"The World of Tomorrow" New York Peepshow Tunnel Book - FINE
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(PEEP SHOW) HARE, Eliazbeth Sage, and Warren Chappell. THE WORLD OF TOMORROW. THE NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR, 1789-1939.
(New York: 1939). 5 x 6 1/2 inches. Pictorial boards and 4 intermediate panels. First edition. Designed by Alfred Knopf's chief book designer, Warren Chappell.
A tunnel book peep show with six cut-away views hinged top and bottom to unfold accordion-like to reveal a three dimensional scene.
6 colored illustrations; 13 x 17 cm. - 6.5 X 5 inches
Fine condition – no damage - beautiful
6 color-lithographed cardboard panels, mounted on tissue-paper accordion folds, that opens in accordion style to 25" in length and gives a 3-D view through a peep hole of the New York World's Fair of 1939 by showing Trilon and Peripshere, the symbol of the Fair. It was produced for the Firestone Factory and Exhibition Building at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Front art commemorates George Washington 150th anniversary of his inauguration with dates 1789-1939.
Collector's Corner:
A jester points out the view to George and Martha Washington so that they can look into "The World Of Tommorow"
They and the current viewer can see, as they look down the Constitution Mall are, the massive structures of The Trylon and Perisphere which were the central symbol of the 1939 World's Fair. The peepshow represents a post-depression period of hope and progress.
In “Viewing Souvenirs” from the Journal of Design History Vol. 15 No. 2 © 2002 The Design History Society – Amy Ogata writes:
“When it was revived as a souvenir for the 1939 New York World's Fair, the peepshow seemed to sum up the complex experience of the exhibitions as firmly part of a history of historical events and as a statement of confidence in die present. Just as the nationalistic micro-villages were staged to amuse, so the continuum of time could also be represented spatially in die peepshow format. The example from the New York World's Fair in 1939,designed by die illustrators Warren Chappell and Elizabeth Sage Hare, anachronistically takes the form of a nineteenth-century paper peepshow. Unlike nineteenth-century views, however, the 1939 example is not conceived as 'timeless', but self- consciously devised to represent rime itself. A jester sits in as the peepshow man, offering the view to two eighteenth-century figures, George and Martha Washington. Gazing through the peephole, into 'the world of tomorrow' (the fair's motto), these viewers encounter the image of the future. At the end of the vista, past the giant statue of Washington, and standing as the culmination of human endeavor are the massive structures of the Trylon and Perisphere that were the fair's emblems. This peepshow not only represented the buildings erected for the 1939 fair and the experience of looking down the formal par-terre of Constitution Mall. It also represented in visual terms the continuum of 150 years, from the time when Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States until 1939. In the context of the end of the Great Depression, looking back to the end of the eighteenth century was surely a strategy of reassurance. In this example, the peepshow directs the gaze from the past towards the future; it keeps the trajectory of nostalgia flowing in the direction of hope and progress, obscuring mundane details or the profound uncertainties of American history.”
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All books are returnable within 10 days of receipt if not delighted for any reason.
Product Code: M-8
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