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  The Wolfsonian–FIU is a museum that explores the inventive and provocative character of the modern world. Through objects and design, we reveal how the past influences the present and shapes the future.

American Streamlined Design: The World of Tomorrow

October 24, 2008–May 17, 2009
The Wolfsonian–FIU @ 1001 Washington Avenue

“The World of Tomorrow” was the name fittingly given to the 1939 New York World’s Fair, a fair that emphasized visions of a sophisticated, scientific world to come—a hope for the future symbolized by the progressive style of streamlining. Beginning in the 1930s, designers’ fascination with the dynamic quality, smooth surfaces, and teardrop or bullet shapes of streamlining evolved out of studies concerned with minimizing wind and water resistance for the design of ships, trains, and aircraft. In design, the modern world was all about speed and efficiency—even with objects never intended to move.

Encompassing all media of design, this exhibition centered on where streamlined objects were found and used, then and now: in the commercial world; in the domestic spheres of the kitchen, bath, and living space; with manual labor; and recreationally.

American Streamlined Design was organized by the Liliane and David M. Stewart Program for Modern Design, Montreal.