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

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


    $49.95

    • Format: Hardcover
    • 122 pages
    • Publisher: Indiana University Press
    • Published: October 2002
    • ISBN-10: 0253341523
    • ISBN-13: 9780253341525

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    Description
    Between 1870 and 1950, America's railroads produced a body of poster worksignificant both for the artists involved and for the range of images created. Therailroads used this visual medium from their founding, first in the form ofbroadsides, dominated by text and intended to convey practical information, andthen, during the 1890s, as vivid lithographed display posters. For the next 50years, American railroads commissioned posters designed to spur the popularimagination and thereby encourage travel. Images of compelling intensity includedMaurice Logan's icons of the 1920s overland limiteds passing in the West; AdolphTreidler's wonder cities; Santa Fe's Native Americans; and Leslie Ragan's and SaschaMaurer's machine-age steamliners.
    Although a great deal hasbeen written about European railway and travel posters, their American counterpartsremained in the shadows. Travel by Train focuses on the artists, railroad men, andadvertising agencies that created and produced the work. It presents the posters inthe context of the historical trends and competitive strategies that shaped thedevelopment of the railroad industry. The book also follows the development of theadvertising business and graphic design in the U.S. and Europe. It featuresapproximately 160 poster images (many in color), personal photographs, and sketches, many of them never before published.
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