New Deal Celestial Art (3/5): "The Drama of the Heavens" and "Gazing at the Stars"

Above: "The Drama of the Heavens," a WPA poster created in 1939. There was a planetarium construction craze in the United States during the 1930s and the Adler Planetarium was the first, opening in 1930. A 1937 newspaper article about a planned planetarium in Pittsburgh (the Buhl Planetarium) noted that "The Adler Planetarium in Chicago, first to be constructed in this country, has attracted millions... eager to see how the heavens looked when the Christ child was born and how it will look in the year 2036" ("Big Planetarium In Pittsburgh To Excel All In U.S.," The Courier (Waterloo, Iowa), May 11, 1937). I remember going on an elementary school field trip to the Maryland Science Center, and seeing a show in the Davis Planetarium. Millions of Americans across the U.S. probably have similar fond memories. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Above: "Gazing at the Stars," an etching by William Sanger (1873-1961), created while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, ca. 1935-1938. Americans looked to the stars more and more in the 1920s and 30s. According to several Wikipedia entries, science fiction began gaining real popularity in the 1920s, and the "Golden Age of Science Fiction" began around 1938. Characters like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers became well-known through comic strips and films of the day. Science fiction, planetariums, star-watching, and the possibility of space travel really captured the public's imagination. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Baltimore Museum of Art.