The theme of the fair was “Peace Through Understanding”—ironic, given the fact that the government was then preparing for an all-out war in Vietnam.

The fair’s most remarkable (and enduring) monument was the 140-foot-high Unisphere built by the U.S. Steel Corporation.  The largest model of the world ever made, it towered above the pavilions housing the displays of thirty-eight nations, the Vatican, and various commercial exhibits.

But when I ask people what they remember most fondly, they usually mention Michelangelo’s “Pietà,” or the beautiful Spanish Pavilion, both gone before my explorations in the 1970s and ’80s.