41x27 3/4 inches, 104x70 1/2 cm. Neely Printing Company, Chicago. Condition B: extensive repaired tears, creases and overpainting in margins and image, affecting text; horizontal fold. Framed.
A rare poster for the Chicago World's Fair ("A Century of Progress") not advertising the fair itself, but an individual attraction within it. Drawing 38 million visitors, the Chicago World's Fair was the first of America's "Great Fairs of the Depression." During those economically dire times "fairs offered the illusion of better times, an escapism similar to, but more tangible than, Hollywood's palliatives" (World's Fair p. 15). Recalling the self-promotional posters of Buffalo Bill and the extravagant claims of American circus posters, this image promises a spectacle of amazing proportions including vehicles of all types, animals, historical recreations and a "company of 200 persons!" The 1939 New York World's Fair had a similar pageant, "Railroads on Parade." Although unsigned, the poster bears the bright colors and aesthetic style of other Chicago World's Fair posters designed by Weimer Pursell, backed up by the existence of a 1933 flyer for the same event, featuring the same image with slightly different text, signed by Pursell.
