En L’An 2000 : In The Year 2000

Aerial Fireman

Imagine a future where flight is commonplace, and the skies are full of flying people, including police officers, fire fighters, postman, and countless others, zipping around above our heads. That’s what a group of artists led by Jean-Marc Côté dreamed up in 1899 when asked to imagine light-hearted inventions that would contribute to the future. The result was a series of nearly 90 vignettes called En L’An 2000, which means In the Year 2000. The pieces were originally printed as cigarette cards, and later made into postcards. They include a variety of subjects, with a distinct focus on flight and flying machines.

I’ve included some of the more intriguing examples here, and at the bottom of this post I’ve included the entire group that deal with flight in some way. It’s clear the artists were interested in flight, and they no doubt believed humans would make flying commonplace in their vision for the future. Most of the ideas make sense and are somewhat practical in theory, but the actual means of flight leave much to be desired. In most cases, a pair of wings attached to a backpack-like contraption suffices. This makes sense from an artist’s perspective, but the realities of flight make these designs nearly impossible to achieve. That being said, reality isn’t the goal here, to be fair, and taken as a group the pieces form an amazing range of imagination and vision.

In Pursuit of a Smuggler

Aviation Police

The Rural Postman

The Little Eagle Nest Robbers.

Hunting By Air

Lawn Tennis

Advance Sentinel in a Helicopter

Aero-Cab Station

The Stirrup Cup

A Torpedo Plane

Flight and aviation were becoming popular subjects at the turn of the 20th century, which no doubt had a great influence on the public’s vision for the future. En L’An 2000 reflects this, and the artists clearly believed in a future where flight would become commonplace, and humanity would take full advantage of the skies. This turned out to be true, it’s just not happening as quick as the artists imagined it would. Air travel is commonplace, but individual flight has proven to be much more complex than the vignettes suggest.

My personal favorites are the ones that take the most liberty with practicality and flight. In particular, the Stirrup Cup is great, because it assumes the plane could be flying slow enough to grab a drink on its way past a restaurant. The Hunters are also great, because they’d be making such a ruckus with their flying machines that they’d scare away all the game long before they could shoot them. Lastly, I can’t imagine a world where children would be employed to rob the nests of eagles, but I guess that’s beside the point. After all, if a tennis ball can be unaffected by back-mounted propellers blasting air all around it, why not have an eagle omelette on the menu at your local diner?

This isn’t to say these ideas can’t happen, but in reality they’d look much different. Still, this doesn’t take away from the artists’ optimistic vision for the future, which is the perfect blend of whimsey, practicality, and fun that these pieces suggest.

Check out other visions for the future here.