500 ANNUAL REPOKT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1939 



by artists to signify a scenic background combined with a modeled 

 foreground. The thread of the historical narrative may be traced 

 through the following text wherein the plate numbers in parentheses 

 refer to the pictures of the dioramas arranged in chronological order 

 at the conclusion of this article. 



This series of 35 historical dioramas, arranged to be viewed progres- 

 sively with the aid of an elaborate mechanism combined with mirrors, 

 and described by a well-modulated sound record, was displayed first 

 at the Golden Gate Exposition in San Francisco, Calif., in 1939. In 

 the same year a three-color motion picture of the dioramas was shown 

 at the New York World's Fair. 



THE HISTORICAL NARRATIVE ILLUSTRATED BY THE DIORAMAS 



The story of the development of transportation in Colonial Amer- 

 ica and the United States during the past four centuries is a moving 

 word picture which flashes upon our mental screens successive images 

 illustrative of our thoroughfares as they grew from the status of 

 primitive wild-animal and Indian trails into the present high-speed 

 highways suitable for motor vehicles. This historical narrative 

 covers a period during which European civilization marched west- 

 ward from the Atlantic coast line to the shores of the Pacific Ocean 

 and along the way overcame mountain, desert, and forest barriers. 

 In the wake of this extensive and intensive pioneer movement there 

 arose great industrial cities to supplant the earlier scattered log- 

 cabin settlements. 



The story begins with North America in the condition of a vast 

 wilderness inhabited only by the Indian aborigines, annuals, birds, 

 and fishes. Spain was the towering world power of the time, and 

 her explorers were seeking to extend the empire to the ends of the 

 earth. Christopher Columbus had sailed a due west course toward 

 the fabulous wealth of the Indies and had stumbled upon an un- 

 known land which later became known as America. 



Throughout this so-called New World the horse species had been 

 extinct since prehistoric times. Only fossil remains bore witness to 

 their previous existence. The cause for the disappearance of the 

 equestrian animals defies identification and may remain always a 

 mystery. However, a number of hypotheses have been advanced. 

 Perhaps there occurred some sudden change in climate such as a 

 prolonged drought. The lives of the new-born foals might have 

 been destroyed by vicious insect pests. The steady pressure of the 

 increasing population of other animal species may have made life 

 less tenable. Death from widespread disease is another theory that 

 has been suggested. Whatever may be the true inwardness of the 

 nature of the cause which brought about the disappearance of the 



