SOME ASPECTS OF THE HISTORICAL COMPONENT OF ROMANIA’S IMAGE AT THE NEW YORK WORLD’S FAIR (1939-1940)
Laurențiu VLAD [a] [b]
Analele Universității din București. Științe Politice [Annals of the University of Bucharest. Political Science series]
Vol. XXV, Issue 1, Online first
https://doi.org/10.54885/AUB-SP-IMTC1549
[b] Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest, Romania
This text brings to the forefront some nuances regarding the historical dimension of the construction of the image identity occasioned by Romania’s presence at the New York World’s Fair (1939-1940). In particular, I analyze the scenes on the frieze of “the history of Romanians” (or of the “Romanian nation”, as it was also called), which was placed on the balcony railing in the central hall of the pavilion designed by Prince G.M. Cantacuzino for the New York exhibition. I corroborated the details of Mac Constantinescu’s imposing 30 meters long brass composition, which represented an account of the national history starting from the ancient Dacian-Romans, with other data from works of similar symbolism from the period 1937-1939 (for example, the fresco of Magda Iorga in the central building of Romania at the international exhibition in Paris in 1937 or the one in the Romanian Athenaeum in 1938). The sources on which I based my investigation were popularization brochures published with the occasion of the exhibition, speeches of Romanian officials, archival documents, press excerpts, etc.
Keywords: Mac Constantinescu, Dimitrie Gusti, New York World's Fair (1939-1940), Romania's image, historical identities, propaganda
Laurențiu VLAD is professor at the University of Bucharest, and was a scientific researcher at the Institute of South-East European Studies of the Romanian Academy and at the Romanian Diplomatic Institute. His research has focused on imagology and national identity imaginary at the World’s Fairs, cultural diplomacy (French-Romanian relations, Belgo-Romanian relations, elite formation - Romanian students at the Belgian and French universities), history of mentalities, political ideas and ideologies (Conservatism, the idea of Europe, image of the other). Selected volumes: Images de l'identité nationale: La Roumanie aux Expositions Universelles et Internationales de Paris, 1867-1937 (Paris: L'Harmattan, 2016), Istorii românești ale ideii de Europa, secolele XVII-XXI (imagini, note reflecții) [Romanian Histories of the Idea of Europe, 17th-21st Centuries - Images, Reflections, Notes] (Iași, European Institute Press, 2021), Constantin N. Brăiloiu (1809-1889). Fragmente biografice [Constantin N. Brăiloiu (1809-1889): Biographical Excerpts] (Iași:„Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University Press, 2023).
VLAD, Laurențiu. 2023. Some aspects of the historical component of Romania’s image at the New York World’s Fair (1939-1940). Analele Universității din București. Științe Politice [Annals of the University of Bucharest. Political Science series] XXV (1): Online first. https://doi.org/10.54885/AUB-SP-IMTC1549
DECLARATION OF CONFLICTING INTERESTS
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
FUNDING
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article
© This is an open access journal that operates under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 License. All published items are free to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link, or link to the full texts of articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author as long as the source is properly cited.