Round medal made out of silver-plated brass. Sections of the outer edges of the medal are embossed with text. “TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF” on the upper-right section and “MOTOR TRANSPORTATION” on its lower-left. At the center is an embossed rendering of a stylized car with vertical wings. At the bottom of this symbol is the text “NORMAN BEL GEDDES © 1933”

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Object Timeline

	We acquired this object.
1933	Work on this object began.
2015	We photographed this object. We photographed this object.
2017	We exhibited this object.
2024	You found it!

Object ID #404536647

This is a Medal. It was designed by Norman Bel Geddes and modeled by René Paul Chambellan and manufactured by Medallic Art Company. It is dated 1933. Its medium is silver-plated brass. It is a part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department.

At the 1933 Chicago world’s fair, General Motors championed the automotive industry’s strength and advancement by setting up an actual assembly line in GM’s Hall of Progress pavilion. Designed by Norman Bel Geddes, this medal commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the company was available at the fair.

This object was donated by George R. Kravis II. It is credited Gift of George R. Kravis II.

Vehicle Control Knob (USA)
chrome, plastic.
Gift of Henry Dreyfuss.
1972-88-130-7

Medal (USA)
aluminum.
1956-38-5

Medal
iron.
Museum purchase through gift of Henry Frederick William Rave.
1955-128-2

Our curators have highlighted 4 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:

A double-page spread of a booklet with a band of text along the top, below which are black and white industrial photographs of a diorama of a futuristic city viewed from an expansive, aerial perspective. The photographs appear grey-scale with sepia undertones. The fictional landscape in the photograph on the left is centered on a park with a wide, meandering river running through it, viewed diagonally, growing smaller from the bottom left corner upwards. Above the park, in the far distance, the topography of a city is seen in a cluster of skyscrapers and other buildings. Thoroughfares, bridges, and street lanes are visible but not rendered in fine detail. The right photograph appears to be the cityscape found in the background of the left photograph, but rendered in more detail. It illustrates a number of skyscrapers interspersed with low-rise built structures, surrounding a geometric, rectangular park, perhaps Central Park. On either side of the skyscrapers the land appears largely flat, but built on, perhaps with residential housing, interspersed with a few areas of foliage and idle land. The text above the left photograph states [“Through an ingenious system of traffic flow and direction from the various converging roadways, and by means of the ascending and descending ramps, a four-tier approach to the great bridge is formed. There is no interference or cutting in of traffic lanes. Cars may be driven on and off the bridge without risk of collision and with speeds maintained. / “And directly ahead we again see the river city with its four-tier bridge approach. But now we near the great metropolis of 1960. We will bank high over the city for a spectacular view of its many wonders. / “In 1940 this American city actually existed. Its population then was approximately a million per-sons. Today--in 1960--it is much larger, divided]. It continues on the right page [into three units, residential, commercial and industrial. Nine miles out from the city is a vast airport. /'Here is an American city replanned around a highly developed modern traffic system and, even though this is 1960, the system as yet is not complete. Whenever possible the rights of way of these express city thoroughfares have been so routed as to displace outmoded business sections and undesirable slum areas. / “The city of 1960 has abundant sunshine, fresh air, fine green parkways, recreational and civic centers -- all the result of thoughtful planning and design. There are approximately 38,000,000 motorcars in this America of 1960 -- almost a third more than in]. The text is surrounded by a red lined border above and below it on both pages.

Book, Futurama, 1939
offset lithograph on paper.
Smithsonian Libraries, T785 K1G32 1939.
113.2018.2

Chanin Building Pair Of Gates
wrought iron, bronze.
Gift of Marcy Chanin.
1993-135-1,2

A grayscale digital print of a design fiction captured in an expansive aerial view on an angle. The fictional landscape shows a meandering river with two developed land masses on both sides connected by four bridges and supported by roadways throughout. The layout of the land right of the river shows a cluster of skyscrapers and tall buildings near the riverside and inland and low rise built structures in between and around the cities. The land is mostly flat on both sides of the river. The topography of the left side includes two water conduits; one borders an enormous flat circular structure that dominates the space with upper case letters “U S N - 10” facing an outline of a circle in the center with clusters of aligned and evenly spaced low-rise built structures. The second conduit nears a roadway that extends to the rim of the circular structure. Small surface areas on the left side are devoted to clusters of vehicles. Continuing left are thickets of foliage and idle land. One’s imagination explores possibilities of usage of the circular built structure and grand land masses that resemble glaciers and/or mountains displayed in the top section of the image forming a background.

Design Fictions
digital print.
New York World’s Fair, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York....
MOBILITY.038

Its dimensions are

H x diam.: ? x 7.6 cm (3 in.)

It has the following markings

On obverse, molded into design: norman bel geddes ©1933,” obverse, molded into design On edge: medallic art co.n.y.

Cite this object as

Object ID #404536647; Designed by Norman Bel Geddes (American, 1893–1958); Modeled by René Paul Chambellan (American, 1893–1955); Manufactured by Medallic Art Company; silver-plated brass; H x diam.: ? x 7.6 cm (3 in.); Gift of George R. Kravis II; 2018-22-27

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s.

Short URL http://cprhw.tt/o/BKmDM/
Accession Number 2018-22-27
Object ID 404536647