AMONG THE MEMENTOS (boardgames, guidebooks, banners, souvenir plates) on display at the permanent World’s Fair exhibition at the Queens Museum in New York, there’s a small blue and white badge that reads, ‘I have seen the future.’

The pin was doled out to the five million visitors who toured the ride-like General Motors Futurama exhibit at the 1939 World’s Fair. The badge-wearers were awed by the large-scale model of free-flowing multi-lane highways with remote-controlled semi-automated vehicles – a streamlined hope for the future.