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Around the World with the Library of Congress Poster Collection: An Overview of Travel PostersPrints and Photographs Division Introduction
A successful poster grabs your attention and gets its message across quickly. Great travel posters attract the eye in a variety of ways: by highlighting points of interest, depicting the conveyance used to reach a location, or by featuring activities available at the destination. The thousands of travel posters in the Prints and Photographs Division support the study of tourism and transportation as well as advertising and graphic design techniques. Viewing the posters also offers the pleasure of vicarious trips around the world. Most of the posters date from the golden age of the travel poster, which began in the 1920’s and was over by the 1960’s when photographic imagery began to be used more than graphically designed images. Railroad companies, airlines, and government tourist agencies commissioned the production of many of the posters, which came to the Library of Congress by a variety of means, including gift, purchase, and transfer from other institutions. This reference aid highlights some gems and explains how to find more travel posters. Links to larger versions of the posters are provided whenever possible, but because of rights considerations, some of the posters can only be shown in "thumbnail" size outside Library of Congress buildings. Larger digital images of the posters can be viewed inside Library of Congress buildings, and researchers who visit the Prints and Photographs Reading Room can request to see originals. For information on viewing originals and obtaining copies, see our Information for Researchers page. Samples from the CollectionsTravel by Land
Traveling the London UndergroundMuch has been written about the posters created for the London Underground--landmarks in more ways than one. The Prints and Photographs Division has an impressive number of these posters.
Travel by Sea
Travel by Air
DestinationsTravel posters routinely illustrate a specific destination--a tourist hot spot not to be missed. The accuracy of the imagery is often remarkable.
WhimsicalPosters also get their message across in light-hearted ways. They don’t take themselves too seriously but still manage to do their job and sell their locations.
SeasonalWhen posters cater to the seasonal traveler, common themes include the winter sports potential of their sponsors as well as summer destinations.
CartographicMaplike images often appear on travel posters. Most of these posters illustrate the routes travelled by particular transit companies.
Work Projects AdministrationThe Prints & Photographs Division has more than 900 WPA posters that deal with a variety of subjects [view an overview]. Various WPA poster divisions produced posters to stimulate travel in the United States.
Finding More Travel Posters in Prints and Photographs Division CollectionsSearching for the phrase travel posters [view search results] is the primary means of finding this type of image. The search results include posters that have been digitized and those that have been described but not digitized, where a visit may be needed to view the materials. Information on viewing materials in the reading room is available in our Information for Researchers page. Additional travel posters may also be found by using card indexes in the reading room, searching by the "promotional goal" category for "transportation & travel," category "E." Related ResourcesSelect BibliographyAnthony, Scott, and Oliver Green. British Aviation Posters: Art, Design and Flight. Farnham: Lund Humphries, 2012. Call number: Not in LC Bownes, David, Oliver Green, and Jonathan Black. London Transport Posters: A Century of Art and Design. Aldershot: Lund Humphries, 2008. Call number: NC1849.R34 L66 2008 Cadringher, Gabriele, and Anne Massey. Schiffsplakate, 1873-1962. München: Hirmer, 2009. Call number:NC1878.S4 C33 2009 Choko, Marc H., and David L. Jones. Posters of the Canadian Pacific. Richmond Hill, Ont: Firefly Books, 2004. Call number: NC1849.T68 C49 2004 Cohen, Ronald D., and Stephen G. McShane. Moonlight in Duneland: The Illustrated Story of the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998. Call number: HE2791.C6849 M66 1998 fol. Cole, Beverley, and Richard Durack. Railway Posters: 1923-1947: From the Collection of the National Railway Museum, York, England. New York: Rizzoli, 1992.Call number: NC1849.R34 C65 1992 Edelstein, T. J. Art for All: British Posters for Transport. New Haven: Yale Center for British Art in association with Yale University Press, 2010. Call number: NC1849.T7 A78 2010 Green, Oliver. Art for the London Underground: London Transport Posters 1908 to the Present. New York: Rizzoli, 1990. Call number: NC1807.G7 A77 1990 [P&P - Posters] Ottaviani, Lorenzo. Travel Italia: the Golden Age of Italian Travel Posters: Posters from the Collection Alessandro Bellenda, Alassio, Italy. New York: Abrams, 2007. Call number: NC1849.T68 O88 2007 Szurovy, Geza. The Art of the Airways. St. Paul: MBI Pub. Co., 2002. Call number: NC1849.A35 S98 2002 Thomas, W. Donald. Airline Artistry: Vintage Posters & Publicity. Dunedin, Fla: W.D. Thomas, 1992. Call number: NC1849.A35 T56 1992 Travel Poster Collections Featured on the WebBoston Public Library British Airways Poster Gallery Follow the Sun: Australian Travel Posters 1930s – 1950s (National Library of Australia exhibition) The National Air and Space Museum Poster Collection, Smithsonian Institution National Railway Museum (U.K.) London Transport Museum Compiled by: Jan Grenci, Reference Specialist, March 2014. |
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