1933 CHICAGO "CENTURY OF PROGRESS" EXPOSITION scrapbook
This scrapbook came to me as a gift, and contains some nice ephemera of the Exposition, steam locomotive postcards and train menus, vintage expo postcards and so on. Sadly, there were some gems pasted face down in the scrapbook that I would've loved to have scanned, but that's how it goes with scrapbooks. Watch for the odd hand-written notations here and there. Alright, lets go walk through the Expo!

This sky ride looks quite terrifying. Great views of Chicago, no doubt.







This peculiar building (below) reminds me of something...perhaps some kind of musical instrument, with that scroll on the end...

So much of the architecture in this fair, (such as above and below examples) is just so damn DRYLY DECO and lifeless, that it actually put me off from scanning the scrapbook, and pages like this for a while. But in the end I felt that I should scan the whole document, the "good" pictures along with the "bad" or "dull" ones, as it's a whole time capsule best enjoyed in it's full context.
And I should qualify the above by adding that I love a great deal of period 19390's art and design...


These pylons are wild. I wonder what they looked like in color.







It's cropped off, but that's obviously the Walgreen's building, above. Perhaps some medicinal cocaine was available.



Ah, the Giant Thermometer. Be sure to stop by our soda fountain counter for some fizzy mercury drinks!





One of my favorite buildings, the "Mayan Temple".
Mmm, now we get to the midway, for some more risque and ribald entertainment.



The obligatory old plantation steamboat creepy thingy (above)


Note the come-on banner over the door.


The Belgian village bears some resemblance to the Universal movie villages in their 1930s horror pictures. Same style temporary construction, anyway.





Very nice crowd shot, below.





And, least practical of all, but still attractive: the Lumber House
I wish the people who made the scrapbook had snagged more lovely postcards like this to put in it!

Artists: check out the strange "Sculpticolor" promo handout below.



Here are some pages from the Romance Of Railway Express centennial handout booklet. There's some interesting text and facts in it, for railroad and early express-shipping scholars.






Next are four beautiful Railroad postcards and a menu from the Burlington Route exhibit at the expo.






A two-sided handout for this unusual 1933 do-it-all desk. I imagine there are a few of these rusting out in antique stores and in barns here and there, but I've never seen one. I could use it in my toolshop, however.

Here's a nice checklist of some exhibits at the Expo, the other side was very pretty, but glued down- drat!

I like the Baldwin handout factsheet and card.
Oh, yeah--they were pushing Florida real estate hard back in the early '30's...
Well, of course now I still collect old (particularly 1930s) porcelain enameled pieces of all kinds, even chipped-up horrible ones. But then people were obviously still learning what the material was.
Notice the many recommended uses for Simoniz Kleener below:
And, with the new Mixmaster promo, and the Southern Central System exhibit flier, the 1933 Chicago Expo scrapbook comes to an end.
I hope you enjoyed our walk through the fair, come back anytime.