A poster from “Designing Tomorrow,” curated by Laura Shiavo.

Last week, Museum Studies Professor Laura Shiavo treated me and a group of Museum Studies alumni to a guided tour through the National Building Museum’s new exhibit Designing Tomorrow: America’s World’s Fairs of the 1930s.

Schiavo, the curator of the exhibit, provided us a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at the exhibit’s creation. She and her colleagues did archival research on the fairs’ host cities—Chicago, IL (1933–34); San Diego, CA (1935-36); Dallas, TX (1936); Cleveland, OH (1936-37); San Francisco, CA (1939-40); and New York, NY (1939-40)—and even searched on eBay to find some of the original programs and brochures from the world’s fairs.

Dean Barrat and Museum studies alumni mingle at the exhibit reception.

The result is a stunning display full of photos and artifacts depicting how the World’s Fairs popularized modern design and promoted science and consumerism in America as a relief from the Great Depression. It features seven thematic galleries: Welcome to the Fairs, A Fair-going Nation, Building a Better Tomorrow, Better Ways to Move, Better Ways to Live, Better Times, and Legacies.

If you’re in the D.C. area, I encourage you to take in this captivating exhibit, which will be on display through July 2011.