These six postcards were produced for HemisFair ’68. The first postcard, top left hand corner, is a picture of the food from around the world. Many varieties of international foods were served in cool outdoor plazas, and fine dining restaurants throughout the park. Food, while always an important part of any World’s Fair experience, recently took center stage at the 2015 Milan World’s Fair. While HemisFair’s theme was a “Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas,” Expo Milan was focused on how to feed an ever growing world population with the theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.”
The second post card, under the previous one, is the scene of the fabulous 92.6 acres of HemisFair ’68. Visitors were able to explore the park in gondolas and Mexican flower boats, a mini-monorail system, a Swiss sky ride, and elevated walkways—each afforded a distinctive perspective on the 1968 World’s Fair. Today, San Antonio is considering revisiting the sky ride and monorail idea in order to make the city more accessible to pedestrians and help to revitalize the Broadway corridor. This potential project, proposed by a UTSA college of architecture team, “1000 Parks and a Line in the Sky: Broadway, Avenue of the Future” is also currently being featured as an exhibit at the UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures.
The next postcard shows the blending of old and new. There were historic 19th century mansions that were restored and used by the exhibitors as shops and restaurants. Prior to the construction of HemisFair park, the area was a residential neighborhood. Most of the buildings were demolished in order to make way for the fair attractions and pavilions, but a few of the historic buildings were preserved by the San Antonio Conservation Society and used at the fair.
The postcard in the top right hand corner, is a picture of the State of Texas Pavilion. This was the largest pavilion at HemisFair ’68 and is now the home of the UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures. Today, the museum pursues a mandate as the state’s center for multicultural education by investigating the ethnic and cultural history of the state and presenting the resulting information with a variety of offerings, including this blog, with a mission to give voice to the experiences of people from across the globe who call Texas home, providing insight into the past, present and future.
The following postcard, directly underneath the previous one, is a picture of the Canadian Pavilion at night. Inside this pavilion, visitors walked over recreations of the Canadian waterways and viewed examples of the country’s sculptures, paintings, and history. The last postcard is a picture of the William Cameron Fountain in front of the Italian Pavilion. This fountain was designed like a dandelion and donated by Flora Cameron Kampmann and the KAMKO Foundation. Many countries hosted pavilions at HemisFair, each highlighting the cultural, artistic, and technological achievements of their nations.