Scope and Content of Collection

This album of hand-colored gelatin silver photographs by an unidentified photographer documents a stay in New York City in 1940. The majority of the photographs document buildings and installations at the New York World's Fair, while the remaining photographs include various other sites in Manhattan.

The 19 photographs of the New York World's Fair, which ran for two summers, from 30 April 1939 to 31 October 1939 and from 11 May 1940 to 27 October 1940, presumably document the fair as it existed in 1940. Included are the Ford Building, General Motors Building, General Electric Building, Sheffield Building, and the Firestone Building. Other installations and exhibits featured are the Perisphere, Constitutional Mall, Billy Rose's Aquacade, and various statues on the midways.

The album concludes with views of Grant's tomb, Riverside church, and the Brooklyn Bridge, together with a snapshot of three women on the deck of a ship.

The album is string bound with textured black paperboard covers. Gilt-stamped title on front cover: Photographs. The photographs are mounted with photo corners.

The title is from a handwritten caption on the first page of the album. Each image is identified by a handwritten caption in white ink, three of which include the date 1940.

Arrangement

Arranged in a single series:
Series I. New York World Fair 1940 album, 1940.