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Bon Voyage!

Posters of the Golden Age of Travel

1900 – 1940

Railroads, ocean liners, and airplanes were among the technological marvels of the early 20th century that made pleasure travel feasible and luxurious. This newfound freedom to explore the world sparked a Golden Age of Travel that would last - despite a Great War and a Depression - until the outbreak of World War II.

In the 1890's the Grand Tour of the upper class gave way to a more widespread age of tourism, and around 1900 the rail networks in most of Europe and North America were nearing completion; at the same time, ocean travel became faster and more comfortable.

By the Roaring Twenties, tourism was a big business, with governments competing for prestige and currency through luxurious and technologically advanced ocean liners. Then came the arrival of the Normandie in 1935, which signaled the apex of this golden age. The glory of this marvelous ship was short-lived as a deepening global depression and rising international tensions brought the end to this carefree and relaxed world.

After World War II, a new era began in tourism with the advent of widespread intercontinental air travel. Travel posters continue to grow in popularity with their increased emphasis on humor and photography.

Travel posters have undergone a remarkable transformation in poster design. In their earliest days, travel posters were a jumble of images and text, overly crowded and informational. By the early 1900s, d’Alesi in France, Cardinaux in Switzerland, and Hohenstein in Italy simplified the travel poster to a single illustration, fewer details, and often dramatic power. By the 1920s, the genius of A. M. Cassandre, his pupil Fix-Masseau, Tom Purvis and Frank Newbould in Britain, and others artists transformed the travel poster from illustration to symbol.