World’s Fair

While World’s Fairs don’t have the same draw as they used to, we can look back at certain license plates acknowledging them and remember history.

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California 1939 New York 1964-65 Texas 1968 Washington 1974 Louisiana 1984 British Columbia 1986

California 1939

From the 1870s through the early 1940s, World’s Fairs were common. The Golden Gate International Exposition took place on Treasure Island (an artificial island built for the fair, attached to Yerba Buena Island near San Francisco) in both 1939 and in 1940. The fair was initiated in part to celebrate the openings of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. Using the theme “Pageant of the Pacific,” it spotlighted the nations bordering the Pacific Ocean.

California’s 1939 license plate advertised the World’s Fair held at Treasure Island.
The Golden Gate International Exposition was held at Treasure Island in 1939 and 1940. A map, a commemorative stamp, and a picture of the “Gayway” feature elements of the fair. [Map from Wikipedia, under Fair Use doctrine; Stamp from Wikipedia, Public Domain; “Gayway at Night (1940)”: IMLS Digital Collections & Content, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons]

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New York 1964-65

The New York World’s Fair ran from April to October 1964, and the same months in 1965. It had the theme of “Peace Through Understanding” and featured a 12-story-high, stainless-steel model of the earth called the Unisphere. New York’s 1964 base plate made note of the event, but it lacked sticker wells – so the 1965 sticker was relegated to a narrow strip which could fit between the serial and the border.

New York introduced this base plate to motorists in 1964 to commemorate the city’s World’s Fair.
Stamp and photos from the 1964-65 World’s Fair. [Stamp from Wikipedia, Public Domain; Photos L to R Creative Commons licenses by Anthony Conti/PLC Jr/Flickr, Digitscd/Wikipedia, Digitscd/Wikipedia]

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Washington 1974

The International Exposition On the Environment, Spokane 1974, ran for six months and featured the tagline “Celebrating Tomorrow’s Fresh New Environment.” At the time, Spokane was the smallest city to hold a World’s Fair recognized by the Bureau International des Expositions. Over five million people attended and the IMAX theater made its debut at the fair. The site, built on a railyard in the downtown area, became Riverfront Park, and a couple of structures still remain. Washington did not issue a special plate, but did place the Expo logo on that year’s registration sticker.

Washington’s 1974 registration sticker included the official logo for the International Exposition held in the city of Spokane that year.
Photos and logo from Expo ’74 in Spokane, Washington. The logo, depicted on the registration sticker, symbolized humans’ relationship to their environment. [All photos from Wikipedia. Overview and stamp Creative Commons; logo Fair Use; commemorative plate by Howpper].

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Texas 1968

San Antonio, Texas hosted HemisFair ’68, a World’s Fair with the theme “The Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas.” A department store executive initiated the idea to celebrate the 250th anniversary of city’s founding as well as the shared cultural heritage of San Antonio and its Latin neighbors. The fair ran for six months, from April to October. Texas’s 1968 license plate commemorated the event.

Texas added the slogan ’68 HEMISFAIR 68′ for the 1968 issue in recognizance of that year’s World’s Fair held in San Antonio.
Postcards from HemisFair ’68; the Tower of the Americas; and a U.S. postage stamp. [Sources: VintageChrome Blogspot.com, Etsy, Wikipedia (Tower-Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Stamp-public domain)]

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Louisiana 1984

New Orleans was the site of the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition, held exactly 100 years after the city’s World Cotton Centennial. The theme of this fair was “The World of Rivers-Fresh Water as a Source of Life.” It included a pelican mascot named Seymore D. Fair, and a monorail crossing the Mississippi River; however, this fair did not meet attendance expectations, and it needed government intervention to finish its run. Among the speculated reasons for the shortfall was that just two years earlier a fair had been held in relatively nearby Knoxville, TN. The U.S. has not hosted a World’s Fair since.

To help kick-off the 1984 World’s Fair in New Orleans, Louisiana issued this base plate which was on the roads for four years; unlike California and New York above, the fair in this case ran for just one year.
Images from the 1984 World’s Fair in New Orleans: fair main entrance; Seymour D. Fair; boy with troll; and the cover of a book about the event [Wikipedia: entrance-Carey Akin (Flickr); mascot-Ddj001; troll-Aaron Zondler (Flickr)]

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British Columbia 1986

In 1986, I attended Expo 86 with my family. The 1986 World’s Fair in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada featured the theme “Transportation and Communication.” Though the province did not issue a base plate in conjunction with the event, it did give motorists a special registration sticker affixed to the 1979 and 1985 bases.

British Columbia included the Expo 86 logo on the registration sticker for that year (incidentally 1986 was the last year the blue base could be used). Fair-goers could purchase the souvenir plate, right.
Photos of the 1986 World’s Fair in Vancouver. The first six are from my collection, including one of me standing in front of a giant license plate (the 1985 base with the special ’86 registration sticker). [The last two credit JerryE & Roy Klotz MD, from Wikipedia].

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