Friday, March 02, 2007

New York World's Fair, September 1964


It's high time we revisited the 1964 New York World's Fair! This is a panorama made from 3 slides taken in September of 1964. They were most likely shot from the top of the New York State pavilion's observation tower...at 226 feet high, it was a popular place to take photos.

The three original images were taken without the aid of a tripod, but thanks to the miracle of Photoshop, I was able to merge them together. The odd shape is due to change in perspective (parallax) from when the photographer turned...I could have cropped it into a nice, neat rectangle, but decided to show as much detail as possible for you "fair freaks"! It's a large-ish file, so I apologize if it takes while for some of you to download.

In the second version, I have added an overlay showing the names of many of the features pictured. While incomplete, it gives you a good general idea of what you are looking at. If you spot an error, please tell me.


The only Disney-related pavilion visible in this photo is, of course, the distinctive white dome of the General Electric pavilion (to the right). This is where you would go to see the popular "Carousel of Progress" as well as the Sky Dome Spectacular and the huge model of Progress City. What a fair!

I am tentatively planning to post more photos from the NYWF, hopefully you will enjoy looking at them once in a while.

7 comments:

Matterhorn1959 said...

Very nice Major! That took some work to line everything up. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Is this that "great big beautiful tomorrow?"? sigh.
Thanks again for your slide info.

Daveland said...

I've tried piecing a few panoramas together and always end up quitting. Great work! I know those are difficult!

Tinker Bell said...

Wow! Gorgeous view! Wonderful job!

Major Pepperidge said...

I must confess that Photoshop does most of the work, seriously! It doesn't work every time, but when it does it is very cool.

Anonymous said...

Please let me know when you publish more New York World's Fair or other World' Fair Photos, you are a genius with Photoshop/

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this magnificent image of the 64-65 fair. I worked at the Moroccan Pavilion and have been looking for images that show it's placement on the Avenue of African Nations, but little luck til now.

All my own images are long gone and even my guide books are no longer with me. I still have my photo ID badge, however. ;-)

You've made my day.