The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair 2010 Calendar is based on the best-selling Arcadia Publishing title Images of America: The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair. The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair was the largest international ever built in the United States. More than one hundred fifty pavilions and exhibits spread over six hundred forty-six acres helped the fair live up to its reputation as "the Billion-Dollar Fair." With the cold war in full swing, the fair offered visitors a refreshingly positive view of the future, mirroring the official theme: Peace through Understanding.

The calendar was released on May 18, 2009.

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The 2010 calendar sold well, and Arcadia commissioned a second edition. It was released on August 9, 2010.

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This book features what many feel was the most impressive world's fair ever held. It includes 219 vintage photographs, most of which have never been published before. Published by Arcadia Publishing as part of their "Images of America" series, the book was released on June 15, 2009 to mark the 70th anniversary of the Fair.

Here's Arcadia's description of the book: After enduring 10 harrowing years of the Great Depression, visitors to the 1939–1940 New York World’s Fair found welcome relief in the fair’s optimistic presentation of the “World of Tomorrow.” Pavilions from America’s largest corporations and dozens of countries were spread across a 1,216-acre site, showcasing the latest industrial marvels and predictions for the future intermingled with cultural displays from around the world. Well known for its theme structures, the Trylon and Perisphere, the fair was an intriguing mixture of technology, science, architecture, showmanship, and politics. Proclaimed by many as the most memorable world’s fair ever held, it predicted wonderful times were ahead for the world even as the clouds of war were gathering. Through vintage photographs, most never published before, The 1939–1940 New York World’s Fair recaptures those days when the eyes of the world were on New York and on the future.

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Released in 2004 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Fair, this book is a collection of vintage and modern photographs that celebrate the creation, life and legacy of the Fair. I am proud to have co-written it with Bill Young, creator of the popular www.nywf64.com website.

From Amazon: The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair was the largest international exhibition ever built in the United States. More than one hundred fifty pavilions and exhibits spread over six hundred forty-six acres helped the fair live up to its reputation as "the Billion-Dollar Fair." With the cold war in full swing, the fair offered visitors a refreshingly positive view of the future, mirroring the official theme: Peace through Understanding. Guests could travel back in time through a display of full-sized dinosaurs, or look into a future where underwater hotels and flying cars were commonplace. They could enjoy Walt Disney's popular shows, or study actual spacecraft flown in orbit. More than fifty-one million guests visited the fair before it closed forever in 1965. The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair captures the history of this event through vintage photographs, published here for the first time.

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The success of the 2004 book led to this sequel. While the first volume provided a general overview of the Fair, there just wasn't enough room to tell the whole story. This volume looks at how the Fair was conceived and built, changes made over the years, the demolition process and where remnants can be found today.

From Amazon: When the gates of the 1964–1965 New York World’s Fair swung open on April 24, 1964, the first of more than 51 million lucky visitors entered, ready to witness the cutting edge of worldwide technology and progress. Faced with a disappointing lack of foreign participants due to political contention, the fair instead showcased the best of American industry and science. While multimillion-dollar pavilions predicted colonies on the moon and hotels under the ocean, other forecasts, such as the promises of computer technology, have surpassed even the most optimistic predictions of the fair. The 1964–1965 New York World’s Fair: Creation and Legacy uses rare, previously unpublished photographs to examine the creation of the fair and the legacies left behind for future generations.

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I am pleased to be the author of the first comprehensive book on the fair. It includes rare photos of the design and construction phases of the project as well as an extensive collection of photographs from the fair's pavilions and shows. I was thrilled to gain the cooperation of many of those originally responsible for the fair and included their memories and thoughts along with research from a number of archival sources.

From Amazon: In 1984, the city of New Orleans hosted the last world’s fair held in the United States. Conceived as part of an ambitious effort to revitalize a dilapidated section of the city and establish New Orleans as a year-round tourist destination, it took more than 12 years of political intrigue and design changes before the gates finally opened. Stretching 84 acres along the Mississippi River, the fair entertained more than seven million guests with a colorful collection of pavilions, rides, and restaurants during its six-month run. While most world’s fairs lose money, the 1984 New Orleans World’s Fair had the dubious distinction of going bankrupt and almost closing early. However, the $350-million investment did succeed in bringing new life to the area, which is now home to the city’s convention center and a bustling arts district.

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My newest book came out on October 11, 2010. It salutes the fair that brought us the spectacular Space Needle and Seattle's futuristic monorail.

When the United States entered the 1960s, the nation was swept up in the Space Race as the United States and the Soviet Union competed for supremacy in rocket and satellite technologies. Cities across the country hoped to attract new aerospace companies, but the city leaders of Seattle launched the most ambitious campaign of all. They invited the whole world to visit for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, and more than nine million people took them up on the offer. A colorful collection of exhibits turned 74 acres of rundown buildings into a futuristic wonderland where dozens of countries and companies predicted life in the future. The entire city was transformed with the addition of the soaring Space Needle and the futuristic monorail. When the fair ended, the site became a complex of parks and museums that remains a vibrant part of Seattle city life today.

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The book is also available for download through the iTunes Store.

To mark the 100th anniversary of the city’s founding and the arrival of the first trans-Canada train, Vancouver’s political and business leaders invited the whole world to participate in the festivities. The result was Expo ’86, and more than 22 million people came for the party. It took eight years of planning and hard work to transform a former railroad yard into a colourful showplace full of pavilions and shows for the six-month event, but those lucky enough to have been there would agree that it was worth it. Expo ’86, truly a world’s fair, included pavilions from 9 provinces and territories, 54 nations and international groups, and 3 American states. Many of Canada’s largest industries joined in, as well, to celebrate the fair’s theme, “A World in Movement, A World in Touch.” Vintage photographs recapture the fun and excitement of the largest event held to that time in British Columbia.

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Released in conjunction with the Images of America book, this set of 15 postcards features some of the best views of the fair. Published by Arcadia Publishing as part of their "Images of America" series.

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I either wrote material for these books, was interviewed by the author, or contributed photographs. All descriptions are from Amazon.com unless otherwise noted. Titles with clickable links will open a new window for that title on Amazon.

Late in the nineteenth century, U.S. commercial and political interests began eyeing the countries of Latin America as plantations, farms, and mines to be accessed by new shipping lines and railroads. As their desire to dominate commerce and trade in the Western Hemisphere grew, these U.S. interests promoted the concept of "Pan-Americanism" to link the United States and Latin America and called on U.S. architects to help set the stage for Pan-Americanism's development. Through international expositions, monuments, and institution building, U.S. architects translated the concept of a united Pan-American sensibility into architectural or built form. In the process, they also constructed an artificial ideological identity--a fictional Pan-America peopled with imaginary Pan-American citizens, the hemispheric loyalists who would support these projects and who were the presumed benefactors of this presumed architecture of unification.

Designing Pan-America presents the first examination of the architectural expressions of Pan-Americanism. Concentrating on U.S. architects and their clients, Robert Alexander González demonstrates how they proposed designs reflecting U.S. presumptions and projections about the relationship between the United States and Latin America. This forgotten chapter of American architecture unfolds over the course of a number of international expositions, ranging from the North, Central, and South American Exposition of 1885-1886 in New Orleans to Miami's unrealized Interama fair and San Antonio's HemisFair '68 and encompassing the Pan American Union headquarters building in Washington, D.C. and the creation of the Columbus Memorial Lighthouse in the Dominican Republic.

I supplied a picture of the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair.

This history of Expo 58 was released in the Nederlands and thus is written in Dutch. Here's a translation of one description:

Fifty years ago housed the Brussels Expo'58, the first post-war world exhibition. Despite the cold war organizers have tried to be as optimistic picture of the can in the field of contemporary art, science, art and culture This image was deliberately chosen to contribute to a better and more humane world. The optimistic modernism was reflected in the architecture of many pavilions. The Dutch pavilion with the theme "water" was at the end as number six on the list of most visited sections. This book gives special attention to this Dutch contribution to the Expo. A general introduction, in large contours this exciting exhibition down. The architecture and decor of the English department, including the Philips Pavilion, are fully explained. On the basis of source material is a fascinating new light on the contribution of Gerrit Rietveld at the Department of modern furnishings and are specially designed for the Expo furniture. This also applies to the textile exhibition in cooperation between Gerrit Rietveld, Jan Bons and Wim Smits was established and a Rietveld unusual design was surreal. Karel Appel made the spot a large mural in the dome of the Waterworks, the contents of which his later reputation that he aanrotzooide what seems to disprove, but appearances are deceiving. Also millions of Dutch people visited the Expo, as very close, 'knocked' over half years' the heart of the world and you had that chance, even if it could not ignore. Interviews with people who experienced a close shot by amateurs and many photos enliven the whole.

I contributed photos of Expo 58. The book sure makes me wish I could read Dutch.

From April to October in 1964 and 1965, some 52 million people from around the world flocked to the New York World's Fair, an experience that lives on in the memory of many individuals and in America's collective consciousness. Lawrence R. Samuel offers a thought-provoking portrait of this seminal event and of the cultural climate that surrounded it, countering critics' assessment of the Fair as the "ugly duckling" of global expositions. Although much attention has been paid to the controversial role of Fair president Robert Moses, who tried to use the event to ensure his personal legacy, the Fair itself was for the great majority of visitors an overwhelmingly positive, often inspirational, and sometimes transcendent experience that truly delivered on its theme of "peace through understanding." Much of the Fair's popularity, Samuel suggests, stemmed from its looking backward as much as forward, offering visitors sanctuary from the cultural storm that was rapidly approaching in the mid-1960s. Opening just five months after President Kennedy's assassination, the Fair allowed millions to celebrate international brotherhood while the conflict in Vietnam came to a boil. The Fair glorified the postwar American dream of limitless optimism just as a counterculture of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll was coming into being. It was, in short, the last gasp of the American Dream: The End of the Innocence.

I contributed all of the photographs used in this extensive look at the Fair.

Focusing on the golden era of world's fairs, from the 1930s to the 1970s, this book offers a nostalgic glimpse of the future in vintage photographs, postcards, previously unpublished memorabilia, and drawings of pavilions, created by such designers and architects as Buckminster Fuller, Norman Bel Geddes, Kisho Kurokawa, and Le Corbusier. Innovative, informative, and entertaining, this souvenir of yesterday's tomorrow is a superb tour of the achievements of avant-garde architecture and design.

I contributed a photograph of the United States Science Center from the 1962 World's Fair.

James Rosenquist's paintings, with their billboard-sized images of commercial subjects, are utterly emblematic of 1960s Pop Art. Their provocative imagery also touches on some of the major political and historical events of that turbulent decade--from the Kennedy assassination to the war in Vietnam. In the first full-length scholarly examination of Rosenquist's art from that period, Michael Lobel weaves together close visual analysis, a wealth of archival research, and a consideration of the social and historical contexts in which these paintings were produced to offer bold new readings of a body of work that helped redefine art in the 1960s. Bringing together a range of approaches, James Rosenquist provides a compelling perspective on the artist and on the burgeoning consumer culture of postwar America.

I provided research and photos for the chapter on Rosenquist's work at the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair.

John Chamberlain rose to prominence in the late 1950s with energetic, vibrant sculptures hewn from disused car parts, achieving a three-dimensional form of Abstract Expressionism that astounded critics and captured the imaginations of fellow artists. For a seven-year period in the mid-1960s, the artist abandoned automotive metal and turned to other materials. Motivated by scientific curiosity, Chamberlain produced sculptures in unorthodox media, such as urethene foam, galvanized steel, paper bags, mineral-coated Plexiglas and aluminum foil. Since returning in 1972 to metal as his primary material, Chamberlain limited himself to specific parts of the automobile, adding color to found car parts, dripping, spraying and patterning on top of existing hues to an often wild effect. In recent years, the artist has embarked on the production of a new body of work that demonstrates a decided return to earlier themes. John Chamberlain: Choices accompanies the Guggenheim Museum exhibition, which comprises 95 works, from the artist's earliest monochromatic iron sculptures to the outsized foil creations he is working on today, encompassing shifts in scale, material and methods informed by the collage process that has been central to Chamberlain's working method. This fully illustrated exhibition catalogue includes essays by Susan Davidson, Donna De Salvo, Dave Hickey, Adrian Kohn and Charles Ray with an extensive chronology by Helen Hsu and a lexicon by Don Quaintance.

I contributed a photo of an untitled work by Chamberlain that was part of the New York State Pavilion Theaterama art exhibit at the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair.

I contributed the photographs for the article "The Mormon Pavilion: Mainstreaming the Saints at the New York World's Fair, 1964-65." The book is available from their website.

In 2001, when graphic designer Paul Sahre rented a summer home in Montauk, his retreat turned out to be a relic: it was one of only 200 or so cookie-cutter beach houses built in the mid-1960s as part of the Leisurama housing project. Sold by Macy's, Leisurama homes were both affordable and all-inclusive; their boxy, simply designed interiors came fully furnished and accessorized -- all buyers needed were 'groceries and a key.' The houses were immensely popular but ultimately unprofitable, and thus sadly short-lived. Sahre's fascinating study of Leisurama's brand identity, marketing effort, and mid-century modern design presents a passionately visual and contextually dense study. All told, it's a revelatory history of how prefab became fabulous.

I contributed several photographs of the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair.

From artbook.com: Fueled by a dissatisfaction with existing architectural solutions and an infusion of pop culture, art and rebellion, utopian urban proposals from the 1960s, such as Archigram's Plug-in City, Yona Friedman's La Ville Spatiale and New Babylon by former CoBrA painter, Constant, constitute a template for the concept of the megastructure-a city encased in one large structure or series of structures. Megastructure Reloaded posits the megastructure as a fix for contemporary urban architectural problems. The key figures of this resurgence--a group of architects and artists including Jose Davila, Simon Dybbroe Møller, Ryan Gander, Erik Goengrich, Franka Hörnschemeyer, Victor Nieuwenhuijs & Maartje Seyferth, Tobias Putrih, Tomas Saraceno, Katrin Sigurdardottir and Tilman Wendland--are detailed in this volume through texts and images. Soviet peripheral cities are discussed for their historical precedent and contextualized through ironic responses to them by radical architecture collectives such as Superstudio and Archizoom. The volume is rounded out with texts on Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer, Lucio Costa and the planned cities of Chandigarh and Brasilia, as well as a theoretical section on megastructures and megacities. This volume is published in concert with an extensive European traveling exhibition and a series of symposia and workshops.

I contributed a photo of Expo 67 in Montreal.

When Lee Iacoca brought his Fairlane Committee together in 1962 to explore the possibilities of a new kind of car for young, forward-thinking families, no one could have predicted quite how successful this car would eventually be. Finding a styling void in the swiftly growing baby boomer market, Ford hit a marketing bullseye with the Mustang--a four-seat, sporty "pony car" perfect for the times. In the first two years of its production, more than a million Mustangs were built--redefining the Ford brand and becoming the company's most popular car since the Model T. Based on extensive research and interviews with Mustang team members, including Lee Iacocca, management and factory employees, this book tells the fascinating story of how a clandestine group at Ford created one of the most iconic car designs in history.

I supplied pictures of the Ford Pavilion from the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair.

As today's valued examples of modern architecture age to the point that preservation is called for, the methods and technology used in such preservation must be carefully considered so that the design integrity of the building is maintained. Written by the president of an organization committed to the documentation and preservation of modern architecture, this book outlines best practices for undertaking such efforts and addresses the latest technological advances in the field. Containing relevant case studies of preservation projects in the United States and in Europe, this is the only professional reference for architects dedicated specifically to the subject of preserving modern architecture.

I supplied pictures from the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair.

The borough of Queens has seen many historical and geographical changes. Marshlands, woods and farms gave way to factories, thriving communities and the nation’s premier arterial highway system. Queens, the latest offering in Arcadia Publishing’s Then & Now series, by Jason D. Antos, a lifelong resident of Queens and the author of two other local history books about the borough, Whitestone and Shea Stadium, offers a rare look at New York City’s largest borough, featuring many photographs never published until now.

I supplied a picture from the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair.

The follow-up to his critically acclaimed book A-frame, Chad Randl's Revolving Architecture: A History of Buildings that Rotate, Swivel, and Pivot explores the history of this unique building type, investigating the cultural forces that have driven people to design and inhabit them. Revolving Architecture is packed with a variety of fantastic revolving structures such as a jail that kept inmates under a warden's constant surveillance, glamorous revolving restaurants, tuberculosis treatment wards, houses, theaters, and even a contemporary residential building whose full-floor apartments circle independently of each other. International examples from the late 1800s though the present demonstrate the variety and innovation of these dynamic structures.

I supplied pictures from the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair.

Rising among the factories and body shops off Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, Shea Stadium became the home of the New York Mets in 1964. Named after William A. Shea, the New York attorney responsible for bringing baseball back to the Big Apple after the departure of the Giants and the Dodgers, Shea Stadium has been the setting for many of the game’s greatest moments. Able to be converted from a baseball diamond into a football fi eld, the ballpark was home to the New York Jets from 1964 until 1983. From its opening in 1964 for the world’s fair to the unforgettable Beatles concert to the 1969 Miracle Mets, this book covers the history of Shea Stadium through its inception and up to the creation of the new modern-day Citi Field, which the Mets will call home in 2009.

I supplied pictures of the construction and early days of the stadium.

Former Cosmopolitan executive editor Mauro tries to underscore the irony of the 1939–1940 New York World's Fair, with its theme of world unity, opening on the brink of world war. But Mauro has multiple narratives, moving erratically between the evolution of the fair, with its slogan Building the World of Tomorrow; war brewing in Europe; and Germany gobbling up territory (Hitler refused the invitation to have a pavilion at the fair). As, one by one, European nations closed their pavilions, due to the war, the fair's theme rang increasingly hollow. During the fair's run, Einstein famously wrote to President Roosevelt expressing concern over Germany's stockpiling of uranium, giving rise to the Manhattan Project. To this unwieldy narrative Mauro adds the story of two NYPD bomb squad detectives killed when a bomb detonated on the fairgrounds on July 4, 1940.

I supplied pictures of the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair.

Here are some of the newspaper and magazine articles that I was interviewed for, mentioned in, or otherwise contributed to:

Gourmet Magazine

The Culinary Impact of the 1964 World's Fair (1/4/12)

I contributed photos for the cover article "A Viking in New York: The Kensington Runestone at the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair". Copies of the magazine are available at the Minnesota Historical Society site.

I contributed all of the photos for the cover article "A Most Popular World's Fair".

New York Daily News, The

Queens Museum of Art 'will respect past in an up-to-date institution' (4/15/08)

Queens Tribune, The

World's Fair Book Finds Missing Pieces (7/18/08)

This issue celebrates the 50th anniversary of Century 21, the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. I contributed a picture of the famous Bubbleator elevator.

A rare "Escorter" from the 1964 World s Fair scoots into the shop for a restoration. Will Rick and the crew give this vintage vehicle a restoration that out of this world or will it be a world-class flop?

I supplied pictures of the 1964-65 New York World's Fair.

My love of world's fairs paid off in an unexpected way when I was asked to consult on the film "Iron Man 2". Part of the action revolves around a clue that was possibly hidden at "Stark Expo 74", a fictitious fair that bears an amazing resemblance to the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair, and then an ensuing battle at "Stark Expo 2010". I contributed the photographs used to create these fictitious fairs, suggestions on how some of the attractions might have looked, and what items you might find in a fair designer's studio.

This show is an expanded version of the National Building Museum show listed below. I contributed additional photos of the 1939-40 New York World's Fair. You can read more about the exhibit here.

I contributed a number of photos for this exhibit, including the 1939 fairs in New York and San Francisco, as well as samples of buildings from later fairs. You can read more about the exhibit here.