Girard College Boys at Menlo Park Machine Shop Exhibit, Ford Exposition, New York World's Fair, 1939

Ford Motor Company executives knew only 1 in 5 Americans would attend the 1939-40 New York World's Fair. They planned for even fewer to visit the Ford exposition, and allocated more than $300,000 to publicize Ford's involvement at the fair. To ensure national coverage, a dedicated Press Department regularly distributed photographs of the Ford exhibit to thousands of publications across the country.