Comments on: Yesterday’s Tomorrows: How a Smithsonian Exhibit I Never Saw Changed My Life

By: Jim R.

Jim R. — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 23:51:48 +0000

I visited the re-release of the exhibit in 2002, may be 2003? in a small town outside Omaha, NE. The town was home to a county historical society… they had the exhibit for a few weeks I believe.

By: JP Trostle

JP Trostle — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 20:00:21 +0000

I felt the same way about the 1964 New York World’s Fair. I had just been born and both times my parents went, they left me with a baby sitter (not that I would have remembered it anyway). The Futurama in particular still holds a certain unobtainable fascination with me.

By: Heather Cook Lindquist

Heather Cook Lindquist — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 15:59:37 +0000

Dear Matt,
Joe Corn was my professor in the American Studies Department at Stanford; Brian Horrigan my most valued mentor, then and since; and I am the “unknown” (intern, gopher, curatorial assistant, whatever) in the picture of the Yesterday’s Tomorrows opening at NMAH shown above. Thank you for bringing back so many treasured memories of a timeless project.
Heather (Cook) Lindquist

By: Ran Barton

Ran Barton — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 19:50:02 +0000

When it was at the Whitney, is it possible that it was in their Manhattan location? I am nearly certain that is where I saw it on a school trip when I was 13. I bought they book that day, too, and still have it. I was captivated by the exhibit and the lost possibilities it evoked.

By: Gyronaut

Gyronaut — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 20:33:23 +0000

In one of the photos is Jim Powers’ models of the Ford Nucleon and the Volante. Powers was in Tremulis’ Advanced Styling Studio at the time. Tremulis also had his Gyronaut LBJ200 Monorail in the exhibit and four other drawings from 1950 of new automobile proposals.

I seem to remember a traveling exhibit inside a train that would have traveled from city to city with maybe a scaled-down version. Any photos of that? Were people allowed to take photos of the exibit? Great stuff!

By: Jim Fairbarns

Jim Fairbarns — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 13:43:51 +0000

The original 1984 exhibit at History & Technology (as it was then) was really cool. I worked about four blocks away, at 12th & F, and walked over to see it a couple of times on my lunch hour. The problem with great exhibits like that one is that they tend to be ephemeral. I know that I missed a lot, and have forgotten the details of about half the rest. Thanks for jogging my memory.

By: Alfa158

Alfa158 — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 18:41:27 +0000

I think that the traveling exhibit could have used more publicity. I have been a huge futurism fan since I was a small child in the 50′s watching the Disney Tomorrowland episodes, yet I was not aware the exhibit was in Los Angeles until it had already left town and I came across the book in a local book store.
I have collected all the books, videos and models and I can on this subject and would recommend tracking down the English translation of a French book “The History of the Future” by Christophe Cantu and Odile Faliu, ISBN 2-08013-544-9. (Interestingly, for the cover it uses a complete version of the same iconic illustration by Frank. R. Paul “City of the Future” as “Yesterday’s Tomorrows”.) It has a lot of material on futurism in earlier popular fiction and culture and is beautifully illustrated.
Sadly, the future just ain’t what it used to be!

By: Jim Stewart

Jim Stewart — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 02:31:40 +0000

I saw this great exhibit at the Oakland Museum. The thing that stuck with me was not the Dymaxion House model itself, but the furnishings and decor inside. It’s not shown in the book, so I’m not sure exactly what it was, but it inspired me to create miniature modernist furniture and sculpture.

You can see some of the result here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zymoglyphic/sets/72157630188077566/

By: Jessica

Jessica — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:01:04 +0000

I have that book and I love it. I didn’t know there was an exhibit that went with it… interesting.

By: Retro Hound

Retro Hound — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 20:36:24 +0000

How cool for you two to end up on the same street! I wish I’d seen the exibit. I graduated high school in ’84, but was nowhere near DC. I’d love to have seen it though, and love the photos of the exhibit.