This Age of Power and Wonder (1930s)
Monday, November 22, 2010 at 5:49PM ;)
Companies of the early 20th century would often include collectible cards with their foodstuffs and tobacco smokes. The New York Public Library has an extensive collection of these cigarette cards available for viewing online, including many from a series by Max Cigarettes called This Age of Power and Wonder. This series from 1935-38 includes predictions of robot servants, spaceships, live television from exotic locations, and ubiquitous airports atop city high rises. Somewhat ironically for a cigarette manufacturer, card number six in this series of 250 predicted great advances in the treatment of cancer.
Wells Forecasts Space-Ships;)
Television of the Future
;)
Our Future Servants?;)
How London May Be Lighted
;)
The Amphibian At Work
Atomic Fuel
;)
Aerodrome of the Future
;)
War on Cancer
;)
Previously on Paleo-Future:
- City of the Future Postcards (1910s)
- Atomic Power Plant of the Future (1930s)
- Televox Entertains High School Students (1930)
- Postcards Show the Year 2000 (circa 1900)
- Rastus Robot, the Mechanical Negro (1931)
- French Prints Show the Year 2000 (1910)
- French Flying Machines (1890-1900)
- Gadgets for the Home (1930s)
- Medical Predictions for 1999 (1955)
- Bloodless Surgery, Closer Than We Think! (1959)
- How Experts Think We'll Live in 2000 A.D. (1950)
airplanes, atomic power, cancer, h.g. wells, robots, space, space travel, spaceship, television in 1930s Tweet
Reader Comments (13)
GREAT-- never seen these before. I like the one with "ATOM" beaming in the sky.
Second language is Afrikaans. These are all from South African cigs?
"War no cancer" is sooo cute for the cigarette brand.
What would have happened, on the aerodrome, if the plane had overshot the runway?
The television one turned out to be pretty accurate, actually.
I love the idea of lighting a large city by sticking a big spiral light atop a tower.
Nobody better be trying to land on any rooftop landing strips, however.
Looking over these old tobacco cards, it kinda makes you realize that we do live in the future our grandparents imagined. It just looks a lot different than our grandparents imagined.
That giant neon spiral is Awesome but Impractical, however.
While the amphibious vehicle looks like a very crude version of the amtracks used only a few years later in World War II. OTOH, except for the "Ducks" (DUKW) used in the Wisconsin Dells, these amphibious vehicles don't seem to have made it into civilian use.
This is cool. And the thing about cancer is indeed rather ironic.
Actually I think the second language is German.Looks like it anyway.
The second language is definitely not German. It looks like Dutch to me (the mother language of Afrikaans).
...don't be so sure about that...
Feel sorry for anyone that would live within 5 city blocks of the spiral light tower. trying to sleep at night would be almost unbearable without a good set of curtains.