World's Fairs

Gadgets. New products. Outlandish seeming inventions. The 1939 World’s Fair was focused on the marvels of the future and tourists were visiting in droves.  But within just six months of its opening, Europe erupted in war when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. And though the United ...read more

If you headed to Coney Island at the turn of the century, you might wade in the water, eat some ice cream, or try out a rollercoaster at the newly opened amusement park, Luna Park. But your boardwalk promenade might also include a visit to the equivalent of a fully functional ...read more

History Flashback takes a look at historical “found footage” of all kinds—newsreels, instructional films, even cartoons—to give us a glimpse into how much things have changed, and how much has remained the same. Nearly 80 years ago this month, President Roosevelt took the dais in ...read more

1. Ford assembly line For three hours each day inside the Palace of Transportation, the Ford Motor Company operated an assembly line that produced a new automobile every 10 minutes. Fairgoers watched as workers added axles, wheels, engines and interiors to the vehicles, which ...read more

1. Videoconferencing Visitors to the Bell System Pavilion were awed by demonstrations of the company’s Picturephones, which allowed callers to see each other on small television monitors. Decades before FaceTime and Skype made videoconferencing commonplace, Bell’s experimental ...read more

1. Chicago had to beat out a number of other cities to get the fair. In the late 1880s, Chicago, St. Louis, New York and Washington, D.C. all submitted bids to host the 1893 fair, but the race was soon narrowed to New York and Chicago. Big Apple financial titans including ...read more