Travel by Train: The American Railroad Poster, 1870-1950

Travel by Train: The American Railroad Poster, 1870-1950
Author: Michael E. Zega, John E. Gruber
Publisher: Indiana University Press; ISBN: 0253341523
Description: Hardcover: 122 pages
ISBN: 0253341523

This lavishly illustrated history of the American railroad poster whisks us away to an era when the rails were king. These enticing advertisements to visit the cities and landmarks of the growing United States make for a truly sentimental journey--and a luscious feast for the eyes!

Between 1870 and 1950, America's railroads produced a body of poster work significant both for the artists involved and for the range of images created. The railroads used this visual medium from their founding, first in the form of broadsides, dominated by text and intended to convey practical information, and then, during the 1890s, as vivid lithographed display posters. For the next 50 years, American railroads commissioned posters designed to spur the popular imagination and thereby encourage travel. Images of compelling intensity included Maurice Logan's icons of the 1920s overland limiteds passing in the West; Adolph Treidler's wonder cities; Santa Fe's Native Americans; and Leslie Ragan's and Sascha Maurer's machine-age steamliners.

Although a great deal has been written about European railway and travel posters, their American counterparts remained in the shadows. Travel by Train focuses on the artists, railroad men, and advertising agencies that created and produced the work. It presents the posters in the context of the historical trends and competitive strategies that shaped the development of the railroad industry. The book also follows the development of the advertising business and graphic design in the U.S. and Europe. It features approximately 160 poster images (many in color), personal photographs, and sketches, many of them never before published.

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