Conceptual Drawing of the Ford Exhibition Building for the New York World's Fair, 1939

01

Artifact Overview

Ford Motor Company, a major participant in the 1939-40 New York World's Fair, hired industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague to create its exhibition building in New York City's Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. This conceptual rendering shows the entrance to Teague's Ford Building. It features a stainless steel sculpture depicting Mercury, whose mythological speed symbolized the swift progress of modern transportation.

Artifact Details

Artifact

Rendering (Drawing)

Date Made

1939

Subject Date

1939-1940

Creator Notes

By Hugh Ferriss, working with Walter Dorwin Teague, for Ford Motor Company.

Location

By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center

Object ID

83.1.1645.14

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Ford Motor Company.

Material

Paper (Fiber product)
Mat board
Charcoal pencils

Technique

Drawing (Image-making)

Color

Black-and-white (Colors)

Dimensions

Height: 25 in
Width: 30 in

Inscriptions

Artist signature on lower left corner: Hugh Ferriss
02

Related Content

  • Ford Exhibit Building, Texas Centennial Central Exposition, Dallas, Texas, 1936
    Set

    Henry Ford: Worlds Fair

    • 24 Artifacts
    The Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas celebrated the frontier past of Texas, especially its 1836 victory over Mexico. The Ford Motor Company Pavilion, among the largest of industrial firms' buildings at the fair, was designed by industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague. Its interior displays focused on how agriculture and natural resources of the Southwest could be transformed into car parts.
  • Ford Rotunda by Philip Lyford, 1933-1934
    Set

    Ford at the Fair Exhibition

    • 86 Artifacts
    Chicago's 1933-34 Century of Progress Exposition used the theme of progress to encourage optimism during the Depression. The 11-acre Ford Motor Company exhibit became the most talked-about exhibit of 1934, featuring a central Rotunda designed to simulate graduated clusters of gears. After the fair, this building became an attraction at Ford headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, until it burned down in 1962.