American futurism of the 1970s is a fascinating admixture of sleek Jetsonian utopianism and dreary mushroom-shaped cloud cloud hellscapes . Nowhere is this dichotomy of tomorrowism more evident than in children ’s drawings of the future .
I ’ve always found that some of the most interesting predictions come from tyke , who be given to express ideas that reflect both the secure and worst of any decade ’s futurism . The seventies was a rather contentious time in the United States . The land saw a tremendous release of manufacturing occupation and a penetrating spike heel in crime , but the synodic month landing place of 1969 was still fresh in the public ’s thinker — even if the last person to specify foot on the moon was in 1973 . Kids were observe re - runs of The Jetsons ( which only lasted one season in 1962 - 63 ) but the Vietnam War was still being hotly contend until the withdrawal of American forces in 1975 . There was little trust in government , with President Nixon ’s resignation in 1974 , and the res publica of the environment was of growing concern .
The year 1976 marked America ’s Bicentennial . As celebration were planned across the country , it became a clip of reflection for rattled Americans who wanted to be promising about the future of the nation .
The American rock oil companyARCO(Atlantic Richfield Company ) celebrated the Bicentennial in a odd way , by soliciting and publishing the idea of average Americans about what the United States would front like in the yr 2076 — it ’s Tricentennial . I foundThe Tricentennial Report , which was published in 1977 , gather forth in the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee ’s library . The book explain in its innovation :
The drawings by small fry are , of course , a high spot of the book .
The Tricentennial Program receive hundreds of letters and lottery from schoolchildren throughout the United States . Here are a few examples , charter in the main from Dr. Harriet Eisenberg ’s classes at John F. Kennedy High School in New York .
This draught , by high schooler Eduardo del Villas , features soar rockets and a jetpack cowcatcher shouting the taunt , “ I ’m get going to get you now you dumb bird ! ”
This drafting by Joanne Connaire seems to show small fry of the populace join helping hand in 2076 , with their faces blur , quite mayhap wearing masks to protect themselves from whatever chocolate-brown peck ( air pollution ? ) is behind them .
High schooler Robert Berman take a stab at politics in the twelvemonth 2076 , with a robot campaigning to be chairperson of the United States .
Tina Kambitsis create two drawings : one of the entire reality being destroyed in a blood-red mushroom cloud cloud , the other a brand Modern Garden of Eden in the year 2076 , with a chick remarking , “ Uh - oh , here we go again . ”
This vision of the far future , sop up by an unnamed fourth grader in Mary Ellen Caesar ’s class at Sacred Heart School in Massachusetts , may be the most telling of the illustrations . The child imagines a return to the land in a way of life that seems to be more harmonious , a romanticization of the people in 1776 who were render as trading with the Indians and living a simple life story . The food crisis was on everyone ’s mind in the 1970s , so the baby imagined that this would encourage citizenry of the future to have their own farms and gardens .
1776 — These multitude were colonists . They traded with the Indians . They be in wooden household .
2076 — In 2076 because of the food shortage many people have small farm and garden .
And John F. Kennedy High School educatee Michael Urena attract what seems to be a commercial spaceliner , called The Friendly Bug , traveling to the lunar month .
This postal service earlier appear atSmithsonian.com .
1970sDrawingsGardens
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