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About the 1939 World's Fair Photograph Collection

Related Resources | Search Tips

About the Collection

Among the U.S. exhibits at the 1939 World's Fair in New York City was the Court of States, where 22 of the 49 states of the United States were represented. Unlike the more ostentatious exhibits sponsored by many of the other states, the Virginia Room was a quiet, circular space of muted colors and comfortable couches surrounding a gently splashing fountain. Visitors were served complimentary glasses of ice water as they perused the collection of photograph albums prepared by the Virginia State Chamber of Commerce.

The photo albums were shelved in bookcases embracing the curvature of the room, in alcoves underneath painted symbols on the walls representing twelve aspects of Virginia life: scenic tours, recreation, historic homes, culture, history, colonial archaeology, scenery and natural wonders, physiography, agriculture, education, government and the people, and industry, commerce, and transportation. Five to sixteen albums were devoted to each category.

Each photograph in the collection was mounted on a sturdy cardboard backing, with an accompanying caption printed under the picture. The photo albums were arranged in three-ring notebooks, each album bearing a distinctive title. Usage was heavy, and some volumes had to be replaced, so that in the end there were three sets of albums.

After the World's Fair closed, the photographs (and the albums that housed them) were donated to the Prints and Photographs of the Library of Virginia by the State Chamber of Commerce. The Library's digital collection consists of photographs from the first, most complete set of albums, augmented by additional photos from the second and third sets for a total of 3,018 images.

The database of the collection provides access to the bibliographic records containing the captions associated with each photograph. These captions are not always unique; often, two or three pictures share the same text. Also, occasionally the same photograph was used in different albums with different captions. The records can be searched by geographical locations, personal names, building names, historical subjects, and many other terms.

The World's Fair database also links the records retrieved by searching the collection to digitized images of the individual photographs.

Related Resources

For more detail about the World's Fair photographs, see Edward D. C. Campbell, Jr., "Fair Shadows: Virginia, Photographs, and the 1939 World's Fair", Virginia Cavalcade 41 (summer 1991): 6-19. For information on the Virginia Room exhibit, see Mary Tyler Cheek, "'An Island of Quiet in an Ocean of Noise': the Virginia Room at the 1939 World's Fair", Virginia Cavalcade 34 (summer 1985): 30-37.

Search Tips

Each photo album was given a distinctive title reflecting the subject content of the photographs. In addition, each photograph was given a caption.  The significant words in these titles and captions can be searched using the Basic (keyword) search (Words Anywhere), or the titles and captions can be browsed using the Browse search with the title index.

Examples:

Please note that the word "Virginia" appears in every record in the database and should not generally be used as part of a keyword search.

Subject Search

Each World's Fair record has one of ten Library of Congress subject headings. These subject headings roughly correspond to the categories in which the photo albums were arranged at the exhibit. To see all of the records for a particular subject heading, enter the first few words from the list below as a Browse search with the subject index.

(See "Image Number Search" below for a listing of the categories.)

Added Entry Search

One volume of the collection, "Industrial Advantages" (C1:1/09/01), consists of maps and graphs prepared by the Virginia State Planning Board and other agencies. The organization responsible for the map or graph can be searched using a Browse (keyword) search (Words Anywhere).

Examples:

Image Number

The image number (visible in the MARC display only) is composed of a number representing the collection (C1:1), the volume number ("volume" being one of the twelve categories of Virginia life), the photo album number, and the page number of the photograph.

The twelve volumes are:

Examples:

Links  

Click on the URL at the top of the full record display to view the digitized image.

For more detailed help with searching, click on the "Help" link on the main search screen and scroll down to "Search Functions" and "Search Tips."