Under the red dome that symbolizes the Travelers umbrella of protection, 13 dioramas use life-sized models, stage sets and sound and lighting effects to re-create the most crucial eras and events of the exhibit’s theme, “The Triumph of Man.”

“Man has always striven to protect what he loves. He has sacrificed himself for a principle or an ideal; for his family or for his nation. His instinct for self-preservation has been altered by his determination to place the object of his love above himself. This is the triumph of man.”

The original audio from the 1964/65 New York World’s Fair Travelers Insurance Pavilion (TIP). Spaceship Earth definitely has TIP vibes which makes sense since Walt Disney had a significant footprint at the New York World’s Fair. The script¹ was written by Robert P. Davis and narrated by Peter Thomas. The score was written by Frank Ledlie Moore and performed by The Hartford Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Fritz Mahler. The press release for the pavilion score was quite smart, and souvenir album is a good example of total design. The audio was sourced from the original 33 1/3 RPM vinyl.

Part 1

Part 2

“The story of man’s progress from his early beginnings to our own age is a long, complicated story and anyone might wonder how it could possibly be encompassed in the 13 scenes that make up The Travelers Exhibit at the New York World’s Fair “The Triumph of Man.” The answer is that it is not meant to display the complete story; no single exhibit of this kind could do that. It is rather a carefully chosen series of scenes or episodes that illustrate significant achievements and triumphs in man’s struggle to understand himself and the world about him and to solve the problems that have at times threatened to destroy what he had accomplished.”

Scan is from The Triumph of Man as presented at the New York World’s Fair, 1964-1965, by The Travelers Insurance Companies.

¹ I can’t imagine a script like this being approved today.

“But another great endowment emerges from these years as the apostles travel the Mediterranean, bringing a new message to man… It is a message of hope, of a power stronger than weapons… of wealth more lasting than the coins of Caesar.”

Related

(1) Robert F. Lord (Hartford Courant)

(2) The Apostle does indeed suffer… (Matthew 10:16-23)