World's Fair Giants

When she was in her teens, my mother went to the New York World's Fair in 1939. One of the biggest exhibits at the Fair was the Railroad Building, sponsored by the American Railroad Association. The show featured trains- real ones- including historic locomotives of the 1830s to the modern diesel-powered streamliners setting world records for speed- all running in front of stands full of spectators. But what attracted me as a child were the reproductions of the murals on the main building- nearly naked giants, symbolic of the industry- typical, really, of the art of the time. Here are some of those murals.