Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland

Park City Museum is thrilled to host the traveling exhibit of Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861-2008. Coney Island has been described as “heaven at the end of a subway ride.” The island became famous for its many amusement parks, including the first enclosed amusement park in the United States.

Adapted from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art’s flagship exhibition Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861–2008, this new traveling exhibition from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) on the Road will explore America’s playground as a place and as an idea, examining its persistent presence in the American imagination.

The exhibition brings to life the excitement of Coney Island, showing visitors how its magnetic world of attractions has become a touchstone for American mass culture and popular recreation. The exhibition is arranged chronologically, with each section titled after contemporary quotations that also communicate changing popular perceptions about Coney Island through the generations. It includes six sections that explore Coney Island’s humble beginnings, the explosion of entertainment and its imminent decline.

Throughout the exhibition, artifacts display how the modern American mass-culture industry was born at Coney Island. The exhibition investigates the rise of American leisure and traces Coney Island’s influence on amusement parks and popular culture throughout the country. Photographs, ephemera, film clips and hands-on interactive immerse visitors in the experience of Coney Island.

The exhibition is open now and will be open until May 25. For more information, click here.