Monday, June 4, 2012

Black-and-white souvenir photos from 1939 New York World's Fair

Here are five interesting black-and-white souvenir photos from the 1939 New York World's Fair. They were taken by Underwood & Underwood. (Click on any of the photos for a larger, more-detailed version.)

Above: The Perisphere. Together, the Trylon and Perisphere were known as the "Theme Center." The Perisphere had a diameter of 180 feet and housed a diorama called "Democracity."

Above: "One of the Many Colorful Entrances to the Fair." More than 44 million people attended this fair during the two seasons it was open.

Above: This is the Communications Building. According to this 1939 New York World's Fair website, some of the exhibitors in the building were The Book House for Children, The Independent Order of Foresters, Keystone Manufacturing Company, Underwood & Underwood and Universal Camera Corporation.

Above: This is the "British Pavillion [sic] on Lagoon of Nations." The Lagoon of Nations was part of the overall Hall of Nations, which included Albania, Cuba, Iceland, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Siam, Haiti and many others. The only major world power that did not participate in this World's Fair was Germany.

Above: This is the Polish Building and Tower. The statue -- the King Jagiello Monument -- that can be seen on the left-hand side of the tower was a replica of one that was converted into bullets by the Germans after they invaded Warsaw. The monument now resides in Central Park. The Am-Pol Eagle has an interesting article about the 1939 World's Fair and Poland's place in it.



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