A rich selection of images greeted visitors to the Museum of the City of New York from 5 December 2012 to 31 March 2013. Hints of American fairs’ modernist glamor shown in scenic renderings in the entrance hall forecast more pictures in the main display room. On the perimeter walls of a large gallery, black-and-white photographs illustrated American fairs of the 1930s: Chicago’s Century of Progress (1934–34), San Diego’s California Pacific International Exposition (1935–36), Dallas’s Texas Centennial Exposition (1936), Cleveland’s Great Lakes Exposition (1936–37), San Francisco’s Golden Gate International Exposition, and New York City’s World of Tomorrow (both 1939–40). On intermediate partitions, visitors saw renderings of vistas and individual pavilions, objects displayed at the fairs, and advertisements for sponsors’ products. Here and there, they paused to see short news and commercial films, although in the well-filled room, no seats could be provided. Souvenir brochures, booklets, catalogs, and commemorative trinkets appeared...

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