Photo itinerary of a trip Mom and Ellen took to the New York World’s Fair, August 13 to the 19th or 20th, 1939. Three portraits on the first and last pages, with 65 additional pictures arranged in eight chronological sections. The album’s section headings and picture identifications in quotes are Mom’s.
First and Last Pages
First Page: Ellen
First Page: Mom
Last Page: Ellen and Mom Returning Home From 1939 World’s Fair Trip
1. Niagara Falls (August 14, 1939)
“Fugitives From the Falls”
“Never Before Photographed”
“River and Rapids Above the Falls,” “Monday, August 14, 1939”
“A Camera Fiend Takes Our Picture”
“Niagara Falls Monday, August 14, 1939”
“What the Well-Dressed Fish Is Wearing”
“Horseshoe Falls and the Canadian Power Plant”
“Cave of the Winds”
2. New York City (August 15, 1939)
“New York City, Monday, August 14, 1939[.] Yiddish Art Theatre[.] Paul Muni Began His Career Here”
“The Frick Collection, $45,000,000 Worth Of Art (Not For Sale)”
“Central Park Lagoon”
“Peggy, They Wouldn’t Let Her In[.] Contains the Original of Hoffman’s Painting ‘Christ in Gethsemane”
(Location not identified by Mom, but it’s the Riverside Church.)
“Peggy Greets Columbus”
“Manhattan Zoo[.] Just A Couple of Wild Animals”
“Vanderbilt’s Home, Fifth Avenue[.] It Has a Backyard”
“The Law Is On Our Side, Hayden Planetarium”
“Henry Wadsworth Longfellow[,] Another Longfellow, Ellen”
(New York University’s Hall of Fame for Great Americans, opened in 1900.)
“Shakespeare Or Somebody, Monkey See, Monkey Do”
“We Didn’t Even Try To Thread ‘Cleopatra’s Needle'” (Location not given but Central Park.)
“Peggy, A Garbage Can, and An Old Swiss School-house. Used To Be a Toolhouse in Central Park”
“Hall of Fame, NYU, Lives of Great Men All Remind Us”
“St. Bartholomew’s–Park Avenue, We Didn’t See A Single Top-Hat, But Then, It Wasn’t Sunday” Mom on Stairs
“The Museum of Natural History–Houses Among Many Other Things A Herd of Elephants (Dead)”
“Teachers All–Peggy Too”
“New York Meterological Observatory”
(Also known as Belvedere Castle, it was opened in 1869.)
3. August 16, 1939
Fewer pictures this day.
“The Hall of Fame, New York University–Bronx”
“Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Another Longfellow–Ellen, NYU Library”
“Grant’s Tomb, The Public Is Permitted To View the Giant Stone Caskets of General U.S. Grant and His Wife Julia, From the Rotunda[.] 91/2 Tons of Casket Keep One Yankee General Down”
“Riverside Church”
(Identification incorrect. Different shot of Grant’s Tomb.)
4. World’s Fair
Energy revived, more pictures today.
“The Federal Building”
“Miniature Store Window Displays . . . Wonders of Glass Blowing[.] Exquisite Glassware” “Transparent Beauty”
“League of Nations[.] Flags and Banners of All Nations”
“Henry Ford Went To Town With His Building of Glass Bricks. The Roof Is a Road Over Which a Fleet of Cars Are Driven Continually”
“It Rained This Day So Hard That We Even Resorted to Buying an Umbrella. So Hard That Peggy’s Dress Faded[.] Just A Fountain Turned Off”
“The City of Light–Consolidated Edison” “We Didn’t Go Inside But the Outside Is Lovely[.] Ellen and the Ill-Fated Umbrella”
“Steel and Gilt Tower of Lattice-Work, The Polish Building”
No caption, but statue is Chester Beach’s “Riders of the Elements,” celebrating the power of transportation to create the future. Statue shows three riders, representing air, earth, and water, holding a ship, a car, a train and a plane.
“Communist Propaganda Stalks the Fair”
“The Westinghouse Exhibit[.] We Went In To See Two Huge Silver Balls Which Swung Back and Forth in the Window”
“Japan’s Quaint Contribution”
No inscription
No inscription. Location is the walk-through waterfall (entrance on left) at the Electric Utilities Pavilion
“United States Steel Building[.] It’s a Steel Dome, Suspended Like a Bell. Roof of Shining Steel”
5. August 17, 1939
“Traunee’s Tavern Washington’s Headquarters at the End of the American Revolution” Fraunces Tavern at 54 Pearl St., where Washington said goodbye to his Continental Army officers at a turtle dinner on December 4, 1783. Heavily modified over the years, the current building is a conjectural reconstruction of the original, completed in 1907.
“A Very Small Piece of the George Washington Bridge”
“Down in the ‘Meddy’ Battery Park, New York’s ‘It’y Bitty Poo’ The Aquarium[.]” Mom is alluding to a novelty song popular in 1939, “Three Little Fishes (Itty Bitty Poo)” by Kay Kyser and his Orchestra, sung by Ginny Simms and Ish Kabibble.
No identification
“Sugar Loaf Mountain[.] Isn’t It Sweet?”
“Anthony’s Nose.”
Just which Anthony the nose belongs to has been the subject of much speculation and satire, not least by Washington Irving in “Knickerbocker’s History of New York.” Located in Westchester County. The eastern terminus of the Bear Mountain Bridge–completed in 1924–can be seen on the left. The horizontal line midway up the hill is a roadway.
“Our Excursion Boat Hendryk [sic] Hudson.” The Hendrick Hudson operated on the Hudson River between 1906 and 1951. Capable of carrying 5500 passengers, it was the largest passenger steamboat in the world at the time and famous for its luxurious appointments.
6. West Point
“West Point[.] The Fortress-like Building As We Approach the Dock”
“The Hall To Which ‘Dragged’ to Hops”
(Words appear to be missing from the inscription. A ‘hop’ was slang for a dance in common use from the 1920s to 1960s and is still used at West Point for its dances.)
West Point “The Library”
(Flanked by threatening cannon, it’s not a very welcoming entrance for a library.)
West Point “Faculty Homes”
“Another Tangle With the Law[.] A Military Policeman From Utica Who Guards the Entrance to the Grounds”
“Entrance to Largest Indoor Riding Hall in the United States”
(Thayer Hall, built in 1911 and converted to a classroom building in 1958.)
No inscription
7. Flirtation Walk (West Point)
“Flirtation Walk[.] Jim Ellen”
“Bill Peggy”
“The Museum[.] Buns to the Right of You . . . Buns to the Left of You”
(A light touch of ribaldry from Mother?)
No identification
No inscription.
The Battle Monument, dedicated in 1897, commemorating 2230 Union officers and soldiers who died in the Civil War and whose names are inscribed on the cannons ringing the monument. Stanford White designed the column, said to be the largest polished granite column in the Western Hemisphere (46 feet tall, 5 feet diameter). The winged female figure atop the column is Fame, sculpted by Frederick MacMonnies.
8. Royal Oak, Michigan
No inscription
“Norman of Royal Oak, Michigan”
(The ‘Norman’ may have something to do with the building in the background.)
No inscription.
Downtown Royal Oak, MI, in the distance.
