Ever since the first exposition held in 1756 in London, World’s Fairs have tantalized and astonished audiences. In addition to being launching pads for such innovations as popcorn, the telephone, the Ferris wheel, the wireless telegraph, and the ice skating rink, they have also introduced horticultural breakthroughs from the chainsaw to soilless gardening, as well as a host of plants from around the world. And they have showcased the work of renowned architects, landscape architects, and designers, from Frederick Law Olmsted to Henry Dreyfuss and Richard Neutra.

Popular speaker and garden historian Cathy Jean Maloney, author of the recent book World’s Fair Gardens: Shaping America’s Landscapes, will present an engaging overview of the groundbreaking, visionary landscapes of the major World’s Fairs in the United States during the golden age of Expositions, from the late 1800s through the early 1900s, with a particular focus on New York. Using images from her extensive research, Cathy will show how the Fairs’ horticultural innovations continue to affect how we garden in our own yards and enjoy our public spaces today.

The lecture coincides with the current exhibition Designing Tomorrow: America’s World’s Fairs of the 1930s, organized by the National Building Museum and expanded and adapted by the Museum of the City of New York, where it is on view through March 31. The exhibition reveals how the World’s Fairs of the Depression years promoted and celebrated a glossy, exhilarating future of sleek modernist design and time-saving machinery, of planned cities and suburban utopia. Included in the registration fee is a special guided tour of the exhibition.

Co-sponsor

Museum of the City of New York

Date and time

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Location

Museum of the City of New York

1220 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10029

Registration

$35 Members of the Garden Conservancy and Museum of the City of New York

$40 General admission

Reservations required.

Enter discount code Garden312 when registering online at boxoffice.mcny.org to receive discount.

For more information or to reserve by phone, please call the Museum of the City of New York's box office at 917.492.3395.

Cathy Jean Maloney is a garden historian and author with a deep interest in the legacy of American gardens. As senior editor of Chicagoland Gardening magazine, she explores hundreds of private and public regional gardens. She is author of four books about historic gardens: World’s Fair Gardens (2012), Chicago Gardens: The Early History (2008), The Prairie Club of Chicago (2001), and The Gardener’s Cottage in Riverside, Illinois (2010), a story of her family’s Frank Lloyd Wright cottage with a Jens Jensen landscape. She writes a regular newspaper column for the Morton Arboretum and has taught classes both at the Arboretum, the Chicago Botanic Garden, and the University of Chicago’s Graham School of Advanced Studies. She has published many articles in magazines such as Better Homes and Gardens, Landscape Architecture, and Gardens Illustrated.