September 2011

1939 New York World’s Fair Photograph Collection

C1: 001
ca. 1939
211 albums, many in duplicate and some in triplicate, 3,031 unique images

C1:001 1939 New York World’s Fair Photograph Collection.

Touted as the largest and most magnificent exposition of all time, the New York World’s Fair opened at Flushing Meadow in April 1939. In the Court of States, one exhibition was strikingly different from the rest: the Virginia Room, “an island of quiet” amid the fair’s raucous and more sensational attractions. Leslie Cheek, Jr., designer of the Virginia Room, and his team of artists developed a plan for a spacious circular lounge with the visitor’s focus drawn to an ornamental fountain theatrically lit from above and below. Around the fountain’s statue—an allegorical representation of the “Spirit of Virginia” drawing water from the clouds—were clipped boxwoods and a series of deep cushioned seats and low tables. Cheek remarked that a visitor to the Virginia Room should find “an intelligently arranged display, free of ballyhoo and high pressure salesmanship.” The design offered tired fairgoers a place to sit, a chance to enjoy a complimentary glass of ice water served by a white-jacketed waiter, and an array of large photograph albums prepared by the Virginia State Chamber of Commerce.

Taken together, the Virginia Room albums can be thought of as a sprawling infomercial for the state, promoting it as a place not just of historic shrines and natural beauty, but as one of scientific, … Read the rest

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Hamblin Studio Service Station Photograph Collection

C1: 163
late 1920s
62 photographic images

C1:163 Hamblin Studio Service Station Photograph Collection. LVA 09_1009_61

These photographs give a detailed visual account of Suffolk-area service stations in the early automotive age, including station personnel, oil-delivery vehicles and drivers, off-site oil storage facilities, and other elements of oil-related infrastructure. Architecturally, the service stations range from pagoda-like roadside huts to urban brick produce market/gas station all-in-ones, most displaying the distinctive “Sinclair Gasoline” sign. Gas can be seen for sale at 25 cents a gallon. 

The original purpose of this series is unknown. While some of the images smack of promotional photography, especially those in which drivers pose with their vehicles, others seem more documentary or photojournalistic, particularly a handful of images showing the aftermath of a dramatic rollover car wreck. Most of the drivers and many of the station owners are named.

Provenance:
Electronic copies donated, 2009.
Vintage prints retained by donor. 

Related resources and collections:
C1: 162 Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection

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Virginia Historical Inventory

C1: 160
1938
approx. 19,300 reports, approx. 6,200 photographs, 103 maps 

C1:160 Virginia Historical Inventory. Unidentified house, Greensville County, VA

The Virginia Historical Inventory is a massive and rambling collection of photographs, annotated maps, and written reports on the architectural, cultural, and family histories of thousands of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century buildings, mostly private homes, in rural communities throughout the commonwealth. Commissioned by the Works Progress Administration, the inventory has been part of the Library’s permanent collection since its completion in 1938. The original field reporters were mostly women, non-experts recruited locally and given crash-course training in identifying and describing the architectural motifs of the so-called vernacular (homey) architectures the inventory sought to document, as opposed to the ornate, “high style” houses of major cities—the usual fare of the better known Historic American Buildings Survey. During on-site investigations and interviews with residents and locals, inventory reporters captured a wealth of technical and narrative information, giving family sagas, local folklore, and ghost stories equal time with descriptions of chimneys, catalogs of books and antiques, the locations of wells, and transcriptions of epitaphs, diaries, letters, deeds, and wills. Many of the houses surveyed have not survived to the present day. 

Arrangement and access:
The entire collection is searchable by location or keyword through the Library’s online photo collections.

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