Poster House is a small museum in the Chelsea section of Manhattan devoted exclusively to the culture, impact and design of posters. I visited Poster House for my first time yesterday.
A current exhibit at the museum is called Wonder City of the World: New York City Travel Posters. This is a large exhibition, featuring many posters devoted to the relationship between New York City and the development of tourism. To my delight, I found that many of the vintage posters in the collection were posters by airlines from around the world designed to encourage travel to New York City.
Many of the posters depict iconic views of New York City such as the United Nations, Times Square and the Statue of Liberty. The poster below by TWA , showing the Twin Towers in all their glory, hit me hard.
And how about this beauty featuring TWA’s Connie plane! Note: there’s a Connie Plane at the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport!
The vintage posters exemplify the relationship between airline travel and New York City over the years. You’ll recognize many of the airlines, including many airlines that sadly no longer exist, such as PanAm and TWA.
Here are some of the many wonderful vintage posters on display at Poster House!
There are also a number of vintage posters advertising travel to New York by sea.
I really enjoyed this exhibit, and I think that others who enjoy travel as much as I do will also enjoy seeing this exhibit (frequent flyers, aviation geeks, and avid travelers: I’m talking to you).
This exhibit runs through Sep 8, 2024. Poster House is located at 119 W. 23rd Street, New York, NY, and is open Thursday through Sunday.
A New York frequent flyer who elegantly combines her passions for worldwide travel, running a gazillion marathons all over the globe and staying fit ... without sacrificing her fancy for good wine and food.
Wow, that’s amazing. I’m a bit surprised that there aren’t some Pan Am posters in the mix given their huge presence in New York.
I love the National Airlines poster. That is one of the ones I want framed on my wall at home.
I loved this exhibition! Poster House is one of my favorite museums.
And admission is even free every Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 09:00 p.m.
Check out how New York, travel, and poster design changed over time.
If you cannot go, check out this link with all posters and descriptions…
https://access.posterhouse.org/exhibition/wonder-city-of-the-world-new-york-city-travel-posters/
It was my first visit to the museum, but definitely not my last!