The Donald G. Larson Collection on International Expositions and Fairs
My love for world's fairs began in the summer of 1940 when my parents took my twin brother Phil and me, at the impressionable age of seven, to the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island in San Francisco. The Pacific Rim was the theme of the fair and it celebrated the building of the Oakland-Bay and Golden Gate bridges. This experience shaped my life, providing me with a life-long hobby and a love for history resulting in a 45-year teaching career. We traveled from Kerman, a tiny town in rural central California, to San Francisco to see the fair. We had been born in San Francisco but we moved to the San Joaquin Valley in 1935 when my father could not find work in the Bay Area because of the Depression. This was our first trip back to "The City", as San Francisco is often referred to in California, to visit Aunt Grace and see the fair.