On this day in 1967, Montreal was getting ready to open its doors to the world.
The dream that was Expo 67 had finally come to fruition.
“It was an achievable dream, a utopic dream,” said Suzanne Sauvage, CEO of the McCord Museum.
Now, to mark Expo 67’s 50th anniversary, the Stewart Museum on Île-Sainte-Hélène is offering a chance to relive the event.
WATCH: Place des Arts celebrates 50th anniversary of Expo 67.
The temporary exhibition strives to present Expo 67 under a new light, with never-before-seen archives and items from private collections.
Bruno Paul Stenson attended Expo 67 as a five-year-old and remembers the awe surrounding the event. Today, he owns one of the largest collections of Expo 67 memorabilia and has loaned parts of it to the museum hoping to carry on the legacy.
“We often hear people speaking of Expo having put Montreal on the map,” Stenson said. “Montreal was already on the map. What Expo did was put the map on Montreal. It made Montrealers, and Quebecers in a more general sense, discover the rest of the world.”
The exhibition remains true to its time, with cubic installations, retro hairdos and cold war paraphernalia.
Through artifacts and projections, the museum provides a unique multimedia experience: Dow beer bottle caps depicting the various pavilions, a manuscript by Quebec author Gabrielle Roy, and a virtual reality experience taking visitors back to Expo 67’s popular labyrinth attraction.
“It’s very inspirational for Montrealers I think to see what we have achieved in 67 and what we can still achieve today,” Sauvage said.
The temporary exhibition, called Expo 67: A World of Dreams, will run until October 8th, 2017.