New York World's Fair 1939 “The World of Tomorrow” / Accordion Postcard Set

NORTHEAST. 
Accordion Postcard Set Folder, Souvenir, 1939. 

(This postcard folder ships for free inside a rigid Ultra•Pro® toploader to protect it during shipping.)

“The eyes of the Fair are on the future—not in the sense of peering toward the unknown nor attempting to foretell the events of tomorrow and the shape of things to come, but in the sense of presenting a new and clearer view of today in presentation for tomorrow; a view of the forces and ideas that prevail as well as the machines.” So states the intro to this dazzling postcard folder. The 1939 World’s Fair was an enormous advertisement, part philosophy / part imagineering, in selling a future built on wonder and relentless betterment through progress. “Progress” is the word that comes up over and again. And so, it comes as no shock that this was an extremely popular event in its day coming on the heels of the Great Depression and but a few tense months away from the start of the most destructive war the world would ever see. Still, to step through these brilliant 18 images—The Bridge of Tomorrow and The Bridge of Wings, The Glass Center and landmark Trylon and Perisphere (a giant spike and sphere that would become the symbolic visual of the fair)—is to buy in, to want the buzz to be that sparkling, the glow of neon that radiant, its massive streamlined and aeronautical exhibit buildings to usher in that bright future by will alone. For all the optimism, the fair itself (held between April 1939 and the fall of 1940) would eventually succumb to money problems; which should be no surprise considering that outsize expectations surely had to out step budgets. And though almost all of the fair’s buildings were quickly dismantled after its closing, the idea of the fair itself still manages to fire optimism in re-living its heyday … Postcard accordion folders became ubiquitous in step with the popularity of motorized tourist travel. The first postcard folders trace to the early 20th-century. But it was in the 1930s when these fold-out mailers gained brilliant color. From that point through into the 1960s, and by way of far-flung post offices the nation over, a flood of these postcard folders found their way to friends and family from tourists taking in the diverse sites and attractions all across North America. The sharp commercial-art style illustration indicative of mid-century America, with covers printed on a tough linen paper, makes the souvenir sets of especially the late 1930s-1950s pop over half a century later—full-color photographs having arrived to these postcard folders by the 1960s … [Condition: Sporting the postmark: July 11, 1939, on its way to Cuddy, Pennsylvania (just outside Pittsburgh), the outer cover of this mailed folder set is in decent enough shape, just a few bent corners and some edge wear. The linen fold-out cards themselves are as vibrant as you will find, a truly remarkable standing of the test of time; especially considering the future they imagined did not unfold with anything approaching such brilliance!] 

Condition: Used Very Good. 
Local / Regional Attractions. 
Dimensions: 6" wide x 4" high