Walter Darcy Ryan and His Electric Scintillator

2021 ◽  
pp. 135-139
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Wilk
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
World's Fairs ◽  
Amusement Park ◽  
Art Deco ◽  
Niagara Falls ◽  
International Exhibitions ◽  
World’S Fairs

In order to publicize the capabilities of General Electric’s lighting department and to solicit more contracts, lead engineer Walter Darcy Ryan came up with a spectacular lighting effect. He called it the “Scintillator.” It was showcased at Wonderland, a local amusement park and to illuminate Niagara Falls, and then appeared at international exhibitions and World’s Fairs in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and elsewhere for the next quarter of a century. It was also used atop some buildings, and helped inspire the “searchlight” motif in Art Deco depictions of cities. Wanter Darcy Ryan had effectively invented the light show.

Fair Encounters: Bulgaria and the “West” at International Exhibitions from Plovdiv to St. Louis

Slavic Review ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 547-570
Author(s):  
Mary Neuburger
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
National Identity ◽  
World's Fairs ◽  
World's Fair ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
The West ◽  
International Exhibitions ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
World’S Fairs ◽  
Intellectual Elites

By the late nineteenth century, world's fairs had captured the imagination of Bulgarian political and intellectual elites. Bulgarians were not only enthusiastic pilgrims to the major world's fairs in the west, but by 1892 they had staged their own international trade exhibition in Plovdiv. Here, as elsewhere, the fair phenomenon was an arena for broadcasting messages of national prowess and progress, as well as a context for the performance and contestation of national identity. But for Bulgarians the fair phenomenon at home and abroad was also part of a highly contested process of negotiating its unique place between east and west, politically, economically, and culturally. The tensions and dilemmas that characterized the Plovdiv fair experience were also palpable in Bulgarian participation in fairs abroad, such as the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and the St. Louis Fair of 1904, where both the nation and the west were yet again reimagined.

scholarly journals Promised future and possible future: science communication and technology at World's Fairs and theme parks

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (03) ◽  
pp. A04 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susana Herrera-Lima ◽  
Daniela Martin
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
World's Fairs ◽  
Theme Parks ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
World’S Fairs ◽  
Nature And Society ◽  
Communication And Technology

World’s Fairs and scientific-technological theme parks have been propitious places for the communication of science and technology through modernity. This work addresses the issue of the construction of public discourse about the future within these sites, as well as the changing role attributed to science and technology as mediators in the relationships between nature and society. In both fairs and parks, science and technology play a leading role in the construction of the discourse about the desirable and achievable future. The practices of science communication and technology have specific forms, strategies and objectives, depending on the purposes of the discourse enunciators at different historical moments. This is exemplified through two cases: the 1939 New York World’s Fair and the EPCOT center in the U.S.

Chinese Art on Exhibit: From the Collection of King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden

1966 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 729-732
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Kansas City ◽  
Chinese Art ◽  
National Gallery ◽  
International Exhibitions ◽  
Cleveland Museum Of Art ◽  
Far Eastern ◽  
National Gallery Of Art

An exhibition of 150 rare objects of Chinese art from the collection of King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden will be shown in six museums under the auspices of the International Exhibitions Foundation, opening at the National Gallery of Art on September tenth. Thereafter it will be shown at the Minneapolis Institute of Art; The Asia House Gallery, New York; The Cleveland Museum of Art; The M. H. de Young Museum in San Francisco and the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. The selection was made by Professor Bo Gyllensvärd, Keeper of the King's collection and Director of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm, and John A. Pope, Director of the Freer Gallery of Art.

scholarly journals A ‘Swedish Offensive’ at the World's Fairs: Advertising, Social Reformism and the Roots of Swedish Cultural Diplomacy, 1935–1939

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Nikolas Glover ◽  
Andreas Mørkved Hellenes
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Cultural Diplomacy ◽  
World's Fairs ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Mega Events ◽  
Connected Network ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Post War ◽  
World’S Fairs

While recent scholarship has highlighted how participating countries at the interwar world's fairs competed by displaying ideological versions of modernity, the alternative national projections of smaller states have received less attention. This study of the Swedish national pavilions from Brussels 1935 via Paris 1937 to New York 1939 analyses how a loose but well-connected network of communicators over the course of three fairs responded to, and used, the evolving trends at these international mega-events. In the threatening international atmosphere of the late 1930s, the network convinced the Swedish government to seize the opportunities opened up by the crises of capitalism and democracy. The 1937 and 1939 pavilions showcased Sweden at the world's fairs as an example of the successful handling of economic and socio-political crisis, and the experience had a formative impact on the post-war institutionalisation of Swedish cultural diplomacy.

scholarly journals Czy jesteśmy „ludzkim zoo”?

2016 ◽  
pp. 251-257
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Wrzesińska
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
World's Fairs ◽  
Human Race ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
White Race ◽  
Late 18Th Century ◽  
The Social ◽  
World’S Fairs ◽  
Social Level

Are we "human zoo"?Review: The Invention of Race. Scientific and Popular Representation, N. Bancel, T. David, D. Thomas (ed.), Routlege: New York-Abington, 2014, ss. 320.The book under review is a collection of articles presenting the functioning of the idea of the human race in the scientific, social and cultural backgrounds. The main purpose is to demonstrate how the concept of race have circulated from the late 18th century in scholarship as well as in popular reception. Thus the authors focus their attention on the so-called ethnological expositions (such as Negro or Eskimo Villages) organized on the occasion of world‘s fairs, today known as “human zoo.” On the social level, this helped support the conviction of the supremacy of the white race.  Czy jesteśmy  „ludzkim zoo”?Recenzja: The Invention of Race. Scientific and Popular Representation, N. Bancel, T. David, D. Thomas (ed.), Routlege: New York-Abington, 2014, ss. 320.Recenzowana praca zawiera zbiór artykułów poświęconych przedstawieniu funkcjonowania koncepcji podziału ludzkości na rasy na szerokim tle: naukowym, społecznym i kulturowym. Główny cel stanowi zobrazowanie procesu cyrkulacji idei rasy – od ujęć naukowych począwszy od końca XVIII w. aż do ukazania problemu na płaszczyźnie odbioru masowego. Tu obiektem zainteresowań badawczych stały się tzw. ekspozycje etnologiczne (np. wioski murzyńskie, eskimoskie) organizowane przy okazji wystaw światowych, określane dzisiaj mianem „ludzkich zoo”. Płaszczyzna ta przyczyniła się do utrwalenia w świadomości społecznej poczucia supremacji białej rasy.

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