After Tomorrow: The Uses of the World’s Fairs in New York City

This paper examines the afterlife of New York’s two world’s fairs, and how they have been invoked to shape discourse about New York City since they closed. Both fairs left behind a legacy, in the physical reminders that still stand in Flushing Meadow Park, in the thousands of souvenirs and ephemera that lie in museums, attics, and basements around the country, and in the minds of the millions of people who visited and recounted their experience to others. The fairs have been written about by historians, revisited on message boards and fan websites, and pondered in several retrospective museum exhibitions. But what do people remember when they remember the fair? How do these memories reflect changing attitudes about New York?

Over the course of the decades that have elapsed since each of the fairs ended, they have remained a significant presence in the collective memory of New Yorkers. This paper considers how depictions of the fairs have changed over time. How did the fairs take on new importance as a preservation movement focused on midcentury architecture developed? What role have the fairs played in the 21st century branding of Queens? When and why have politicians invoked the fairs or given speeches at the fairgrounds in order to draw parallels between their platforms and the boundless optimism the fairs symbolized?