Lunch & Learn: Our Lady of the World’s Fair

Join the NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) each month for our virtual Lunch & Learn Series – an intimate conversation with agency staff and special guests focusing on the collections of the Municipal Archives and Library, and the history of New York City.

On November 19th, join author Ruth D. Nelson for a discussion on her recent book, Our Lady of the World’s Fair.

Our Lady of the World’s Fair uncovers how New York’s most influential leaders persuaded the Vatican to allow one of the world’s greatest works of art, Michelangelo’s Pietà, to leave Europe for the first and only time.

Discover how Robert Moses and Francis Cardinal Spellman united to achieve their shared goal despite differing motives, how the World’s Fair Vatican Pavilion was designed to reflect the shifts in Catholic art ushered in by Vatican II, and how the display of the Pietà resulted in the first papal visit to the Western Hemisphere.