For 1940 the fair cut adult admission from seventy-five cents to fifty, and with war in Europe it adopted "For Peace and Freedom" as its theme song.
The 1939 to 1940 New York World's Fair ran across two seasons at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens. The first season was themed around the world of tomorrow. For the 1940 season the programme shifted toward entertainment. James Earle Fraser's 65-foot statue of George Washington, the largest at the fair, appears on this poster.
The Polygraphic Company of America, Inc., New York City, produced the poster. Designer unknown.
On the poster
Five national flags fill the upper two-thirds of the sheet, each billowing from a tall pole topped with a gilt finial. The American Stars and Stripes hangs at dead centre, flanked by a deep purple flag on the left and a gold-and-red flag on the right. Behind them stands Fraser's sixty-five-foot white neoclassical Washington against a pale blue sky. A crowd of well-dressed visitors crosses the terracotta esplanade below, with two children at the centre lifting small flags.
Bold navy lettering reads "World's Fair of 1940 / New York", and a dark band at the foot carries the admission price and opening date in gold.
About this print
A digitally restored reproduction, printed on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art paper with pigment inks.
