Article ID: CBB604133303

Pleistocene Park, and other designs on deep time in the Interwar United States (2021)

unapi

Precisely how to reconstruct the planetary past is not predetermined. This article compares three contemporary plans, dreamed up in the United States during the Interwar and Depression years, that deploy diverse techniques to evoke extinct environments. Building on Martin Rudwick's historicization of ‘scenes from deep time’, this article develops the concept of designs on deep time to explain how public displays of the planetary past circulate anything-but-neutral ideas about past and present to awed audiences. By detailing three contemporary designs on deep time—Pleistocene Park at the La Brea Tar Pits, a sensational World's Fair exhibit called ‘The World a Million Years Ago’, and a dinosaur park where living fossils and ancient plants approximated a Mesozoic atmosphere—this article captures diverse philosophies about how to construct persuasive encounters with the prehistoric past. It also demonstrates how, despite disparate approaches, these designers of deep time displays all used the planetary past to legitimate present regimes and foster faith in human progress. During the 1920s and 1930s, when the wounds of war, changing demographics, and economic depression collaborated to dispute a prevailing myth of American progress, deep time by design buoyed faith in a better future.

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Authors & Contributors
Julie Passanante Elman
Aizenberg, Lila
Zeman, Scott C.
Vergara, Moema de Resende
Unger, Nancy C.
Tietge, David J.
Concepts
Science and society
Popular culture
Science and culture
Mass media
Motion pictures; cinema; movies
Popularization
Time Periods
20th century, early
20th century, late
20th century
19th century
18th century
21st century
Places
United States
Southern states (U.S.)
Argentina
Europe
Brazil
Institutions
Chicago World's Fair
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