"The World of Tomorrow" New York Peepshow Tunnel Book - FINE

Hare, Elizabeth Sage, and Warren Chappell
The World of Tomorrow. The New York World’s Fair, 1789–1939 (Peep Show)
New York: [Privately published for Firestone], 1939. First edition.
Produced for the Firestone Factory and Exhibition Building at the 1939 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York.

Oblong 12mo (5 × 6.5 inches; expands to approximately 25 inches when fully opened). A finely constructed tunnel book (or “peep show”) composed of six color-lithographed cardboard panels, connected by tissue-paper accordion folds and mounted between stiff pictorial front and rear boards with four intermediate layers. When unfolded, the structure reveals a vibrant three-dimensional scene viewed through a peephole on the front board. The depth effect is achieved through precisely aligned cut-away illustrations that create a theatrical sense of perspective and scale.

Designed by Alfred A. Knopf’s celebrated chief book designer Warren Chappell, in collaboration with illustrator and author Elizabeth Sage Hare, this piece was produced as a promotional souvenir for the Firestone Factory and Exhibition Building at the 1939 New York World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows. The cover illustration commemorates the 150th anniversary of George Washington’s 1789 inauguration, with figures of George and Martha Washington gazing—alongside a jester guide—into “the world of tomorrow,” the official motto of the fair. The symbolic connection between America’s revolutionary origins and its technological future is visually rendered through this interplay of eras, reinforced by the architecture at the vanishing point of the peep show: the Trylon and Perisphere, towering modernist sculptures that served as the fair’s iconic centerpiece.

Inside, the peep show presents a full-color panorama of the Constitution Mall, culminating in the monumental Trylon and Perisphere, framed by Art Deco landscaping and statuary. In the foreground, a jester invites George and Martha Washington to look ahead through time—an allegorical invitation to the viewer as well. The six panels, which measure 6.5 × 5 inches each, are mounted on accordion folds allowing the entire piece to extend over two feet when fully opened, providing a layered dimensional effect.

Condition: Fine. All cut-away and accordion-fold elements fully intact, with no damage, wear, or restoration. Bright, clean panels. A pristine and complete example of this delicate ephemeral structure, rarely found in such exceptional condition.

Collector’s Corner:
A jester gestures toward the vista as George and Martha Washington peer into “The World of Tomorrow,” their line of sight extending through Constitution Mall toward the monumental Trylon and Perisphere—emblems of a fair defined by optimism, modernism, and post-Depression hope. The layered perspective serves as both literal and allegorical: a visual bridge between America’s past and its imagined future.

In her article “Viewing Souvenirs” (Journal of Design History Vol. 15, No. 2), historian Amy Ogata writes:

“When it was revived as a souvenir for the 1939 New York World's Fair, the peepshow seemed to sum up the complex experience of the exhibitions... A jester sits in as the peepshow man, offering the view to two eighteenth-century figures, George and Martha Washington. Gazing through the peephole, into ‘the world of tomorrow’ (the fair’s motto), these viewers encounter the image of the future... This peepshow not only represented the buildings erected for the 1939 fair... It also represented in visual terms the continuum of 150 years... looking back to the end of the eighteenth century was surely a strategy of reassurance. In this example, the peepshow directs the gaze from the past towards the future... obscuring mundane details or the profound uncertainties of American history.”

Provenance: Produced for the Firestone Factory and Exhibition Building at the 1939 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York.

Historical Note about the fair itself:

The 1939 New York World’s Fair was one of the most ambitious international exhibitions ever mounted—an audacious vision of the future unfolding on the grounds of a former ash dump in Queens, transformed into Flushing Meadows Park. Opening on April 30, 1939, to coincide with the 150th anniversary of George Washington’s first inauguration (a reference echoed on the front of this tunnel book), the Fair invited visitors to step into a streamlined tomorrow of electrified cities, intercontinental travel, and harmonious modern living.

With over 60 nations and hundreds of corporations represented, the Fair showcased everything from color television to futuristic kitchens, nylon stockings to General Motors’ "Futurama"—an immersive ride through the America of 1960. The Fair’s architectural centerpiece was the soaring Trylon and the luminous Perisphere, a towering 700-foot-high triangle and a gleaming 180-foot globe that symbolized modernity, peace, and progress. Inside the Perisphere, the “Democracity” exhibit displayed a utopian model city of the future.

Staged in the shadow of mounting global conflict, the Fair’s optimistic message was tempered by real-world events. Within months of opening, many European nations who had mounted lavish pavilions were engulfed in war. Some, like Poland and Czechoslovakia, could not return home. The Fair became, unintentionally, a poignant farewell to the interwar era’s hope in rational planning and peaceful progress.

Ephemeral souvenirs like this peep show offered visitors a tangible memory of their brush with the “World of Tomorrow.” Today, they serve as miniature time capsules—reminders of a singular moment when the future still shimmered with untroubled promise, viewed (quite literally, in this case) through the eyes of history.

References:

Ogata, Amy. “Viewing Souvenirs: Peepshows and the Commodification of Looking,” Journal of Design History, Vol. 15, No. 2 (2002), pp. 69–82.

Exhibit City News. “The 1939 New York World’s Fair: The World of Tomorrow.”