You can find many interesting artifacts in the library but it’s pretty rare that you’ll find a ticket to the 1964 New York World’s Fair…

That’s exactly what a student found at the Blommer Science Library at Georgetown University today…

Unearthed after some old shelving had been removed, a student came upon a tiny little scrap of paper no larger than a small postage stamp. It turned out to be a stub that granted admittance to the Belgian Village in which the attendee paid a tidy sum of $1.25 for back in the day (almost $10 today). More interesting to note is that the Blommer Science Library opened in September of 1962 – so this little ticket stub likely sat in the library, lost to history until today, for nearly 50 years! (You’d be hard pressed to find anything that has been in the library that long – including books). It’s rarity is unknown, but I couldn’t find a single image of the ticket stub online, so this might be a worldwide web first!

The Belgian Village apparently spearheaded the stateside popularity of Belgian waffles. It was also the largest international exhibit at the fair, according to fair expert Bill Young. From the looks of the pictures on his site, you could literally get lost in a fantasy Belgium. While World’s Fairs (or Expos) are still kicking around (South Korea hosted the last one, and it looked pretty impressive), they don’t seem to have the same appeal of the now legendary fairs of years past. For now, Disney’s Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida may bear the closest resemblance to these old fairs (at a much steeper cost). Hey, if you can’t afford the trip, you can always go scrounging around for old ticket stubs to list on ebay…