Paul Gillespie (1927-2011) was born and raised in Miami, Florida, but he relocated to New York City, where he lived for almost 50 years in an apartment on the upper west side of Manhattan. A graduate of the University of Miami and Columbia University, Mr. Gillespie served first in the U.S. Army and then with the U.S. State Department before becoming a teacher with the Pelham, New York, public school system. It is doubtful that Mr. Gillespie attended the 1939-40 New York World's Fair, but he developed a lifelong interest and collected an impressive assortment of photographs, scrapbooks, pamphlets, guidebooks, menus and other fair-related ephemera. While family members recall walks with Mr. Gillespie around the Flushing Meadows fairgrounds, it is unclear what motivated his fascination with the fair. However, it is apparent from the notebooks, related ephemera and books he acquired that Mr. Gillespie read widely on the subject and travelled to regional libraries and historical societies conducting research.

Located on over 1200 acres in Flushing Meadows, Queens, the New York World's Fair ran for two seasons, from April 30, 1939 to October 31, 1939, and then reopening from May 11, 1940, to October 27, 1940. Originating from a desire to revitalize the Depression-weary spirit and economy of New York City and the nation, the fair attracted the participation of sixty nations, thirty-three U.S. states and drew approximately forty-five million visitors. The fair's first season was instilled with optimism about the capacity for the present to give rise to a prosperous "World of Tomorrow." However, towards the conclusion of its first season, this hopeful outlook would take on an ironic aspect as war loomed and the fair struggled to turn a profit.

Led by Grover Whalen and many of the most prominent figures in New York economic and political life, the fair organizers employed the latest ideas in design and marketing to make the fair a reality. Whalen travelled extensively and convinced countries as diverse as the Soviet Union, El Salvador, Iraq and Japan to participate. The fair's Board of Design featured prominent modernist architects and industrial designers, such as Walter Dorwin Teague, Norman Bel Geddes, Alvar Aalto and Wallace Harrison, who oversaw the creation of a clean, streamlined vision of tomorrow. Their design theme was most dramatically and famously embodied in the 700-foot tall Trylon and 180-foot diameter Perisphere that formed the center point of the fair grounds.

The fair's international pavilions strove to acquaint visitors with the nations of the world and stressed the virtues of cooperation and interdependence. Exhibit halls sponsored by corporations such as General Motors, Westinghouse, and AT&T combined marketing with technology demonstrations and other spectacles to create a promising vision of the future in which their innovative products would play an essential role. Meanwhile, the fair's "Amusement Zone" offered visitors thrill rides, dazzling shows, carnival attractions, sideshow novelties and risque thrills. The fair also featured industrial and technology exhibits, several gardens, an art gallery, statues and sculptures of many sizes, fountains and pools, and a model "town of tomorrow." A sense of wonder also stemmed from the cutting edge technologies that were showcased at the fair. While taken for granted today, color photography, television broadcasts, air conditioning, and the use of large scale lighting employed for dramatic effect, were some of the new marvels that were demonstrated for the first time.

The fair was not without controversy and received its share of criticism from contemporary critics. The total cost of admission and spending a day at the fair was deemed prohibitively expensive for many Americans. Both this cost and the manner in which the fair was marketed were criticized as having an exclusionary effect towards African Americans and ethnic minorities. The NAACP and Urban League protested unfair hiring practices and insufficient representation of African Americans in the fair's exhibits. Social critics also expressed concern that the fair's ideals were compromised by the prevalence of consumerism and crass amusements.

By the time the fair's second season opened, many of the participating nations were engulfed in the Second World War, leading some to either withdraw from the fair or causing their delegations to become exiles in America. In response, the slogan of the fair was changed to "For Peace and Freedom" and new patriotic themes prevailed. In an effort to attract more visitors, the price of admission was lowered and a greater emphasis was placed on marketing the fair's amusements. Despite these changes the fair did not last past its second season and would ultimately declare bankruptcy. However, the legacy of the fair would remain in the post-war memories of Americans who would go on to create a cultural landscape that in many ways resembled the prosperous, streamlined, middle-class world that the fair had imagined.