7e2140b4a6a05b63a2ccb26785f12e4cd9a58b175d09e04a/1939RooseveltDefenceOfDemocracy5-copy.JPG" /> <img width="1000" height="702" width_o="1000" height_o="702" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bb7d4e05e3a9514917f8431f031fd13f0b0534a37d231fe709d7dc04c4ce214e/Roosevelt.FullSpread2-copy.JPG" data-mid="56589537" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bb7d4e05e3a9514917f8431f031fd13f0b0534a37d231fe709d7dc04c4ce214e/Roosevelt.FullSpread2-copy.JPG" /> <img width="1000" height="850" width_o="1000" height_o="850" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e70d83a2d17ee4ce224071611a870f3c911e8c31844f1e0968b371ddafad5a69/WhatWe-reFightingFor.map-Crop.jpg" data-mid="56590049" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e70d83a2d17ee4ce224071611a870f3c911e8c31844f1e0968b371ddafad5a69/WhatWe-reFightingFor.map-Crop.jpg" /><img width="727" height="1000" width_o="727" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/145956dd5ec7c53439e67db55b00b448bdf60d02ae4fa2ac66d5d4b22dd2be55/1939-40MeaningOfTheStruggle.mapSm.jpg" data-mid="56589323" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/727/i/145956dd5ec7c53439e67db55b00b448bdf60d02ae4fa2ac66d5d4b22dd2be55/1939-40MeaningOfTheStruggle.mapSm.jpg" /> How did visitors to the 1939 World’s Fair square its predictions for the future with the more immediate and dire future of World War? Given the current challenges to democracy—and our very human appetite for spectacle and diversion—one wonders what we may be blind to today, willfully distracted from considering what might transpire if history is indeed doomed to repeat itself. Recent publications by scholars and statespeople such as Steven Levitsky’s and Daniel Ziblatt’s How Democracies Die (13)&nbsp;and Madeline Albright’s Fascism: A Warning (14)&nbsp;are only a few of the urgent calls for consciousness as we witness signs of democratic erosion—including an unfolding presidential impeachment (15)&nbsp;and disinformation campaigns by foreign powers (16)&nbsp;as 2019 enters the election year of 2020. The 1939–40 World’s Fair themes of Democracy and Progress still remain huge abstractions in 2019–20, with ‘progress’ largely interpreted as an economic condition that can confuse our understanding of how to measure and judge a successful democracy. In the mix of technology, goods, trade, politics and the stock market (and even within the seemingly benign aspects of the 1939–40 World’s Fair) global conflict persists at inflection points where Democracy and Progress overlap. The World’s Fair performed versions of these abstractions; the impending World War&nbsp;(18) would interrogate them and test their limits. Andrea Flynn and Susan R. Homberg write in The Nation:&nbsp;(17) “The conditions [in the 1930s] to which FDR was responding are not that dissimilar from those in which we currently find ourselves. Neoliberal policies have driven economic inequality to pre-Great Depression levels, with communities of color and women shouldering an outsized burden. ...The consolidation of corporate power today is at a scale we have not seen in over a century, and workers are feeling disenfanchised and powerless. ... These trends have arguably sown the seeds of fascism, which are germinating in Europe, Latin America, and even here in the United States, much as they did in Germany in the 1930s.” (below) Details and pages from&nbsp;In the Shadow of Tomorrow&nbsp;by Dutch author J. Huizinga was published in 1936 and speculated on all that would come to pass in 1939. The book also dwells on historical resonance, with chapters such as ‘The Present Crisis Compared with Those of the Past’ and ‘New Fears and Old.’ <img width="800" height="556" width_o="800" height_o="556" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c25a7354bc514627b462c79a0a48852a978ab257d309a4ce839e948d438b6774/InShadowOfTomorrow.truth-copy.JPG" data-mid="56593272" border="0" data-scale="70" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/c25a7354bc514627b462c79a0a48852a978ab257d309a4ce839e948d438b6774/InShadowOfTomorrow.truth-copy.JPG" /> <img width="1000" height="806" width_o="1000" height_o="806" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6c05da10e079f813b152c3d19e532cea9e0b3afa2e187d3c74ebff88cb4986ab/InShadowOfTomorrow.tp-copy.JPG" data-mid="56593275" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6c05da10e079f813b152c3d19e532cea9e0b3afa2e187d3c74ebff88cb4986ab/InShadowOfTomorrow.tp-copy.JPG" /> <img width="1000" height="739" width_o="1000" height_o="739" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cd9c636efc7826baf671994039f9aa0b29362ff5a3935d60655589a3b7a68c84/InShadowOfTomorrow.TOC-copy.JPG" data-mid="56593279" border="0" data-scale="93" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cd9c636efc7826baf671994039f9aa0b29362ff5a3935d60655589a3b7a68c84/InShadowOfTomorrow.TOC-copy.JPG" /> <img width="1000" height="776" width_o="1000" height_o="776" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6dc4d1b31d5cbf14d2721f61392189bbd75184a6ec0525a25f21615796e01b07/InShadowOfTomorrow.TOC2-copy.JPG" data-mid="56593285" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6dc4d1b31d5cbf14d2721f61392189bbd75184a6ec0525a25f21615796e01b07/InShadowOfTomorrow.TOC2-copy.JPG" /> <img width="616" height="1000" width_o="616" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ee3a58061f4f9ce0ea14d5d00429d70c8617db72aaa67f5763aab7d80e23f3b6/InShadow.illusChild-Soldier-copy.JPG" data-mid="56594093" border="0" data-scale="68" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/616/i/ee3a58061f4f9ce0ea14d5d00429d70c8617db72aaa67f5763aab7d80e23f3b6/InShadow.illusChild-Soldier-copy.JPG" /> Notes/Links: (1)&nbsp;The 1939 World’s Fair (images of the Fair),&nbsp;The Atlantic;&nbsp;(2) The Living New Deal; (3)History is a Weapon (Propoganda by Edward Bernays, 1928); (4) The 2010s Were the End of Normal, Michiko Kakutani, NYT;&nbsp;A Fractured 2017, Roger Cohen, NYT; How Democracy Dies, American Style, Paul Krugman, NYT;&nbsp;(5)&nbsp;We’re back to the 1930s politics of anger and, yes, appeasement, Larry Elliot, The Guardian; (6)&nbsp;Return of the German Volk, Roger Cohen, NYT; (7)&nbsp;Will We Stop Trump Before It’s Too Late?, Madeline Albright, NYT; (8)&nbsp;Why Autocrats Love Emergencies, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, NYT; (9) The Danger of President Pence, Jane Mayer, New Yorker; (10) Paradise Papers Show How Misguided G.O.P. Are on Taxes, Bryce Covert, NYT; (11) a sortable Google&nbsp;spreadsheet of articles and texts, tagged for Fair themes but prone to subjective error and likely not up to date; (12)&nbsp;A Rush to the Street as Protesters Worldwide See Democracies Backsliding, Amanda Taub and Max Fisher, NYT; (13) How Democracies Die, Steven Livitsky and Daniel Ziblatt; (14) Fascism: A Warning, Madeline Albright, (15)&nbsp;Panel Approves Impeachment Articles and Sends Charges for a House Vote, Nicholas Fandos, NYT; (16) Ill Winds: Saving Democracy From Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency, Larry Diamond (Gary J. Bass, (NYT book review); &nbsp;(17) America Needs Economic Rights. Now is the Time to Push for Them, Andrea Flynn and Susan Holmberg, The Nation;&nbsp; (18)&nbsp; A Moment in Time: On the Brink of War, Biblion (NYPL) https://shadowfair1939.cargo.site/Thematic-Structures Sun, 25 Nov 2018 15:02:34 +0000 Shadow Fair: The Unfinished Business of 'The World of Tomorrow' https://shadowfair1939.cargo.site/Thematic-Structures 2. Thematic Structures &nbsp; This research project draws on mapping the fair in multiple ways, using the Fair’s ideological outline, its site layout, and its archive of graphic and textual ephemera. Together these forms suggest an associative network of graphic artifacts, architectural forms, objects, events, places, realms, and theories. Cultural, political, corporate, and design legacies from 1939 resonate with the present to provoke questions on their implications for our ‘world of tomorrow.’ The 1939–40 World’s Fair themes of Democracy and Progress were two giant abstractions that branched into constituent parts, mixing civics and business into thematic zones for exhibition and visual display—as stated by public relations man&nbsp;Edward Bernays,(1)&nbsp;‘to sell America to the Americans.’ The archive holds many texts describing the purpose and theme of the Fair, produced ahead of time to fuse together Democracy and Progress as interdependent ideals guiding the whole enterprise, and to ensure industry involvement in the Fair. <img width="800" height="814" width_o="800" height_o="814" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2ff40018d61e599b5995eec12a857393cead7ef9087565b9d3a1ed0d59cc5cb5/IMG_1355WomensCouncPubTheme1-copy.jpg" data-mid="57447288" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/2ff40018d61e599b5995eec12a857393cead7ef9087565b9d3a1ed0d59cc5cb5/IMG_1355WomensCouncPubTheme1-copy.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="762" width_o="1000" height_o="762" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7d6b10f6378c9487f291e841bdb282c29e29c674fb95c0ea43bbbfc1cd859d2c/IMG_1356WomensCouncPubTheme2-copy.jpg" data-mid="57447332" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7d6b10f6378c9487f291e841bdb282c29e29c674fb95c0ea43bbbfc1cd859d2c/IMG_1356WomensCouncPubTheme2-copy.jpg" /> <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/631d62de2e074348e5a64e72e116e358ac635cbf6faf60b08a9bbe495df46f1f/ThemeDiagram-full-copy.JPG" data-mid="31156071" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/631d62de2e074348e5a64e72e116e358ac635cbf6faf60b08a9bbe495df46f1f/ThemeDiagram-full-copy.JPG" /> The World’s Fair theme diagram is itself a kind of readymade relational database. Its central axis places government at the top,&nbsp;with branching aspects meant to encompass all aspects of civic life. This diagram is an index of themes and categories, a useful key to help connect historical parallels using the Fair’s themes as nodes. The Fair’s branching Theme Diagram also maps directly to the physical site plan, with pathways to thematic zones and pavilions. Using the diagram’s relationship to space and built structure in a database narrative, one can think of ‘the pavilion’ as a metaphor for a kind of temporal information architecture; material from past and present can come together as themes and variations that build mutable structures, allowing for recombination and disintegration over time.&nbsp; <img width="916" height="670" width_o="916" height_o="670" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/73953bfa1e0cd0449a7623e81ad516bb5e471ec3542b8e5a607f1e268db4a3b3/Aerial-fairgrounds-AtlanticMag-copy.png" data-mid="31155936" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/916/i/73953bfa1e0cd0449a7623e81ad516bb5e471ec3542b8e5a607f1e268db4a3b3/Aerial-fairgrounds-AtlanticMag-copy.png" /> (above) The New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division holds the New York World’s Fair 1939–40 records, including promotional texts and the Theme diagram which reflect the dual purposes of the Fair: to promote democracy, and to showcase progress through industry innovation. The theme is at the center of the radial diagram, with ‘Government’ at the top of the central axis of the Fairgrounds site. An aerial view maps the radial theme diagram directly to its physical corollary: the Fair’s site footprint. &nbsp; <img width="925" height="440" width_o="925" height_o="440" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/28934214e18830365743e92877e21900f695a0b29fec4012e8cc2da3a9753bf8/1939-ThemeSiteMap-copy.png" data-mid="31155931" border="0" data-scale="97" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/925/i/28934214e18830365743e92877e21900f695a0b29fec4012e8cc2da3a9753bf8/1939-ThemeSiteMap-copy.png" /> The outline of the proposed theme for the New York World’s Fair breaks into three main categories: Goods, Comfort, and Welfare. The diagram shows Government at the top, and Amusement and Entertainment at the bottom, with Fine Art activies, Publications distribution, and Organizations’ exhibitions as programming throughout. <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/618242ebf16778d6156a73e4a5c946133a58fbbb9bb73bc1456d6637f4466a25/Theme.outline-det.JPG" data-mid="57496439" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/618242ebf16778d6156a73e4a5c946133a58fbbb9bb73bc1456d6637f4466a25/Theme.outline-det.JPG" /> Each of these three main themes then branch into ever more detailed categories involving mechanics, means, elements, and particulars: materials, specialized industries, and institutions. <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/331596794c8440bf189f32953fbda88861158c534e368d57cb515e129c384c2d/Theme.Goods-det.JPG" data-mid="57496625" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/331596794c8440bf189f32953fbda88861158c534e368d57cb515e129c384c2d/Theme.Goods-det.JPG" /> <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/51757b6a1bc36df7088d7c4d07cd7574afc9ae0df212ad51f84fe8378218f069/Theme.Comfort-det.JPG" data-mid="57496628" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/51757b6a1bc36df7088d7c4d07cd7574afc9ae0df212ad51f84fe8378218f069/Theme.Comfort-det.JPG" /> <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f13717bd06af646a9b10bb62d7dc36c7f21507424b8f40d3b1df42c99707492c/Theme.Welfare-det.JPG" data-mid="57496543" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f13717bd06af646a9b10bb62d7dc36c7f21507424b8f40d3b1df42c99707492c/Theme.Welfare-det.JPG" /> The 1939–40 World’s Fair had seven organizational nodes that suggest structures that can link non-linearly, mixing past and present. According to the Official Guidebook, the Fair’s seven zones were Amusement; Communications; Community Interests; Food; Government; Production and Distribution; and Science and Education. <img width="3106" height="2159" width_o="3106" height_o="2159" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/193946554b1283e9e03f6a4cb8c3bca6fb5c2853f3eb047a063757243b45c884/Amusements1-copy.jpg" data-mid="31156622" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/193946554b1283e9e03f6a4cb8c3bca6fb5c2853f3eb047a063757243b45c884/Amusements1-copy.jpg" /> <img width="3165" height="2256" width_o="3165" height_o="2256" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/81ad197f33e529dbcf66b3e5ad2ea7b3ad33177ab70f17a6eaf9023cf0bb138c/Communications1-copy.jpg" data-mid="31156630" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/81ad197f33e529dbcf66b3e5ad2ea7b3ad33177ab70f17a6eaf9023cf0bb138c/Communications1-copy.jpg" /> <img width="3155" height="2228" width_o="3155" height_o="2228" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/435162ca504a692e84d72614f42fa9233cd585320ec723cde5459d9ce788d7d4/Food1-copy.jpg" data-mid="31156635" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/435162ca504a692e84d72614f42fa9233cd585320ec723cde5459d9ce788d7d4/Food1-copy.jpg" /> <img width="3181" height="2171" width_o="3181" height_o="2171" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3331c3460fb1ddbccb2f29dddeeb53f530ac01c79b102632ede4c7e15d0b013d/ForeignGovt1-copy.jpg" data-mid="31156640" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3331c3460fb1ddbccb2f29dddeeb53f530ac01c79b102632ede4c7e15d0b013d/ForeignGovt1-copy.jpg" /> <img width="3110" height="2140" width_o="3110" height_o="2140" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bda1be52c91f98f41e90b0d7906f638b7285fdb7ebc613ae32ae4dbedd6a3910/USGovt1-copy.jpg" data-mid="31156694" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bda1be52c91f98f41e90b0d7906f638b7285fdb7ebc613ae32ae4dbedd6a3910/USGovt1-copy.jpg" /> <img width="3091" height="2242" width_o="3091" height_o="2242" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9c779d324aecf7a96ca02b8658b1dcc3d93efbee1c093d146bffa21ed27cb4a5/ProdDistrib1.jpg" data-mid="29328354" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9c779d324aecf7a96ca02b8658b1dcc3d93efbee1c093d146bffa21ed27cb4a5/ProdDistrib1.jpg" /> <img width="3071" height="2245" width_o="3071" height_o="2245" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/593d9563408a02c99967fdac77f3f94e18584e6f87bd829228c951bea4317777/Sci-Educ.1-copy.jpg" data-mid="29328358" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/593d9563408a02c99967fdac77f3f94e18584e6f87bd829228c951bea4317777/Sci-Educ.1-copy.jpg" /> (above) Divider pages from the Official Guide to the Fair.&nbsp; <img width="800" height="672" width_o="800" height_o="672" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0856ea27516f39c6131d036beb2d99ae88170ba8e679144b5263f412a1f4d714/IMG_1334InfoBullThemeDescrip-copy.jpg" data-mid="57445687" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/0856ea27516f39c6131d036beb2d99ae88170ba8e679144b5263f412a1f4d714/IMG_1334InfoBullThemeDescrip-copy.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="452" width_o="1000" height_o="452" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1e7477ca454c2621c96acbc19dd3ff5d6c0bc4f24eaaba4388e54a719d5dee01/IMG_1335InfoBullThemeDescrip2-copy.jpg" data-mid="57446311" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1e7477ca454c2621c96acbc19dd3ff5d6c0bc4f24eaaba4388e54a719d5dee01/IMG_1335InfoBullThemeDescrip2-copy.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="753" width_o="1000" height_o="753" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/18bfbc962a3b1e8be0080309c1dcdd2df8f588af423765dfc3bf7b86d7f7dc1e/IMG_1336InfoBullThemeDescrip3-copy.jpg" data-mid="57446333" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/18bfbc962a3b1e8be0080309c1dcdd2df8f588af423765dfc3bf7b86d7f7dc1e/IMG_1336InfoBullThemeDescrip3-copy.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="527" width_o="1000" height_o="527" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/97e22d9d423c2e3792702454cf592ec6ddaf5c8be91110c6eb9ea2e2295d9524/IMG_1337InfoBullThemeDescrip4-copy.jpg" data-mid="57446345" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/97e22d9d423c2e3792702454cf592ec6ddaf5c8be91110c6eb9ea2e2295d9524/IMG_1337InfoBullThemeDescrip4-copy.jpg" /> <img width="640" height="890" width_o="640" height_o="890" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/09f230f5c3dbcc394226865ca2a977396c6c270a9e2cc1b4f5b0b725731f4819/IMG_1357WomensCouncPubThemeFocalExh1-copy.jpg" data-mid="57447854" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/640/i/09f230f5c3dbcc394226865ca2a977396c6c270a9e2cc1b4f5b0b725731f4819/IMG_1357WomensCouncPubThemeFocalExh1-copy.jpg" /> <img width="800" height="761" width_o="800" height_o="761" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1723007421a62754e0d1f40bae9a19d3d41a5621aa1cf1d2e684b6893c586a6f/IMG_1359omensCouncPubThemeFocalExh2-copy.jpg" data-mid="57447885" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/1723007421a62754e0d1f40bae9a19d3d41a5621aa1cf1d2e684b6893c586a6f/IMG_1359omensCouncPubThemeFocalExh2-copy.jpg" /> (above) The World’s Fair Information Bulletin, No. 1 describes&nbsp;the importance of designing thematic focal exhibits. (below) Renderings of Fair buildings and pavilions from&nbsp;The World of Tomorrow in Pictures multi-paneled brochure, one of the many pieces of printed ephemera produced by the Fair’s Publicity Department. <img width="800" height="879" width_o="800" height_o="879" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c2e202380ed36897ed5d73df537f1e7a35e84090793683af2ff124b6e2bcab5a/IMG_1363WorldOfTommBrochure3.JPG" data-mid="57447910" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/c2e202380ed36897ed5d73df537f1e7a35e84090793683af2ff124b6e2bcab5a/IMG_1363WorldOfTommBrochure3.JPG" /> <img width="800" height="917" width_o="800" height_o="917" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cbddf471edaecb77fe4dcf0bbb9987a32be12f6d4d020d83d40cd10d06b911a8/IMG_1375WorldOfTommBrochure15.JPG" data-mid="57448076" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/cbddf471edaecb77fe4dcf0bbb9987a32be12f6d4d020d83d40cd10d06b911a8/IMG_1375WorldOfTommBrochure15.JPG" /> <img width="800" height="885" width_o="800" height_o="885" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/42760da8b36736322742c81e5872c8f7a16782a04ea860cfd365ad0a6d8a1f23/IMG_1364WorldOfTommBrochure4.JPG" data-mid="57447935" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/42760da8b36736322742c81e5872c8f7a16782a04ea860cfd365ad0a6d8a1f23/IMG_1364WorldOfTommBrochure4.JPG" /> <img width="3024" height="3024" width_o="3024" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dd31353a4f2e5797872c09d75751d0bc11ee33a132987bba907e998ab039c072/IMG_1365WorldOfTommBrochure5.JPG" data-mid="57447940" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dd31353a4f2e5797872c09d75751d0bc11ee33a132987bba907e998ab039c072/IMG_1365WorldOfTommBrochure5.JPG" /> <img width="800" height="886" width_o="800" height_o="886" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d26b963b59aede3854d30a7b02e37b43caabca484afa63f69bef4b33f6f21d6f/IMG_1366WorldOfTommBrochure6-copy.jpg" data-mid="57447944" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/d26b963b59aede3854d30a7b02e37b43caabca484afa63f69bef4b33f6f21d6f/IMG_1366WorldOfTommBrochure6-copy.jpg" /> <img width="800" height="915" width_o="800" height_o="915" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a446b8bc7369d5723c82b39310df282fd7de1b83d1ea114b168a07a328e1f5b6/IMG_1367WorldOfTommBrochure7-copy.jpg" data-mid="57447982" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/a446b8bc7369d5723c82b39310df282fd7de1b83d1ea114b168a07a328e1f5b6/IMG_1367WorldOfTommBrochure7-copy.jpg" /> <img width="800" height="920" width_o="800" height_o="920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/68aa4b08d5fce9337afe4a4cc88aea9914c5e8e56e32118d6717aa9fcf3c86ae/IMG_1368WorldOfTommBrochure8.JPG" data-mid="57448025" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/68aa4b08d5fce9337afe4a4cc88aea9914c5e8e56e32118d6717aa9fcf3c86ae/IMG_1368WorldOfTommBrochure8.JPG" /> <img width="800" height="902" width_o="800" height_o="902" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5ebbcdf67aa6ca466066238fc2575d57e383e6b9ed3227d7c57942105e954757/IMG_1369WorldOfTommBrochure9-copy.jpg" data-mid="57448026" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/5ebbcdf67aa6ca466066238fc2575d57e383e6b9ed3227d7c57942105e954757/IMG_1369WorldOfTommBrochure9-copy.jpg" /> <img width="800" height="894" width_o="800" height_o="894" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/96a16889fd4f7c9cdfc65833c8498cfec66df75bc43462c6beb3e4e1d9691486/IMG_1370WorldOfTommBrochure10.JPG" data-mid="57448028" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/96a16889fd4f7c9cdfc65833c8498cfec66df75bc43462c6beb3e4e1d9691486/IMG_1370WorldOfTommBrochure10.JPG" /> <img width="800" height="920" width_o="800" height_o="920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c430547a48bce54725c1d0cc7283719ad73e8f0ea3f7aba4ff443dba5f568998/IMG_1371WorldOfTommBrochure11.JPG" data-mid="57448040" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/c430547a48bce54725c1d0cc7283719ad73e8f0ea3f7aba4ff443dba5f568998/IMG_1371WorldOfTommBrochure11.JPG" /> <img width="800" height="896" width_o="800" height_o="896" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3dbb066c26fb67f7c20cc768f425bdbea8ec13adeaa22e1eb7b882f29afb69de/IMG_1373WorldOfTommBrochure13.JPG" data-mid="57448043" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/3dbb066c26fb67f7c20cc768f425bdbea8ec13adeaa22e1eb7b882f29afb69de/IMG_1373WorldOfTommBrochure13.JPG" /> <img width="800" height="910" width_o="800" height_o="910" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7b4b05b911c99fe41cbfdccdf399fdd4e4122fa97e5eca942ba63c1c3508c123/IMG_1372WorldOfTommBrochure12.JPG" data-mid="57448042" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/7b4b05b911c99fe41cbfdccdf399fdd4e4122fa97e5eca942ba63c1c3508c123/IMG_1372WorldOfTommBrochure12.JPG" /> <img width="800" height="907" width_o="800" height_o="907" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/13ef63fece15c84d02d8917fafb602ebcfa8e3b4bb6d32a8b32cf66f6fd0636e/IMG_1374WorldOfTommBrochure14.JPG" data-mid="57448055" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/13ef63fece15c84d02d8917fafb602ebcfa8e3b4bb6d32a8b32cf66f6fd0636e/IMG_1374WorldOfTommBrochure14.JPG" /> <img width="800" height="913" width_o="800" height_o="913" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6d7128cb8e0107f4c1707685fbaa2fe0c81a3fba5d6f97a2cf760261a7ab63af/IMG_1376WorldOfTommBrochure16.JPG" data-mid="57448127" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/6d7128cb8e0107f4c1707685fbaa2fe0c81a3fba5d6f97a2cf760261a7ab63af/IMG_1376WorldOfTommBrochure16.JPG" /> <img width="800" height="861" width_o="800" height_o="861" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/85bf63904ce0748b3e2ded765f8c6e67c6a730bca58c8168416b5a9e9ded14cd/IMG_1377WorldOfTommBrochure17.JPG" data-mid="57448128" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/85bf63904ce0748b3e2ded765f8c6e67c6a730bca58c8168416b5a9e9ded14cd/IMG_1377WorldOfTommBrochure17.JPG" /> <img width="800" height="909" width_o="800" height_o="909" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dc8dc6123c398d761e23c1cc73a678e2e5a78b63d8783310cbe2c8abbe5f0f06/IMG_1378WorldOfTommBrochure18-copy.jpg" data-mid="57448131" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/dc8dc6123c398d761e23c1cc73a678e2e5a78b63d8783310cbe2c8abbe5f0f06/IMG_1378WorldOfTommBrochure18-copy.jpg" /> Just as the Fair’s theme diagram maps to its physical campus, the Fair Records (2)&nbsp;now archived at the New York Public Library are a textual map to the operational apparatus of the Fair. The centralized World’s Fair records system developed by Remington-Rand Corporation, also exhibitors at the Fair, was carefully maintained by office manager Katherine Brougher Gray&nbsp;(3) &nbsp;before being handed off to the library:&nbsp; ...If the “self-indexing” system designed by Remington Rand for the World’s Fair was too mechanical, Katherine Brougher Gray’s revision sought to restore an element of human logic. Her method, drawing inspiration from both naval and library filing systems, reflected the Fair as a logistical, government-industrial, diplomatic, and pedagogical endeavor. The five divisions (again: Administration, Construction, Maintenance, Participation, Public Relations) attest to the way the administrators thought of the World’s Fair, as both event and place: a place built tabula rasa and maintained for its two-year existence, then dismantled; a destination that relied on a positive image in order to draw participating “residents” (government, corporate, and organizational exhibitors; vendors; performers; amusement operators) and daily visitors; and an enterprise that required a large administrative apparatus to make it all work. The files’ organizational structure reflected the Fair’s hybrid identity. It was both a functioning city and a commercial showroom. It was a public service—intended to educate the global public about technology and democracy, to promote diplomacy, to stimulate the economy—and also a business. ...Nearly a century after that first Fair in Flushing Meadows we’re still dreaming the same dream—one of efficiency and automation and scientism, incorporated in our cities, executed in our wars, crystallized in our data, enclosed and embodied in our files. —From&nbsp;Shannon Mattern, “Indexing the World of Tomorrow,” Places Journal, February 2016 Notes/links:&nbsp; (1) For more on Edward Bernays, ‘the father of public relations,’ see Part 3.1, Soft Power and Spectacle; (2) The New York World's Fair 1939 and 1949 Incorporated Records (pdf), NYPL;&nbsp;(3) The Records of the Fair Itself, Thomas G. Lannon, NYPL&nbsp; From the complete records of 1939–40 NY World’s Fair at NYPL: In addition to offering an exhaustive record of the Fair Corporation, the collection serves as a remarkable compendium of the times, offering entrée to almost every facet of American life, and supporting research on any number of subjects including: the birth of the consumer society and corporatism; the rise of the automobile culture; technology’s transformation of the American home; the emergence of public relations as a profession and social force; the legacy of the New Deal; the influence of industrial design on everyday objects; urban and regional planning in 20th century America; the transformation of New York City instigated by Robert Moses from the 1930s forward; representations of race in popular culture; tensions between nationalism and internationalism in the United States; foreign participation and geopolitics; the history of burlesque and other popular entertainments; the evolution of museum didactics and display techniques; the introduction of foreign cuisines to the American public; labor relations and the rising sway of unions; the advent of mass travel and the tourism industry; and the history of other fairs and international expositions, most notably Chicago’s Century of Progress, which served in many ways as a model for the New York fair. The successful mounting of the Fair required the involvement of thousands of individuals both prominent and obscure—from incorporators and planners to stenographers and stuntmen. Consequently, the records are an ideal source for biographers and genealogists. While the collection in no small measure reveals the aspirations of the political, cultural, business, and civic leaders that financed, planned and built the Fair, the extensive correspondence from members of the public poignantly captures the anxieties of a nation still gripped by the Depression and poised on the brink of war. (nypl.org, from New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records Scope and Content note https://shadowfair1939.cargo.site/Substance-and-Shadow-Business-As-Usual Sun, 25 Nov 2018 15:02:35 +0000 Shadow Fair: The Unfinished Business of 'The World of Tomorrow' https://shadowfair1939.cargo.site/Substance-and-Shadow-Business-As-Usual 3. Substance and Shadow:&nbsp;Business as Usual The Fair’s display of corporate innovation masked simultaneous participation in government war production and profit.(1) As the Fair highlighted American industry as the manifestation of the themes of Democracy and Progress, many of the participating companies&nbsp;(2)&nbsp;were trading with Nazi Germany, with some of the corporate leaders even outright Nazi sympathizers. Today’s corporate and cultural economies are likewise both light and shadow, a mix of consumer market products and war materiel and technology, and often entwining philanthropy with a corporation’s special interests—for example, the Metropolitan Museum and the NYPL are both heavily funded by the Koch&nbsp;(3)&nbsp;family. Corporations have gained considerable political influence via The Citizen’s United&nbsp;(4) 2010 ruling:&nbsp; Political speech is indispensable to decision making in a democracy and this is no less true because the speech comes from a corporation rather than an individual. (1939 Fair participants, partial list) American Medical Association American Telegraph and Telephone (ATT) Bakelite Bayer Company, Inc.&nbsp;(5) Borden Ciba Pharmaceuticals Coca Cola Consolidated Edison Dupont Eastman Kodak Eli Lilly and Co. Ford Motors&nbsp;(6) General Electric General Motors Corporation&nbsp;(7) Gerber Products Co. IBM&nbsp;(8) ITT Mean, Johnson and Co. Ozalid Oil Company Parke, Davis and Co. Radio Corporation of America (RCA) E.R. Squibb and Sons United States Steel Westinghouse Winthrop Chemical Co. <img width="490" height="1158" width_o="490" height_o="1158" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8f6d1c92b9423b959eac1ef6dd0427c54994644267ecdd125ecde0e02b6c427e/Industry-sNewFrontGM-copy.jpg" data-mid="29657134" border="0" data-scale="91" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/490/i/8f6d1c92b9423b959eac1ef6dd0427c54994644267ecdd125ecde0e02b6c427e/Industry-sNewFrontGM-copy.jpg" /> <img width="3091" height="2276" width_o="3091" height_o="2276" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/81aa21d0d660c9ef35aeaabe13dc7b366715a0165ed226375a85f3b43865698a/WestinghouseAd-copy.jpg" data-mid="30594163" border="0" data-scale="88" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/81aa21d0d660c9ef35aeaabe13dc7b366715a0165ed226375a85f3b43865698a/WestinghouseAd-copy.jpg" /> During World War II the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company manufactured more than 8,000 different products, while its Research Laboratories made critical breakthroughs in plastics, radar, x-rays, bombsights, and atomic energy. Research laboratories contributed to significant improvements in radar, created gyroscopic stabilization device that improved the accuracy of tank guns, and built the first American-designed jet engine.&nbsp; Westinghouse also came up with a liner with factory applied sprayed on camouflage for use in the jungles of the Pacific. Both General Motors and Ford insist that they bear little or no responsibility for the operations of their German subsidiaries, which controlled 70 percent of the German car market at the outbreak of war in 1939 and rapidly retooled themselves to become suppliers of war materiel to the German army. (washingtonpost.com/archive) <img width="1263" height="800" width_o="1263" height_o="800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/74694a5d7941696c51e3286e9022f6b7e1b1b527b90163283cce4d522cb2dd3a/IMG_1216FortuneIBMWatson1Sm.jpg" data-mid="57450632" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/74694a5d7941696c51e3286e9022f6b7e1b1b527b90163283cce4d522cb2dd3a/IMG_1216FortuneIBMWatson1Sm.jpg" /> <img width="1246" height="800" width_o="1246" height_o="800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/782d8e1d33570958c399e29d39375b2edc948d534889315d14f81ecc8ea8821f/IMG_1219FortuneIBMWatson4Sm.jpg" data-mid="57450637" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/782d8e1d33570958c399e29d39375b2edc948d534889315d14f81ecc8ea8821f/IMG_1219FortuneIBMWatson4Sm.jpg" /> <img width="1259" height="800" width_o="1259" height_o="800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f8108ddeb432d28396833f5ef9dd236fe61f53dc3ba31ff30e3f8114fd021396/IMG_1220FortuneIBMWatson5Sm.jpg" data-mid="57450641" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f8108ddeb432d28396833f5ef9dd236fe61f53dc3ba31ff30e3f8114fd021396/IMG_1220FortuneIBMWatson5Sm.jpg" /> <img width="1200" height="773" width_o="1200" height_o="773" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9370d71439ce5cb37d5d74f26ff4365a4166901f7821ccced7c8b725c86517c5/IMG_1222FortuneIBMWatson6Sm.jpg" data-mid="57450657" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9370d71439ce5cb37d5d74f26ff4365a4166901f7821ccced7c8b725c86517c5/IMG_1222FortuneIBMWatson6Sm.jpg" /> (above) Fortune Magazine’s 1939 profile of IBM and its leader, Thomas Watson. IBM is one of the many companies whose pre-war trade with Germany developed into activities implicating the company with aiding the Nazis carry out the Holocaust. “IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation” is a book by investigative journalist Edwin Black which details the business dealings of the American-based multinational corporation&nbsp;International Business Machines (IBM) and its German&nbsp;and other European subsidiaries with the government of Adolf Hitler&nbsp;during the 1930s and the years of World War II. In the book, published in 2001, Black outlined the way in which IBM's technology helped facilitate Nazi genocide through generation and tabulation of punch cards based upon national census data. Data generated by means of counting and alphabetization equipment supplied by IBM through its German and other national subsidiaries was instrumental in the efforts of the German government to concentrate and ultimately destroy ethnic Jewish populations across Europe.&nbsp;Black reports that every Nazi concentration camp&nbsp;maintained its own Hollerith-Abteilung (Hollerith Department), assigned with keeping tabs on inmates through use of IBM's punchcard technology. (Wikipedia synopsis of book) (below) Fortune Magazine’s 1939 profile of Standard Oil (NJ) and excerpt from The American Chronicle’s article, The Treason of Rockefeller Standard Oil During WWII:&nbsp;(9) Standard Oil had withheld patents from the US Navy which had been supplied to the Nazis. Worse yet, [they] had been supplying the Luftwaffe and German Navy gasoline and tetraethyl lead ... <img width="1000" height="808" width_o="1000" height_o="808" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/398b448032155c2f66bb1e005029f73e651502cc1e57a404a5f858860a152529/IMG_1230FortuneStandardOilDet1Sm.jpg" data-mid="57450863" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/398b448032155c2f66bb1e005029f73e651502cc1e57a404a5f858860a152529/IMG_1230FortuneStandardOilDet1Sm.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="768" width_o="1000" height_o="768" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/61428dee028777a70d9a39bc7f3f4d3e5e5952ff5a4c2c474a4af6779c5ea7f5/IMG_1229FortuneStandardOilDet2.jpg" data-mid="57450867" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/61428dee028777a70d9a39bc7f3f4d3e5e5952ff5a4c2c474a4af6779c5ea7f5/IMG_1229FortuneStandardOilDet2.jpg" /> <img width="1200" height="756" width_o="1200" height_o="756" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1925a423ead4327442386dc402f07d67cc3ac64594b2ab4515012df8906eb60c/IMG_1231FortuneStandardOilWorldMapSm-copy.jpg" data-mid="57450874" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1925a423ead4327442386dc402f07d67cc3ac64594b2ab4515012df8906eb60c/IMG_1231FortuneStandardOilWorldMapSm-copy.jpg" /> (Unfinished) Business <img width="2760" height="3993" width_o="2760" height_o="3993" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/331e49d0d66ad5f5db9c48a899379de2825f48342843c93bacee04027280a5cb/BusWeekJuly39.cover2-copy.jpg" data-mid="29657064" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/331e49d0d66ad5f5db9c48a899379de2825f48342843c93bacee04027280a5cb/BusWeekJuly39.cover2-copy.jpg" /> <img width="2699" height="3993" width_o="2699" height_o="3993" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1b6c67b44490a2f369476336f7c7816e0e9447ff32aace6c56ba3742519cca68/BusWeek.Aug39.cover-copy.jpg" data-mid="29657062" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1b6c67b44490a2f369476336f7c7816e0e9447ff32aace6c56ba3742519cca68/BusWeek.Aug39.cover-copy.jpg" /> <img width="2735" height="3854" width_o="2735" height_o="3854" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/58bac06e6c508f59917894500e5a11079729468efabf2b1220ce269d3cb6b618/BusWeek39.BizUnderArms-copy.jpg" data-mid="29657063" border="0" data-scale="59" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/58bac06e6c508f59917894500e5a11079729468efabf2b1220ce269d3cb6b618/BusWeek39.BizUnderArms-copy.jpg" /> <img width="2689" height="3865" width_o="2689" height_o="3865" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3838bf757bf07f87fcc00736c88cdffb00cde835f09cf67214ef06607787e70f/BusWeekNov39.Ford.cover-copy.jpg" data-mid="29657066" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3838bf757bf07f87fcc00736c88cdffb00cde835f09cf67214ef06607787e70f/BusWeekNov39.Ford.cover-copy.jpg" /> Business magazines of the time (Fortune and Business Week) visibly track 1939's complex issues: to render a sense of the American zeitgeist, they solicited and displayed views on political ideology and leadership, isolationism and global trade, resource access and extraction, tax and regulation, and international immigration. Fortune was first to publish the results of public polling, which had no real prior graphic visibility in periodicals of the time. Many of the designers of printed ephemera for the World’s Fair were likely employed by corporate design studios and ad agencies, as well as the publishers of these magazines. (McGraw Hill published Business Week; the affinities and points of view of these publishers is worth closer examination, given McGraw Hill’s&nbsp;(10) subsequent tendency to distort American history in their widely-distributed textbooks.) The World’s Fair manifested the sometimes uneasy balance between business interests promoted by public relations men like Bernays, and FDR’s New Deal progressive public policy&nbsp;vision for the future. In many respects, we now&nbsp;(11) find ourselves in an historical echo chamber. <img width="3209" height="2842" width_o="3209" height_o="2842" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9d4954ccdcdfcd77cfcdd7fa991614db71ea62226767aa5f417d64da16f87048/RooseveltFeelings.diagr.jpg" data-mid="29657168" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9d4954ccdcdfcd77cfcdd7fa991614db71ea62226767aa5f417d64da16f87048/RooseveltFeelings.diagr.jpg" /> <img width="3847" height="2524" width_o="3847" height_o="2524" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1d54e1715198c7718745b4d386e7df0d5f10e69f76228aa79a29719523be83a4/NewDealVsTycoons.diagr.jpg" data-mid="29657144" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1d54e1715198c7718745b4d386e7df0d5f10e69f76228aa79a29719523be83a4/NewDealVsTycoons.diagr.jpg" /> <img width="4050" height="2770" width_o="4050" height_o="2770" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/23170428b707c52830e10fae7de49134af6e56518e86bfafd18ef50cd5ecbea2/NewDealWallaceHopkinsIckes.diagr.jpg" data-mid="29657151" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/23170428b707c52830e10fae7de49134af6e56518e86bfafd18ef50cd5ecbea2/NewDealWallaceHopkinsIckes.diagr.jpg" /> <img width="3295" height="2915" width_o="3295" height_o="2915" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/89d26307696fb8b1901f19b1d7c42afb4ab01873bb58e5e491cc9b07ae7aa625/LaborUnions.det.jpg" data-mid="29657136" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/89d26307696fb8b1901f19b1d7c42afb4ab01873bb58e5e491cc9b07ae7aa625/LaborUnions.det.jpg" /> <img width="3901" height="2869" width_o="3901" height_o="2869" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/aae186f1fee3021c3053afbaf34d3d475534f773e94f5793d0cd4866e4b4ab50/NoHavenForRefugees.diagr.jpg" data-mid="29657156" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/aae186f1fee3021c3053afbaf34d3d475534f773e94f5793d0cd4866e4b4ab50/NoHavenForRefugees.diagr.jpg" /> <img width="3421" height="2789" width_o="3421" height_o="2789" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/07bef682adcec27398624691dcb53ec05d9bc4ff7912f7fb7d98d40292201d86/ForeignBornBestCitizens.diagr.jpg" data-mid="30594905" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/07bef682adcec27398624691dcb53ec05d9bc4ff7912f7fb7d98d40292201d86/ForeignBornBestCitizens.diagr.jpg" /> <img width="3616" height="2742" width_o="3616" height_o="2742" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/87615cf18aa5f058bafe8d058a5e4e484fd22f9efd20b28ddf46760810413590/JewsInAmerica.diagr.jpg" data-mid="29657135" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/87615cf18aa5f058bafe8d058a5e4e484fd22f9efd20b28ddf46760810413590/JewsInAmerica.diagr.jpg" /> <img width="2553" height="3938" width_o="2553" height_o="3938" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/124be293e020b1458fb47dafcd7475927a87c91cbf7c34654dfe27a9fa1da7ba/NationalPolicySurvey-copy.jpg" data-mid="29657138" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/124be293e020b1458fb47dafcd7475927a87c91cbf7c34654dfe27a9fa1da7ba/NationalPolicySurvey-copy.jpg" /> <img width="2873" height="3567" width_o="2873" height_o="3567" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3ec1a0e138ccae7861a7bd975c7e7e3d42940c410c8be6b09796dec49895c475/FortuneOct39.Table.cover.jpg" data-mid="29657115" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3ec1a0e138ccae7861a7bd975c7e7e3d42940c410c8be6b09796dec49895c475/FortuneOct39.Table.cover.jpg" /> <img width="2822" height="3514" width_o="2822" height_o="3514" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c2cdf849660d067ebfb58b7cf1620c7860992ab0c7fe5a3239ab3c02cc840e3f/UncleSameTrade.diagr.jpg" data-mid="29657178" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c2cdf849660d067ebfb58b7cf1620c7860992ab0c7fe5a3239ab3c02cc840e3f/UncleSameTrade.diagr.jpg" /> <img width="2974" height="2913" width_o="2974" height_o="2913" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9aa748365d8942a63bd6f4750555d8a86f02371e94b5b21b315f642d3291bfee/NaturalResources.EthnoDiagrFull.jpg" data-mid="29657139" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9aa748365d8942a63bd6f4750555d8a86f02371e94b5b21b315f642d3291bfee/NaturalResources.EthnoDiagrFull.jpg" /> Oct. 1939 Fortune cover depicts the corporate round table; and editorial illustration shows the US holding the reins of international trade; chart of comparative natural resources of the key players in the prelude to WWII, with information credited to The New Western Front by Stuart Chase, Harcourt &amp; Brace Co., 1939. (See present-day&nbsp;trade tarrifs information graphic,(12) New York Times, July 11, 2018)&nbsp;All images from Brown University Rockefeller Library’s bound periodicals, 1939 Business Week and Fortune magazines.&nbsp; Visual Display The dynamic graphic design of 1939 is irresistable as a source of inspiration for typography, gravure printing, saturated color, information design, and photocollage. As with the Fair’s graphic materials, the visual explanations of global networks and manufacturing processes are seductive; a diagram of a mortar shell reads, “This lethal work of art costs $12.” Dynamic visual display of today’s global network reveals fluid relationships between resources, capital, and international exchange; for example, the offshore economies revealed in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’s Paradise Papers narrative demand new forms of relational storytelling.&nbsp;(13) <img width="2735" height="4179" width_o="2735" height_o="4179" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/eac0d6a668bbc31ea0256c79e84306b2cb067db40470bb01a9373760042a7f90/BusWeekJuly39.PeaceSwordMap-copy.jpg" data-mid="29657065" border="0" data-scale="93" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/eac0d6a668bbc31ea0256c79e84306b2cb067db40470bb01a9373760042a7f90/BusWeekJuly39.PeaceSwordMap-copy.jpg" /> <img width="2930" height="3913" width_o="2930" height_o="3913" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4aace6ebc9b62276b821ede1833f65a41fd7ad3769834e2afc1b256d8329b869/AmmoDiagr-copy-copy.jpg" data-mid="29657050" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4aace6ebc9b62276b821ede1833f65a41fd7ad3769834e2afc1b256d8329b869/AmmoDiagr-copy-copy.jpg" /> <img width="4032" height="2862" width_o="4032" height_o="2862" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/63170648a5c41f04f0a2cbb0a9fc82e45ba8b3c0bec528b17cdb33c428f714de/ArmyProcurementDiagr-copy.jpg" data-mid="29657057" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/63170648a5c41f04f0a2cbb0a9fc82e45ba8b3c0bec528b17cdb33c428f714de/ArmyProcurementDiagr-copy.jpg" /> <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e255c3b8f476f9a9d6042a349355a0d467efc57111ad20effe2795957942a31e/CommunNetwork.det3.jpg" data-mid="29657103" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e255c3b8f476f9a9d6042a349355a0d467efc57111ad20effe2795957942a31e/CommunNetwork.det3.jpg" /> <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3d172d635996403bca96a3d438d98f4b12dc1538f2434ba4e65b2644f01c2ad9/CommunNetwork.det4.jpg" data-mid="29657104" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3d172d635996403bca96a3d438d98f4b12dc1538f2434ba4e65b2644f01c2ad9/CommunNetwork.det4.jpg" /> Fortune Magazine&nbsp;information graphics of munitions production, and details from a map of the 1939 global communications network: note the question mark on an outlined (invaded) Poland.The Oct. 1939 Fortune magazine also charted speculations on Nazism’s effects on the German economy. <img width="3130" height="3923" width_o="3130" height_o="3923" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/95b7f04b43755b3de99f702713526974a4482f7a73aef1f21e25f40d33d4ae04/NaziConstructionPublicPrivate.diagr.jpg" data-mid="29657141" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/95b7f04b43755b3de99f702713526974a4482f7a73aef1f21e25f40d33d4ae04/NaziConstructionPublicPrivate.diagr.jpg" /> <img width="3877" height="2297" width_o="3877" height_o="2297" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ea4651474cb2b880b150c0debfec7705c31c68bf35be5a435e3e9951ad246bd7/NaziNatlIncome.diagr.jpg" data-mid="29657142" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ea4651474cb2b880b150c0debfec7705c31c68bf35be5a435e3e9951ad246bd7/NaziNatlIncome.diagr.jpg" /> <img width="3657" height="3042" width_o="3657" height_o="3042" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fffe24bb5f33bd8123f87ec7d383fc108af3825d1651ca0f59d89bad5291a1e3/GermanLabor.FlightFromLand.diagr.jpg" data-mid="29657119" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fffe24bb5f33bd8123f87ec7d383fc108af3825d1651ca0f59d89bad5291a1e3/GermanLabor.FlightFromLand.diagr.jpg" /> <img width="3557" height="2789" width_o="3557" height_o="2789" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/76f3f8b9dc773cfa70a213ccb4709d0c4d565986f2aeeb9b4e9c00ab5012d3ed/GermanIndustryVsFarmers.diagr.jpg" data-mid="29657116" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/76f3f8b9dc773cfa70a213ccb4709d0c4d565986f2aeeb9b4e9c00ab5012d3ed/GermanIndustryVsFarmers.diagr.jpg" /> <img width="3696" height="2969" width_o="3696" height_o="2969" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/20c809aaf07281e94638fc636600014aee748187de49b2296c13e055f13b4d9b/NaziAlchemy.cartoonDet1.jpg" data-mid="29657140" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/20c809aaf07281e94638fc636600014aee748187de49b2296c13e055f13b4d9b/NaziAlchemy.cartoonDet1.jpg" /> Fortune displays the ultimate identity design&nbsp;(14) program; the design of the layout is itself a visual rhyme with the corporate organizational chart. <img width="3990" height="2525" width_o="3990" height_o="2525" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0575bf74c395d4ae71d3c63c9350fadb8106ce8b5511cbb838d2049e2570efb3/NaziUniforms.full.jpg" data-mid="29657143" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0575bf74c395d4ae71d3c63c9350fadb8106ce8b5511cbb838d2049e2570efb3/NaziUniforms.full.jpg" /> Notes/links: (1) Big Money Rules, Diane Ravitch, NY Review of Books; (2)&nbsp;Profits über Alles! American Corporations and Hitler, Dr. Jacques Pauwels, Centre for Research on Globalization; (3) Six Companies Owned by the Koch Brothers, Nathan Reiff, Investopedia;&nbsp;(4) Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, Oyez Supreme Court Resources; (5) Bayer-Monsanto Merger Can’t Erase Nazi Chemists’ Past, Victor Grossman, People’s World;&nbsp;(6) Ford and GM Scrutinized for Alleged Nazi Collaboration, Michael Dobbs, Washington Post Archive; (7) Tank Development at GM in WW2, King Rose Archives; (8) IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation, Edwin Black; (9) The Treason of Rockefeller Standard Oil Company (Exxon) During WWII, The American Chronicle; (10) History Class and the Fictions about Race in America, Alia Wong, The Atlantic; (11) The Post WW2 Order is Under Assault by Those Who Built It, Peter S. Goodman, NYT; (12) How Trump’s Trade War Went from 18 Products to 10,000, Keith Collins and Jasmine C. Lee, NYT; (13) The Influencers, ICIJ; (14) Hitler as Art Director: What The Nazi’s Style Guide Says about the ‘Power of Design’, CBS News’s Jim Edwards interviews design historian Steven Heller&nbsp; https://shadowfair1939.cargo.site/Material-World Sun, 25 Nov 2018 20:39:39 +0000 Shadow Fair: The Unfinished Business of 'The World of Tomorrow' https://shadowfair1939.cargo.site/Material-World 4. Material World <img width="4181" height="2707" width_o="4181" height_o="2707" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/371bf54db1b5434f019c53f76f828b740b3493ed88ec4beb98b2aab5a276fdc4/ConflictColoniesSellsNash.fullSpr.jpg" data-mid="30973907" border="0" data-scale="99" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/371bf54db1b5434f019c53f76f828b740b3493ed88ec4beb98b2aab5a276fdc4/ConflictColoniesSellsNash.fullSpr.jpg" /> <img width="3026" height="3987" width_o="3026" height_o="3987" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/57222e14a73ecccc50ca80fd65874c5878c01d2837c26a1a8b2ae530ace891b6/WhatWinsWars.adY-R.jpg" data-mid="30974197" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/57222e14a73ecccc50ca80fd65874c5878c01d2837c26a1a8b2ae530ace891b6/WhatWinsWars.adY-R.jpg" /> <img width="3715" height="2931" width_o="3715" height_o="2931" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/845d4e60db10966908587da504bbd7d854dc6ec4586be97fccc2926038e9d634/NYC.commercePhoto.diagrFull.jpg" data-mid="30974240" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/845d4e60db10966908587da504bbd7d854dc6ec4586be97fccc2926038e9d634/NYC.commercePhoto.diagrFull.jpg" /> An ad for Time magazine’s potential advertisers characterizes&nbsp;Time readers as more conscious of how the news affects their prosperity (and more likely to respond to an ad for the Nash automobile). Production and Persuasion The Fair’s and the popular media’s patriotic messaging were public relations&nbsp;(1) efforts to shape an American sense of self, and its vision for the future. The 1939 World’s Fair was in its own way the test case for planned obsolescence—an economy based on want and consumption, not on need and product endurance. (See Adam Curtis’s Century of the Self, Part 1: The Happiness Machines (2)&nbsp;and the role of Edward Bernays in shaping the corporate messages of the 1939 Fair. Egmont Arens, arguably the father of planned obselescence, is discussed in Part 3.2.) The world of tomorrow was primarily represented by merchandise—designed, produced, displayed, and distributed with no restraint and no borders. Products became a symbol for democracy. <img width="691" height="1021" width_o="691" height_o="1021" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a6b7c461cb831607563d5fce329126925de4551b870d4725eea7d0d80adc4c96/BernaysAddress1.png" data-mid="30973866" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/691/i/a6b7c461cb831607563d5fce329126925de4551b870d4725eea7d0d80adc4c96/BernaysAddress1.png" /> <img width="781" height="1050" width_o="781" height_o="1050" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fe7a7fe54910d064552e677a92ad951fae951c0561cd93f2fab0a25a22adc745/BernaysAddress2.png" data-mid="30973867" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/781/i/fe7a7fe54910d064552e677a92ad951fae951c0561cd93f2fab0a25a22adc745/BernaysAddress2.png" /> <img width="699" height="1038" width_o="699" height_o="1038" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d13c556c52cac3714df2d75e12efead7f86ba18e6f82b4e3b530888441dd1342/BernaysAddress4.png" data-mid="30973869" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/699/i/d13c556c52cac3714df2d75e12efead7f86ba18e6f82b4e3b530888441dd1342/BernaysAddress4.png" /> <img width="740" height="1077" width_o="740" height_o="1077" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/209ac2b4bc925aec71ca6be9573b0b9534979b1549dab0f32bed621d9a979a3d/BernaysAddress3.png" data-mid="30973868" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/740/i/209ac2b4bc925aec71ca6be9573b0b9534979b1549dab0f32bed621d9a979a3d/BernaysAddress3.png" /> The New York world’s fair, a symbol for democracy: (3) address of Edward L. Bernays, member of World’s Fair Committee of the Merchants’ Association of New York at luncheon under auspices of the Association’s Members’ Council at Hotel Pennsylvania / April 7, 1937 (excerpted from full pdf, Yale University Library / Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library) Edward Bernays (4) worked with many of the corporations on their exhibits for the Fair to promote a vision of Democracy based on satisfying consumer needs as the truest form of patriotic duty. Plastics, automobiles, steel, and countless other industries were represented in elaborately designed display. A cast of design ‘heros’ were put to work: Donald Deskey, Norman Bel Geddes, Henry Dreyfuss, Egmont Arens, and many others (with women largely absent in the lists). <img width="958" height="1414" width_o="958" height_o="1414" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8f6bc9d9692128723565d9764ee6f9decd7a324071bb03121f4fefcb7696fa62/-39MerchCover1.png" data-mid="30973840" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/958/i/8f6bc9d9692128723565d9764ee6f9decd7a324071bb03121f4fefcb7696fa62/-39MerchCover1.png" /> <img width="926" height="1360" width_o="926" height_o="1360" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d00abaa3577a950f92aca59b4a3fceb4c3b9a1b32f700d6399dfbf7e6dfa2675/39Merch1.png" data-mid="30973842" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/926/i/d00abaa3577a950f92aca59b4a3fceb4c3b9a1b32f700d6399dfbf7e6dfa2675/39Merch1.png" /> <img width="928" height="1356" width_o="928" height_o="1356" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0778fa3f221608f2c4016aef9a42ccd5037f605340490be7afe0fd80b9a9b72f/39Merch2.png" data-mid="30973843" border="0" data-scale="73" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/928/i/0778fa3f221608f2c4016aef9a42ccd5037f605340490be7afe0fd80b9a9b72f/39Merch2.png" /> <img width="922" height="1348" width_o="922" height_o="1348" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c0bc760147052796142a2e5c839a77dd969f02fe2be4ff22b5b3e1cee1a7b1cc/39Merch3.png" data-mid="30973844" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/922/i/c0bc760147052796142a2e5c839a77dd969f02fe2be4ff22b5b3e1cee1a7b1cc/39Merch3.png" /> <img width="918" height="1364" width_o="918" height_o="1364" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b21ea02d14c57446223e07d47fb68ce5b480ee804c2c6391609cc2359dc08436/39Merch4.png" data-mid="30973845" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/918/i/b21ea02d14c57446223e07d47fb68ce5b480ee804c2c6391609cc2359dc08436/39Merch4.png" /> <img width="916" height="1358" width_o="916" height_o="1358" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/538f7dd71838b665d7652b90b08ca780cb2bb180080840a1b62a3af265faac22/39Merch5.png" data-mid="30973846" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/916/i/538f7dd71838b665d7652b90b08ca780cb2bb180080840a1b62a3af265faac22/39Merch5.png" /> <img width="924" height="1356" width_o="924" height_o="1356" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/609712ef74800d7b104c6974150c5151b787e0dba65439cd46328c7b805e0aae/39Merch7.png" data-mid="30973847" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/924/i/609712ef74800d7b104c6974150c5151b787e0dba65439cd46328c7b805e0aae/39Merch7.png" /> <img width="928" height="1362" width_o="928" height_o="1362" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6715b846727c18d9c90aa8afc521d906a6ce2fb8f5e304cc38b2c55252d5448a/39Merch8.png" data-mid="30973848" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/928/i/6715b846727c18d9c90aa8afc521d906a6ce2fb8f5e304cc38b2c55252d5448a/39Merch8.png" /> <img width="922" height="1358" width_o="922" height_o="1358" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8939bea53e57b98da77fe7bec47e8e777096cdfa01ffbb5e2f28768b69e1d4f0/39Merch10.png" data-mid="30973849" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/922/i/8939bea53e57b98da77fe7bec47e8e777096cdfa01ffbb5e2f28768b69e1d4f0/39Merch10.png" /> Excerpts from New York World’s Fair Licensed Merchandise, an extensive handbook for participating manufacturers, exhibit fabricators, and industry vendors. The message of abundant resources, manufacturing might, and the flow of goods and services was situated at the core of the Fair’s mission—and has clear parallels in America today. The Fair provided the souvenir as a kind of totemic take-away for visitors—objects tha survive as material extensions of the Fair experience. There is an almost endless supply of printed ephemera that survives from the 1939–40 Fair; legions of collectors and enthusiasts&nbsp;(5) also collect World’s Fair glasses, silverware, Bakelite plastic, metalworks, pottery, textiles, and so on. While my interest in the Fair may have begun at the flea market, it is now focused less on object acquisition and more on understanding the role of the Fair in forming a national idea of identity and prosperity in light of troubling social realities of the time. <img width="2503" height="3046" width_o="2503" height_o="3046" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/433286db79106a9ca19cba5a3892c7fe89f7ee7b0cd42fc66d544e7106006c58/ConcreteManuf.19.jpg" data-mid="30973906" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/433286db79106a9ca19cba5a3892c7fe89f7ee7b0cd42fc66d544e7106006c58/ConcreteManuf.19.jpg" /> <img width="3264" height="2448" width_o="3264" height_o="2448" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9e5fbec8012d6f69ecd112163d62f340cdf63273b901cbf31680609d29b58461/AnthraciteAd.jpg" data-mid="30973852" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9e5fbec8012d6f69ecd112163d62f340cdf63273b901cbf31680609d29b58461/AnthraciteAd.jpg" /> <img width="3887" height="3024" width_o="3887" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/327a271fe2e8f3b8f578588b187028443b2e143d6bde14c18b2d4299f7c9de73/Monsanto.ColorPlastics.jpg" data-mid="30974189" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/327a271fe2e8f3b8f578588b187028443b2e143d6bde14c18b2d4299f7c9de73/Monsanto.ColorPlastics.jpg" /> A chromatic display of 1939’s new plastics of the chemical company Monsanto (its later ‘House of the Future’&nbsp;(6) was exhibited at Disneyland, 1957. Monsanto operated the Dayton Project, later Mound Laboratories, assisting in developing the first&nbsp; nuclear weapons. Monsanto went on to manufacture DDT and Agent Orange, and has merged with German chemical giant, Bayer, in genetically modified food research.) <img width="2284" height="2236" width_o="2284" height_o="2236" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4bac4ef5459884317bb61ed3083867755aa5e0be523ce4479fb94e65c597be56/GM.CityFutr.broch3.jpg" data-mid="30974727" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4bac4ef5459884317bb61ed3083867755aa5e0be523ce4479fb94e65c597be56/GM.CityFutr.broch3.jpg" /> General Motors brochure, and advertisements from Architectural Forum, June 1939. Today, cheaper labor forces, lower taxes, and looser environmental regulation have contributed to Americas manufacturing’s move offshore to effectively colonize other countries. What legacies have endured from The 1939 World's Fair? The Fair was a mammoth design project that harnessed the imagination of graphic, industrial, exhibition, and architectural designers. Visions of the World of Tomorrow as spatial and distributive featured dynamic land use, transportation systems, and areas for community use. Pavilions, exhibits, and concept drawings rendered the future visible. From the Official Guide to the Fair: The eyes of the Fair are on the future — not in the sense of peering toward the unknown nor attempting to foretell the events of tomorrow and the shape of things to come, but in the sense of presenting a new and clearer view of today in preparation for tomorrow; a view of the forces and ideas that prevail as well as the machines. To its visitors the Fair will say: “Here are the materials, ideas, and forces at work in our world. These are the tools with which the World of Tomorrow must be made. They are all interesting and much effort has been expended to lay them before you in an interesting way. Familiarity with today is the best preparation for the future. What is left of the actual material 1939–40 New York World’s Fair beyond its archive of business records and ephemera, documentary photos, home movies, myriad souvenirs, and&nbsp;fan base of collectors? Once its memory passed from generations,(7) how would it or could it preserve for posterity what it considered to be its greatest achievements? The Westinghouse Time Capsule The 1939–40 New York World’s Fair site plan featured thematic zones, buildings, pathways, and pavilions—occupying a single year and in spatially ephemeral scope on a reclaimed site, now the home of the Queens Museum of Art in the only building remaining from the sprawling 1939 Fair campus. The New York Public Library archive is now the permanent site of the 1939–40 Fair: an organized data environment of files, documents, photographs, diagrams, media, texts, architectural plans, and proposal renderings. But the aim of the planners at the time was to leave something for a future 5,000 years away, a proposition that fit with the Fair’s many spectacles. In the spirit of its theme of Progress, the Fair showcased many new materials, products, and technologies. In an effort to capture and preserve representative materials, objects, images, and texts of 1939, Westinghouse conceived of a Time Capsule&nbsp;(8) that would be intended to be a tangible record of our civilization to endure for 5,000 years: <img width="741" height="1039" width_o="741" height_o="1039" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/390961af52facc16f15c6c14ace0ca781ca0a6e5b8560fe72dc0b196ff3e8f5d/BurialDiagram.png" data-mid="47752399" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/741/i/390961af52facc16f15c6c14ace0ca781ca0a6e5b8560fe72dc0b196ff3e8f5d/BurialDiagram.png" /> The future researcher or the future archaeologist, going over the grounds of this Fair, will perchance come upon this buriend treasure of the Time Capsule and, going over the evidence, may even contradict himself and refute the adverse judgment of history that has been popularied about modern man, and come to the conclusion that as we have not been exempt from committing our own share of human follies, we have also been attentive to the things that are important and that we have done our moral duty in our own generation to affirm the continuity of human knowledge. &nbsp; <img width="464" height="760" width_o="464" height_o="760" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/83e78b3e2034816b10829d587903547ff49eea176a4d71d2dd0cd1a985677d6e/TimeCapsule3.nypl.digitalcollections.9b528dba-a0a8-4364-e040-e00a18061e94.006.w.jpg" data-mid="47750923" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/464/i/83e78b3e2034816b10829d587903547ff49eea176a4d71d2dd0cd1a985677d6e/TimeCapsule3.nypl.digitalcollections.9b528dba-a0a8-4364-e040-e00a18061e94.006.w.jpg" /> <img width="760" height="618" width_o="760" height_o="618" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dff5870f286a3dd484451f1344c9e5dc9f280eadb710fecf58a6fbf4290b6b84/TimeCapsule3.nypl.digitalcollections.5e66b3e8-899b-d471-e040-e00a180654d7.001.w.jpg" data-mid="47751010" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/760/i/dff5870f286a3dd484451f1344c9e5dc9f280eadb710fecf58a6fbf4290b6b84/TimeCapsule3.nypl.digitalcollections.5e66b3e8-899b-d471-e040-e00a180654d7.001.w.jpg" /> <img width="760" height="615" width_o="760" height_o="615" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/29c7995f57284043a135e1eb3206fc86a70df5d03b80bc397bc7031fafa58ec3/TimeCapsule2.nypl.digitalcollections.5e66b3e9-0509-d471-e040-e00a180654d7.001.w.jpg" data-mid="47751210" border="0" data-scale="96" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/760/i/29c7995f57284043a135e1eb3206fc86a70df5d03b80bc397bc7031fafa58ec3/TimeCapsule2.nypl.digitalcollections.5e66b3e9-0509-d471-e040-e00a180654d7.001.w.jpg" /> <img width="760" height="618" width_o="760" height_o="618" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fff01773112171d6221dee6ec79b86022a2cb39c9869d60ee86edaa9a1d88f82/TimeCapsule4.nypl.digitalcollections.5e66b3e9-1e19-d471-e040-e00a180654d7.001.w.jpg" data-mid="47751208" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/760/i/fff01773112171d6221dee6ec79b86022a2cb39c9869d60ee86edaa9a1d88f82/TimeCapsule4.nypl.digitalcollections.5e66b3e9-1e19-d471-e040-e00a180654d7.001.w.jpg" /> <img width="623" height="760" width_o="623" height_o="760" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/58ec33e4b262b847139e4c38477d8398702d3488d36311f15570e007f2d060bc/TimeCapsuleWhalen.nypl.digitalcollections.5e66b3e9-06d0-d471-e040-e00a180654d7.001.w.jpg" data-mid="47751213" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/623/i/58ec33e4b262b847139e4c38477d8398702d3488d36311f15570e007f2d060bc/TimeCapsuleWhalen.nypl.digitalcollections.5e66b3e9-06d0-d471-e040-e00a180654d7.001.w.jpg" /> The&nbsp;sheer hubris of this endeavor becomes evident when the contents of the Time Capsule (9)&nbsp;reveal what a narrow scope of ‘civilization’ is actually represented, and how futile the notions of future peoples’ ability to access microfiche, newsreels, and other obsolete objects. (The only objects of with any hope of future worth&nbsp;(10) appear to be “a variety of seeds placed in the time capsule including wheat, corn, oats, tobacco, cotton, flax, rice, soy beans, alfalfa, sugar beets, carrots, and barley.”) Among the 35 small, everyday items placed inside Time Capsule I were a fountain pen and an alphabet block set. Time Capsule I also contained 75 types of fabrics, metals, and plastics. Modern literature, contemporary art, and news events of the twentieth century were recorded on a microfilm "Micro-File" for placement in Time Capsule I; the "Micro-File" holds over ten million words and a thousand pictures, and has a small microscope for viewing. There are also instructions included on how to make both a large microfilm viewer and a motion picture projector for the newsreels. Also included in the capsule were copies of Life magazine, a kewpie doll, one dollar in change, a pack of Camel cigarettes, a 15-minute RKO Pathe Pictures newsreel, a Lilly Daché&nbsp;hat, and millions of words of text put on microfilm rolls which included a Sears Roebuck catalog, a dictionary, and an almanac. A variety of seeds were placed in the time capsule including wheat, corn, oats, tobacco, cotton, flax, rice, soy beans, alfalfa, sugar beets, carrots, and barley. The items in the capsule were selected to chronicle 20th-century life in the United States. During packaging of the contents, under the direction of representatives of the United States National Bureau of Standards, each object was examined to determine whether it could be expected to last 5,000 years. In addition, care was taken to select items that are not interactive and do not decompose into harmful gases or acids. Organic items (for example, seeds) were placed in sealed glass vials. Five categories of objects were placed inside Capsule I: Small articles of common useTextiles and materialsEssay in microfilmRKO newsreelMiscellaneous itemsEvery object fully labeled and described; sealed into glass; individually wrapped in heavy 100% rag ledger paper and tied with linen twine, label inside; film and microfilm inside aluminum containers lined with rag paper.... <img width="760" height="619" width_o="760" height_o="619" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d10d333029dedd2517a733cf465616a4e3a91f625b29bd049a943bda523bbb7c/TimeCapsule1.nypl.digitalcollections.5e66b3e8-8281-d471-e040-e00a180654d7.001.w.jpg" data-mid="47751431" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/760/i/d10d333029dedd2517a733cf465616a4e3a91f625b29bd049a943bda523bbb7c/TimeCapsule1.nypl.digitalcollections.5e66b3e8-8281-d471-e040-e00a180654d7.001.w.jpg" /> <img width="760" height="614" width_o="760" height_o="614" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4e5e346304d84e1e5217d564c9ed6041f55f1c50fc8df0241e3465950ac81c76/TimeCapsuleStuffing.nypl.digitalcollections.5e66b3e9-0942-d471-e040-e00a180654d7.001.w.jpg" data-mid="47751433" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/760/i/4e5e346304d84e1e5217d564c9ed6041f55f1c50fc8df0241e3465950ac81c76/TimeCapsuleStuffing.nypl.digitalcollections.5e66b3e9-0942-d471-e040-e00a180654d7.001.w.jpg" /> The Book of Record <img width="706" height="372" width_o="706" height_o="372" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2a2230a261bf5e6c511b5473485b268ae949bf8f7e85f05f5051c6d09d10ec71/ContentsParagr.png" data-mid="47750805" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/706/i/2a2230a261bf5e6c511b5473485b268ae949bf8f7e85f05f5051c6d09d10ec71/ContentsParagr.png" /> The contents of Time Capsule I were recorded in a Book of Record of the Time Capsule of Cupaloy.&nbsp;(11) &nbsp;The purpose of this book is to preserve knowledge of the existence of the time capsule for 5,000 years, and to provide assistance to the people of the year 6939 in locating and recovering it. More than 3000 copies of the book were distributed to museums, monasteries, and libraries worldwide: I stumbled across a copy in the open stacks at the John D. Rockefeller Library at Brown University and scanned it before turning it over to the John Hay Library Special Collections librarian for safekeeping. (The 1964 New York World’s Fair,&nbsp;(12) which was staged on the same site as the 1939 Fair, also buried a time capsule. In order to avoid confusion about the 1965 time capsule, a supplement announcing Time Capsule II was sent to the original 3,000 depositories of the 1938 edition.) The Book of Record, designed by Frederic Goudy (view of all spreads)&nbsp; <img width="2482" height="3472" width_o="2482" height_o="3472" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f7b57c429f3da0076854b49ba524ea46534cf8ee0eae5acf7c38ba83509e3f29/00-Cover-copy.jpg" data-mid="47751858" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f7b57c429f3da0076854b49ba524ea46534cf8ee0eae5acf7c38ba83509e3f29/00-Cover-copy.jpg" /> <img width="4210" height="3290" width_o="4210" height_o="3290" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/244cc59ca833b28bda2d4481034c1910cadba38dbeab4858a0e4ebc16df586fa/00-01.jpg" data-mid="47751860" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/244cc59ca833b28bda2d4481034c1910cadba38dbeab4858a0e4ebc16df586fa/00-01.jpg" /> <img width="4228" height="3294" width_o="4228" height_o="3294" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a4561545dc326da2d598a98373d67c5d379e2e01b6220ce71e3241425840b6f3/02-03.jpg" data-mid="47751867" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a4561545dc326da2d598a98373d67c5d379e2e01b6220ce71e3241425840b6f3/02-03.jpg" /> <img width="4221" height="3330" width_o="4221" height_o="3330" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9d697f9479882497c987e707eacc2a2605ed04f183bc6029737c84bd66bedca2/04-05-realPag.jpg" data-mid="47751868" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9d697f9479882497c987e707eacc2a2605ed04f183bc6029737c84bd66bedca2/04-05-realPag.jpg" /> <img width="4228" height="3330" width_o="4228" height_o="3330" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8e47ecdd4c560995f304888476d81d80cd714c1d0fce15e89a34e5f9aec38c27/04-05.jpg" data-mid="47751869" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8e47ecdd4c560995f304888476d81d80cd714c1d0fce15e89a34e5f9aec38c27/04-05.jpg" /> <img width="4201" height="3249" width_o="4201" height_o="3249" 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width_o="4097" height_o="3230" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a6d7726b87174a9515b2155e5ef22d9d6b015c70925ba1548dedb6d689ae415d/12-13.jpg" data-mid="47751873" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a6d7726b87174a9515b2155e5ef22d9d6b015c70925ba1548dedb6d689ae415d/12-13.jpg" /> <img width="4088" height="3230" width_o="4088" height_o="3230" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f510a59369d75fc965d0c60f4e2a9319ce2340e9fb8809173c9d71abeaa9fb48/14-15.jpg" data-mid="47751874" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f510a59369d75fc965d0c60f4e2a9319ce2340e9fb8809173c9d71abeaa9fb48/14-15.jpg" /> <img width="4159" height="3206" width_o="4159" height_o="3206" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1bd92084bedeae72664b912d23ebbf631d6a1c00765ddf853784d359633c99f2/16-17.jpg" data-mid="47751875" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1bd92084bedeae72664b912d23ebbf631d6a1c00765ddf853784d359633c99f2/16-17.jpg" /> <img width="4180" height="3205" width_o="4180" height_o="3205" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b963734135407339130070b74b4490508368005aaac91dbd8d4897f1f849a6c1/18-19.jpg" data-mid="47751876" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b963734135407339130070b74b4490508368005aaac91dbd8d4897f1f849a6c1/18-19.jpg" /> <img width="4214" height="3208" width_o="4214" height_o="3208" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4bd325aac6ef034aefb7cc59c578a8c81b90363dda5327e05137b164fb4888c0/20-21.jpg" data-mid="47751877" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4bd325aac6ef034aefb7cc59c578a8c81b90363dda5327e05137b164fb4888c0/20-21.jpg" /> <img width="4197" height="3205" width_o="4197" height_o="3205" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0734b1f616dd3b1e855b727a619514974f4a402e9ef683e80f183fd8fea67c06/22-23.jpg" data-mid="47751878" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0734b1f616dd3b1e855b727a619514974f4a402e9ef683e80f183fd8fea67c06/22-23.jpg" /> <img width="4201" height="3211" width_o="4201" height_o="3211" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/be1a947892f1898373a837a1f41fafe69f21e841845426599f6cb2966dd32aa3/24-25.jpg" data-mid="47751879" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/be1a947892f1898373a837a1f41fafe69f21e841845426599f6cb2966dd32aa3/24-25.jpg" /> <img width="4228" height="3256" width_o="4228" height_o="3256" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a6e35f7525b1ce1b57bb1b330978d834fb335fff0b5ebb725fb79028832614e0/26-27.jpg" data-mid="47751880" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a6e35f7525b1ce1b57bb1b330978d834fb335fff0b5ebb725fb79028832614e0/26-27.jpg" /> <img width="4176" height="3241" width_o="4176" height_o="3241" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/93cea24fda0cda7e462a10c6791ba7f1dbef021fcbaffbb879c720417ebd1b09/28-29.jpg" data-mid="47751881" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/93cea24fda0cda7e462a10c6791ba7f1dbef021fcbaffbb879c720417ebd1b09/28-29.jpg" /> <img width="4133" height="3189" width_o="4133" height_o="3189" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f0440c571560ffb2aaa0c21967b2796711c13d0222f8778895c70e0e8dada8c3/30-31.jpg" data-mid="47751882" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f0440c571560ffb2aaa0c21967b2796711c13d0222f8778895c70e0e8dada8c3/30-31.jpg" /> <img width="4155" height="3186" width_o="4155" height_o="3186" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/78c2574799d0bdc933fd41ee0167640172f65c2f3d1d9ed4334929c546c273ca/32-33.jpg" data-mid="47751883" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/78c2574799d0bdc933fd41ee0167640172f65c2f3d1d9ed4334929c546c273ca/32-33.jpg" /> <img width="4095" height="3253" width_o="4095" height_o="3253" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6a17c9ff90bbd2ed648732fb179981abbfb43a00783988e1339916520d6fa23c/34-35.jpg" data-mid="47751884" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6a17c9ff90bbd2ed648732fb179981abbfb43a00783988e1339916520d6fa23c/34-35.jpg" /> <img width="4160" height="3245" width_o="4160" height_o="3245" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d51930a160ef61837a8e7bb8e444a4e08b5e2d188cd32c66291179acd2eb0bc9/36-37.jpg" data-mid="47751885" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d51930a160ef61837a8e7bb8e444a4e08b5e2d188cd32c66291179acd2eb0bc9/36-37.jpg" /> <img width="4247" height="3245" width_o="4247" height_o="3245" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7ec7393c49f5495c913724c4c875868313c415d0f7b99eb851ea7e456f897d7a/38-39.jpg" data-mid="47751886" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7ec7393c49f5495c913724c4c875868313c415d0f7b99eb851ea7e456f897d7a/38-39.jpg" /> <img width="4237" height="3254" width_o="4237" height_o="3254" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1f5ff7199aeb63a442e7b0483b09b7c1119f388119a9d3aa5b7fd4f09b6edc5f/40-41.jpg" data-mid="47751887" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1f5ff7199aeb63a442e7b0483b09b7c1119f388119a9d3aa5b7fd4f09b6edc5f/40-41.jpg" /> <img width="4141" height="3242" width_o="4141" height_o="3242" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7837a0515604f4d41b769ce8ccd87cd4a677b15a5671aeb7e4f79fb2b6ce29cf/42-43.jpg" data-mid="47751888" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7837a0515604f4d41b769ce8ccd87cd4a677b15a5671aeb7e4f79fb2b6ce29cf/42-43.jpg" /> <img width="4173" height="3214" width_o="4173" height_o="3214" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ef26ffe34c5daefd31a60ed719777f3984daa7324abc0ab8ac3522a230564683/44-45.jpg" data-mid="47751889" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ef26ffe34c5daefd31a60ed719777f3984daa7324abc0ab8ac3522a230564683/44-45.jpg" /> <img width="4186" height="3225" width_o="4186" height_o="3225" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8062573fe846f58ecb08d7cf9bd815a18c52abb16f1ca10ef824a6892a6c6d5b/46-47.jpg" data-mid="47751890" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8062573fe846f58ecb08d7cf9bd815a18c52abb16f1ca10ef824a6892a6c6d5b/46-47.jpg" /> <img width="4186" height="3232" width_o="4186" height_o="3232" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b6eef7607aa04fff38d21479bc87aa2df04706869e5ad325f789695e0824a4c9/48-49.jpg" data-mid="47751891" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b6eef7607aa04fff38d21479bc87aa2df04706869e5ad325f789695e0824a4c9/48-49.jpg" /> <img width="4166" height="3182" width_o="4166" height_o="3182" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/74083acd9956bb2694b3d6718bd43b2cfaf36b4f4654ea67687ed1dd4eccb215/50-51.jpg" data-mid="47751892" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/74083acd9956bb2694b3d6718bd43b2cfaf36b4f4654ea67687ed1dd4eccb215/50-51.jpg" /> <img width="4140" height="3242" width_o="4140" height_o="3242" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9f1e4e2876634999be4bb37bcaac41d8efbfe750196dee8722716a1a2006ca14/52-53.jpg" data-mid="47751893" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9f1e4e2876634999be4bb37bcaac41d8efbfe750196dee8722716a1a2006ca14/52-53.jpg" /> Especially absurd was the assertion that English would be the only language worth preserving, diagrammed with an elaborate phonetic system for recreating and understanding its pronunciation: <img width="470" height="662" width_o="470" height_o="662" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/93d81056f67e647936101f21e73e73bd11dd8c9b456c5ebd943aa162a681f1a0/SpokenLangDiagr.png" data-mid="47754047" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/470/i/93d81056f67e647936101f21e73e73bd11dd8c9b456c5ebd943aa162a681f1a0/SpokenLangDiagr.png" /> <img width="464" height="356" width_o="464" height_o="356" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2f33d8c85ed06f10bea3a2b221d6ff6f8acfc7851ba72979f3f7881331f87a39/ThisThat.png" data-mid="47754050" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/464/i/2f33d8c85ed06f10bea3a2b221d6ff6f8acfc7851ba72979f3f7881331f87a39/ThisThat.png" /> “If present-day methods of determining time are lost, future generations will be able to calculate the age of the time capsules using astronomical data. In the year 1939, there were two eclipses of the moon, falling on the third of May and the twenty-eighth of October. There were also two eclipses of the sun, an annular eclipse on the nineteenth of April, the path of annular eclipse grazing the North Pole of the earth, and a total eclipse on the twelfth of October, the total path crossing near the South Pole. The heliocentric longitudes of the planets on the first of January at zero-hours Greenwich time were as follows:...” <img width="566" height="655" width_o="566" height_o="655" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b38554c5b893866969ec6305067eb29a014eb9941b1d2a03d8d6a63c5aae0f9c/MapOfSite.png" data-mid="47752403" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/566/i/b38554c5b893866969ec6305067eb29a014eb9941b1d2a03d8d6a63c5aae0f9c/MapOfSite.png" /><img width="446" height="139" width_o="446" height_o="139" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/22888ed54070c9f97e97a460ad6de0bec99d0b03169eee0cf25120918a1bc094/GeoLocator.png" data-mid="47752412" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/446/i/22888ed54070c9f97e97a460ad6de0bec99d0b03169eee0cf25120918a1bc094/GeoLocator.png" /> The book ends with ‘words of great men’ for future man to know us by—Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein, and a particularly prescient passage from Nobel prize winning physicist, Robert Milliken: <img width="510" height="465" width_o="510" height_o="465" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7b52db1e435f22d581b6fb5c341129582c66cfc4d2e3594a2d9f3e26a7058814/PoliticalMessage.png" data-mid="47752508" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/510/i/7b52db1e435f22d581b6fb5c341129582c66cfc4d2e3594a2d9f3e26a7058814/PoliticalMessage.png" />Notes/links: (1) Soft Power: The Means to Success in Global Politics, Joseph S. Nye Jr. (Wikipedia synopsis of book); (2)&nbsp;Century of the Self, Part 1: The Happiness Machines,&nbsp;Adam Curtis; (3)&nbsp;The New York world’s fair, a symbol for democracy, Edward Bernays; (4) Edward Bernays (Wikipedia); (5) 1939 World’s Fair Collectibles, Ebay;&nbsp;(6) Monsanto’s Oddly Prescient Vision for a Plastic Future, John McDuling, Quartz; (7) 1930s: The 1939 New York World’s Fair, Barbara Kopple, Vanity Fair Decades Series; (8) The Story of the Westinghouse Time Capsule, 1939 New York World’s Fair, Prelinger Archive; (9) 1939 Westinghouse 5,000 Years Time Capsule, NY World’s Fair (YouTube); (10) Svalbard Global Seed Vault: Safeguarding Seeds for the Future, Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food; (11)&nbsp;The book of record of the time capsule of cupaloy, deemed capable of resisting the effects of time for five thousand years, preserving an account of universal achievements, embedded in the grounds of the New York World's fair, 1939, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Internet Archive; (12) 1964 World’s Fair time capsule contents; (13) The Nobel Prize in Physics, 1923: Robert Milliken, nobelprize.org