Imagining the Future--Part 1

Sheet Music, 1914 ( source)

In the 21st century, most portrayals of the future seem to be bleak and frightening images of a post-apocalyptic world. A few of the more optimistic predictions focus on travel to Mars and space exploration. But in the 19th and early to mid 20th century, people celebrated the wonder of new inventions, and were hopeful because of the rapid advances being made. Many people envisioned an exciting future here on earth, a Utopian, fanciful world created by of the wonders of science and technology. Anything seemed possible, and the future was exciting.

Electricity and Electric Appliances by Edward Carqueville (1892) (Courtesy of Library of Congress)

Numerous works of art depicted these fantastic images and fueled the public imagination. Many of these images were made humorously, and weren't meant to be serious depictions of future life. But some were designed to show the way technology would change our daily lives, and make things easier and hopefully better.

A Night At the Opera In the Year 2000 by Albert Robida (1882) ( source)

From the Cover of Science and Invention (February 1921)

Illustration by Albert Levering From Puck Magazine (1905) (Courtesy of Library of Congress)

Some of these imagined inventions have come to pass, at least in some form. For example, the picture below from 1928 depicts a television of the future. At that time, television was still in the experimental stage; t.v. sets would  not become widely available until after WW2, and color television would not be introduced until the mid 1960s. The woman is watching a large, color, flat-screen television. There appears to be some type of projector producing the picture.  She and the man on t.v. appear to be interacting with each other, much as we can do via computer today.

Radio Listeners' Guide- Fall 1928 (source)

The December 9, 1878 edition of the British humor magazine Punch included a cartoon illustration by George Du Maurier which showed a device, called the "Telephonoscope," which had supposedly been invented by Edison. Although this device was completely imaginary, this "electric camera-obscura" is considered to be an early prediction of both the television and the videophone. The caption below the image reads, in part: "Edison's Telephonoscope (transmits light as well as sound). Every evening, before going to bed, Pater and Materfamilias set up an electric camera-obscura over their bedroom mantel-piece, and gladden their eyes with the sight of their children at the Antipodes, and converse gaily with them through the wire."

source

Many other inventions, such as flying cars, have not become a reality. But it's interesting to take a look at these past visions of the 20th and 21st centuries! The illustration below is from a 1904 British children's book called The Motor Car Dumpy Book, which is a humorous look at the then recent invention, the automobile. The text that accompanies this image reads: "This is a motor air-ship. Some day we shall all have them."

 

From The Motor Car Dumpy Book (1904)

Flying cars, underwater scenes, and fabulous inventions are depicted in an intriguing series of French illustrations called "En L'An 2000 (In the Year 2000)" issued between 1899 and 1910. They were created by various French artists, and the first of these were issued for the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris. They appeared initially as paper cards attached to cigarette and cigar boxes, and later as postcards. There are at least 87 known cards, but they are very rare. I have posted images of some of the ones I found the most interesting below. Click on the following link to view images of all fifty of these cards that are displayed on Wikimedia Commons: Link 

Flying Vehicles

Underwater Scenes

Fabulous Inventions

The Home of the Future

Something Outdated in 2000--"A Curiosity"

Influences

source

The following poem by Walt Whitman (1819-1892), from Leaves of Grass  is one of my favorites, and it illustrates how everything we see and do influences who we are and who we become. The language is old-fashioned, but the message is timeless.

There was a Child went Forth

THERE was a child went forth every day;
And the first object he look’d upon, that object he became;
And that object became part of him for the day, or a certain part of the day, or for many years, or stretching cycles of years.
The early lilacs became part of this child,
And grass, and white and red morning-glories, and white and red clover, and the song of the phoebe-bird,
And the Third-month lambs, and the sow’s pink-faint litter, and the mare’s foal, and the cow’s calf,
And the noisy brood of the barn-yard, or by the mire of the pond-side,
And the fish suspending themselves so curiously below there—and the beautiful curious liquid,
And the water-plants with their graceful flat heads—all became part of him.
The field-sprouts of Fourth-month and Fifth-month became part of him;
Winter-grain sprouts, and those of the light-yellow corn, and the esculent roots of the garden,
And the apple-trees cover’d with blossoms, and the fruit afterward, and wood-berries, and the commonest weeds by the road;
And the old drunkard staggering home from the out-house of the tavern, whence he had lately risen,
And the school-mistress that pass’d on her way to the school,
And the friendly boys that pass’d—and the quarrelsome boys,
And the tidy and fresh-cheek’d girls—and the barefoot negro boy and girl,
And all the changes of city and country, wherever he went.
His own parents,
He that had father’d him, and she that had conceiv’d him in her womb, and birth’d him,
They gave this child more of themselves than that;
They gave him afterward every day—they became part of him.
The mother at home, quietly placing the dishes on the supper-table;
The mother with mild words—clean her cap and gown, a wholesome odor falling off her person and clothes as she walks by;
The father, strong, self-sufficient, manly, mean, anger’d, unjust;
The blow, the quick loud word, the tight bargain, the crafty lure,
The family usages, the language, the company, the furniture—the yearning and swelling heart,
Affection that will not be gainsay’d—the sense of what is real—the thought if, after all, it should prove unreal,
The doubts of day-time and the doubts of night-time—the curious whether and how,
Whether that which appears so is so, or is it all flashes and specks?
Men and women crowding fast in the streets—if they are not flashes and specks, what are they?
The streets themselves, and the façades of houses, and goods in the windows,
Vehicles, teams, the heavy-plank’d wharves—the huge crossing at the ferries,
The village on the highland, seen from afar at sunset—the river between,
Shadows, aureola and mist, the light falling on roofs and gables of white or brown, three miles off,
The hurrying tumbling waves, quick-broken crests, slapping,
The strata of color’d clouds, the long bar of maroon-tint, away solitary by itself—the spread of purity it lies motionless in,
The horizon’s edge, the flying sea-crow, the fragrance of salt marsh and shore mud;
These became part of that child who went forth every day, and who now goes, and will always go forth every day.

Building the World

Photo by Sergey Klimkin (courtesy of pixabay.com)

Builders or Wreckers?

     A short time ago I watched workmen tearing down an old building. A huge crane swung back and forth, smashing the bricks and walls with battering blows. Debris scattered everywhere. Trucks came and waited for the steam shovel to fill them with the old mortared bricks, splintered wood, and broken glass. Within a few hours, a building that had taken months to construct, was a mass of rubble.

     In the days that followed, as I walked by this same block, I saw a new, beautiful building rise toward the sky. Men walked with blueprints in hand. No careless movements here; no unplanned work.

     It is comparatively easy to be a wrecker. No special skill is required. Just stay clear of the falling debris.

    Every life has a flaw within it--like an old building. When Dwight L. Moody (American evangelist-1837-1899) had finished speaking, a man said, "Your English is poor. Can you not speak better?" Moody replied, "I am doing the best I can for the Lord with what I have; how about you?" Moody was building; the man was wrecking.

     Builders are needed today. The world is not hopeless. Neither are the hearts of men. The materials for world peace lie about us. We have discovered power that will lift nations from poverty. We have a world consciousness that did not exist prior to the Twentieth Century. But a generation of builders is needed.

    

by Harleigh M. Rosenberger 

(from Sunshine Magazine, February 1962)

Imagining the Future Part 1

Sheet Music, 1914 ( source)

In the 21st century, most visions of the future seem to be bleak and frightening images of a post-apocalyptic world. A few of the more optimistic predictions focus on travel to Mars and space exploration. But in the 19th and early to mid 20th century, people envisioned an exciting future here on earth, a Utopian, fanciful world created by of the wonders of science and technology. Many works of art depicted these fantastic images and fueled the public imagination. Many of these images were made humorously, and weren't meant to be serious depictions of future life. But some were designed to show the way technology would change our daily lives, and make things easier and better.

A Night At the Opera In the Year 2000 by Albert Robida (1882) ( source)

Some of these imagined inventions have come to pass, at least in some form. For example, the picture below from 1928 depicts a television of the future. At that time, television was still in the experimental stage; t.v. sets would  not become widely available until after WW2, and color television would not be introduced until the mid 1960s. The woman is watching a large, color, flat-screen television. There appears to be some type of projector producing the picture.  She and the man on t.v. appear to be interacting with each other, much as we can do via computer today.

Radio Listeners' Guide- Fall 1928 (source)

The December 9, 1878 edition of the British humor magazine Punch included a cartoon illustration by George Du Maurier which showed a device, called the "Telephonoscope," which had supposedly been invented by Edison. Although this device was completely imaginary, this "electric camera-obscura" is considered to be an early prediction of both the television and the videophone. The caption below the image reads, in part: "Edison's Telephonoscope (transmits light as well as sound). Every evening, before going to bed, Pater and Materfamilias set up an electric camera-obscura over their bedroom mantel-piece, and gladden their eyes with the sight of their children at the Antipodes, and converse gaily with them through the wire."

source

Many other inventions, such as flying cars, have not become a reality. But it's interesting to take a look at these past visions of the 20th and 21st centuries! The illustration below is from a 1904 British children's book called The Motor Car Dumpy Book, which is a humorous look at the then recent invention, the automobile. The text that accompanies this image reads: "This is a motor air-ship. Some day we shall all have them."

 

From The Motor Car Dumpy Book (1904)

Flying cars, underwater scenes, and fabulous inventions are depicted in an intriguing series of French illustrations called "En L'An 2000 (In the Year 2000)" issued between 1899 and 1910. They were created by various French artists, and the first of these were issued for the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris. They appeared initially as paper cards attached to cigarette and cigar boxes, and later as postcards. There are at least 87 known cards, but they are very rare. I have posted images of some of the ones I found the most interesting below. Click on the following link to view images of all fifty of these cards that are displayed on Wikimedia Commons: Link 

Flying Vehicles

Underwater Scenes

Fabulous Inventions

The Home of the Future

Something Outdated in 2000--"A Curiosity"

A Thought For the New Year

Yesterday--TODAY--Tomorrow

Photo by Yoni Kaplan-Nadal

There are two days in every week about which we should not worry--two days which should be kept free from any fear and apprehension. One of these days is Yesterday, with its mistakes and cares, its aches and pains, its faults and blunders. Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control. All the money in the world cannot bring back Yesterday. We cannot undo a single act we performed; we cannot erase a single word we said; we cannot rectify a single mistake. Yesterday has passed forever beyond recall. Let it go.

The other day we should not worry about is Tomorrow, with its possible adversities, its burdens, its large promise and poor performance. Tomorrow also is beyond our immediate control. Tomorrow's sun will rise either in splendor or behind a mass of clouds--but it will rise. And until it does, we have no stake in tomorrow, because it is as yet unborn.

That leaves us but one day--Today! And man can fight the battles of just one day.

Yesterday and Tomorrow are futile worries. Let us, therefore, resolve to journey no more than one day at a time.

 --Robert J. Burdette (1844-1914)