Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future

Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future toured Washington State in 2004-2005. Yesterday's Tomorrows offers a unique history of popular expectations and beliefs about the shape of things to come. It examines ways that Americans of yesteryear have envisioned our collective future.

Humanities Washington toured the exhibit to twelve small and rural museums in Washington State in
2004-2005, drawing over 319,000 admissions. The itinerary for the tour was as follows:

March 20 - May 1, 2004	Columbia River Exhibition of History, Science and Technology (CREHST), Richland
May 8 - June 19, 2004	Moses Lake Museum of Arts and Culture, Moses Lake
June 26 - Aug. 7, 2004	Shoreline Historical Museum, Shoreline
Aug. 14 - Sept. 25, 2004	Polson Museum, Hoquiam
October 2 - Nov. 13, 2004	Cowlitz County Museum, Kelso
Jan. 8 - Feb. 19, 2005	Gig Harbor Historical Museum, Gig Harbor
Feb. 26 - April 9, 2005	Dayton Historical Depot Museum, Dayton
April 16 - May 28, 2005	Kittitas County Historical Museum, Ellensburg
June 4 - July 16, 2005	Yakima Valley Museum, Yakima
July 23 - Sept. 3, 2005	San Juan County Historical Museum, Friday Harbor
Sept. 10 - Oct. 15, 2005	Upper Valley Museum, Leavenworth
Oct. 22 - Dec. 31, 2005	Snohomish County Museum, Everett

Yesterday's Tomorrows is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and the Federation of State Humanities Councils. Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and The Hearst Foundation.

Humanities Washington wishes to thank Hugh and Jane Ferguson Foundation, Zymogenetics, Battelle, and John McClelland for their generous support of the Yesterday's Tomorrows tour in Washington.
Humanities Washington also wishes to thank the Boeing Company for their specific support of the Yesterday's Tomorrows exhibition at the Snohomish County Museum, Everett.

Finding the Future The future exists only in our imaginations. But, during the twentieth century, Americans have expressed their imaginings about the future in books, movies, magazines, television, radio, toys and advertising. The future presented in these media ranges from cheerful utopias of technological wizardry to dark visions of societal dysfunction.

Home of Tomorrow During the nineteenth century, Americans thought that proper housing was essential to the future social and moral health of their families. But ideas about the home evolved: the home became a "machine for living," and modern architecture, mass production and increased automation within the home took precedence over real human and societal needs. Home designs continued to reflect contemporary beliefs about family life, gender roles and social relations. Many of today's home designs show exteriors that hearken back to the past with interiors replete with the latest gadgets.

Community of Tomorrow "Ideal" American communities envisioned in the early twentieth century reflected hopes, excitement and fears about the reality of an increasingly urban society. Strategies for future communities were marked by a series of contradictions: communitarianism v. individualism, image v. social reality, utopia v. urban chaos. Today, planned communities where work, leisure and domestic life can be harmoniously integrated echo the communitarian utopias of the nineteenth century.

Transportation of Tomorrow Futuristic vehicles are uniquely American ways of imagining tomorrow, reflecting Americans' faith in progress and technology. Before the 1920's, mass transit systems dominated Americans' visualizations of tomorrow's transportation. But the automobile became the dominant mode of transportation and so was the focus of designers' and planners' futuristic visions.