More than 44 million people attended the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair, held at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens. The concept for the Fair was conceived at the height of the Depression in 1935. The official theme of the Fair was “The World of Tomorrow.” Its founders hoped the exposition would help to lift the world out of depression, instill hope for a bright future, and in the process bring some cash to the city of New York.

Designed by architects Wallace Harrison and J. Andre Fouilhoux, the Trylon and the Perisphere were the landmark, gleaming-white monument buildings of the 1939 World’s Fair. The Trylon towered over the grounds at a height over 700 feet. Visitors entered the Perisphere (180 foot diameter) on a curved walkway. The hollow Perisphere housed Democracity, a huge, futuristic diorama of a metropolis designed by Henry Dreyfuss. Balconies rotated slowly around the dimly lit inside of the sphere, and symphonic music was broadcast throughout. Projections of men in various occupations seemed to approach the visitors as the walkways turned. Each man, a narrator explained, represented a part of a cooperative society grounded in the leisure and happiness of Democracity.