Skip to main content Skip to main navigation

Paul Gillespie collection of New York World's Fair materials

Call Number

PR 283

Date

1936-2010 (Bulk 1939-1940), inclusive

Creator

Extent

16.87 Linear feet

Language of Materials

English .

Abstract

Photographs and ephemera from the 1939-40 New York World's Fair collected by Paul Gillespie.

Biographical Note

Paul Gillespie (1927-2011) was born and raised in Miami, Florida, but he relocated to New York City, where he lived for almost 50 years in an apartment on the upper west side of Manhattan. A graduate of the University of Miami and Columbia University, Mr. Gillespie served first in the U.S. Army and then with the U.S. State Department before becoming a teacher with the Pelham, New York, public school system. It is doubtful that Mr. Gillespie attended the 1939-40 New York World's Fair, but he developed a lifelong interest and collected an impressive assortment of photographs, scrapbooks, pamphlets, guidebooks, menus and other fair-related ephemera. While family members recall walks with Mr. Gillespie around the Flushing Meadows fairgrounds, it is unclear what motivated his fascination with the fair. However, it is apparent from the notebooks, related ephemera and books he acquired that Mr. Gillespie read widely on the subject and travelled to regional libraries and historical societies conducting research.

Historical Note

Located on over 1200 acres in Flushing Meadows, Queens, the New York World's Fair ran for two seasons, from April 30, 1939 to October 31, 1939, and then reopening from May 11, 1940, to October 27, 1940. Originating from a desire to revitalize the Depression-weary spirit and economy of New York City and the nation, the fair attracted the participation of sixty nations, thirty-three U.S. states and drew approximately forty-five million visitors. The fair's first season was instilled with optimism about the capacity for the present to give rise to a prosperous "World of Tomorrow." However, towards the conclusion of its first season, this hopeful outlook would take on an ironic aspect as war loomed and the fair struggled to turn a profit.

Led by Grover Whalen and many of the most prominent figures in New York economic and political life, the fair organizers employed the latest ideas in design and marketing to make the fair a reality. Whalen travelled extensively and convinced countries as diverse as the Soviet Union, El Salvador, Iraq and Japan to participate. The fair's Board of Design featured prominent modernist architects and industrial designers, such as Walter Dorwin Teague, Norman Bel Geddes, Alvar Aalto and Wallace Harrison, who oversaw the creation of a clean, streamlined vision of tomorrow. Their design theme was most dramatically and famously embodied in the 700-foot tall Trylon and 180-foot diameter Perisphere that formed the center point of the fair grounds.

The fair's international pavilions strove to acquaint visitors with the nations of the world and stressed the virtues of cooperation and interdependence. Exhibit halls sponsored by corporations such as General Motors, Westinghouse, and AT&T combined marketing with technology demonstrations and other spectacles to create a promising vision of the future in which their innovative products would play an essential role. Meanwhile, the fair's "Amusement Zone" offered visitors thrill rides, dazzling shows, carnival attractions, sideshow novelties and risque thrills. The fair also featured industrial and technology exhibits, several gardens, an art gallery, statues and sculptures of many sizes, fountains and pools, and a model "town of tomorrow." A sense of wonder also stemmed from the cutting edge technologies that were showcased at the fair. While taken for granted today, color photography, television broadcasts, air conditioning, and the use of large scale lighting employed for dramatic effect, were some of the new marvels that were demonstrated for the first time.

The fair was not without controversy and received its share of criticism from contemporary critics. The total cost of admission and spending a day at the fair was deemed prohibitively expensive for many Americans. Both this cost and the manner in which the fair was marketed were criticized as having an exclusionary effect towards African Americans and ethnic minorities. The NAACP and Urban League protested unfair hiring practices and insufficient representation of African Americans in the fair's exhibits. Social critics also expressed concern that the fair's ideals were compromised by the prevalence of consumerism and crass amusements.

By the time the fair's second season opened, many of the participating nations were engulfed in the Second World War, leading some to either withdraw from the fair or causing their delegations to become exiles in America. In response, the slogan of the fair was changed to "For Peace and Freedom" and new patriotic themes prevailed. In an effort to attract more visitors, the price of admission was lowered and a greater emphasis was placed on marketing the fair's amusements. Despite these changes the fair did not last past its second season and would ultimately declare bankruptcy. However, the legacy of the fair would remain in the post-war memories of Americans who would go on to create a cultural landscape that in many ways resembled the prosperous, streamlined, middle-class world that the fair had imagined.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged by format and has been divided into seven series:

Missing Title

  1. Series I. Photographs
  2. Series II. Post Cards
  3. Series III. Scrap Books and Photo Albums
  4. Series IV. Ephemera
  5. Series V. Correspondence and Notebooks
  6. Series VI. Publications
  7. Series VII. Oversize Material

Scope and Content

The Paul Gillespie Collection of New York World Fair Materials consists largely of photographs, post cards, scrapbooks, photo albums and ephemera that document the 1939-40 New York World's Fair. The collection was assembled over the course of Mr. Gillespie's lifetime and represents a diverse assortment of items from a variety of sources. In particular, the collection contains a large number of amateur photographs that offer a contrasting perspective to the iconographic pictures taken by professionals. Some of these snapshots depict rare glimpses inside exhibits and shows. The collection also contains over 200 color photographs that offer a richer look of how the fair truly appeared. Also noteworthy is an assortment of menus taken from many of the fair's restaurants and a scrapbook that contains both a detailed diary from multiple visits to the fair and a unique collection of ephemera.

A small amount of material relating to the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, the Golden Gate International Exposition and other world fairs is also found in this collection.

Access

The collection is open to qualified researchers. Portions of the collection that have been photocopied or microfilmed will be brought to the researcher in that format; microfilm can be made available through Interlibrary Loan.

Photocopying

Photocopying undertaken by staff only. Limited to twenty exposures of stable, unbound material per day. See guidelines in Print Room for details.

Citation

This collection should be cited as: Paul Gillespie Collection of New York World's Fair Materials, PR 283, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, The New-York Historical Society.

Provenance

Gift of Paul Gillespie, 2011.

Permission to reproduce or quote in publication

Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to the Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024. Permission to reproduce or quote text from this collection in a publication must be requested from and granted in writing by the Library Director, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024.

Related Materials

Other photographs and prints of the New York World's Fairs can be found in the Geographic File (PR 020), the Postcard File (PR 065) and the Album File (PR 002) in the New-York Historical Society's Department of Prints, Photographs and Architectural Collections. There is also a large collection of World's Fair books and ephemera in the library's general collections. To search the general collection, click here.

References

Harrison, Helen A., and Joseph P. Cusker. 1980. Dawn of a new day: the New York World's Fair, 1939/40. Flushing, N.Y.: Queens Museum.

"The Iconography of Hope: The 1939-40 New York World's Fair," accessed July 21, 2011, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/display/39wf/front.htm.

"African Americans in 'The World of Tomorrow': 1939," accessed July 21, 2011, http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/lessonplans/hs_es_newyorkfair.htm.

"Clash in the world of tomorrow," accessed July 21, 2011, http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda/149/149syllabus12.html.

Collection processed by

Kenneth Cleary

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:47:12 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is written in: English, Latin script.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024