A Century of Progress 1934

Chicago: A.C. Schulz Litho. Co, 1934. Photograph. Very Good+. Panorama Chromolithograph. 9.875" x 51.75". A panorama view of the 1934 World's Fair held in Chicago, with the following exhibits depicted: the Ford Exhibit, the Chrysler Exhibit, Home Planning, Streets of New York, English Village, Irish Village, Fort Dearborn, Belgian, Tunisian, Swiss, Mexican, and Spanish Villages, Paris, Japan, Czechoslovakia, Hollywood, Byrds Antarctic Ship, the Hall of Religion, the Hall of Science, the Adler Planetarium and the Shedd Aquarium, Christian Science, with two airplanes and two zeppelins flying above the World Fairgrounds. Lake Michigan is depicted in the background. Encyclopedia of Chicago, "Century of Progress Exposition". The 1934 World's Fair was the second World's Fair held in Chicago. It was originally intended to celebrate the city's centennial but became a broader symbol of hope and technological progress as the United States was in the midst of the Great Depression. Dubbed "The Century of Progress", the fair celebrated the history of science, industry, and technology (with the fair's motto as "Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Conforms"). Approximately 40 million people attended the fair. Thanks to its corporate sponsors, the fair touted consumerism and corporation-backed science. Unlike the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, there was no legislation mandating that women's exhibits be in the fair, thus women were shown only as products at the fair. However, in 1933, with the help of the NAACP, a handful of African-American state senators forced Illinois to ban racial discrimination on the World's fairgrounds, thus, when the fair continued into 1934, there were legal protections for black attendees and employees of the fair. OCLC shows one holding at the Newberry Library. A beautiful lithograph of a complicated global event, representative of both American values and follies. Very Good+ with some toning to the left edge and minor surface wear.