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Object Timeline
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1943 |
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1953 |
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1963 |
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2012 |
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Poster, American Airlines to New York
This is a Poster. It was designed by E. McKnight Kauffer and made for (as the client) American Airlines. It is dated 1948 and we acquired it in 1963. Its medium is lithograph. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.
American-born E. McKnight Kauffer traveled to England in the mid-1910s, where he settled and became a successful commercial artist. His work elevated poster design to that of a fine art, using sophisticated styles and techniques in celebrated designs for a range of clients, including London Transport. In 1940, at the outbreak of World War II, he moved to New York, where he found work designing for corporate clients and war relief agencies. Between 1946 and 1953, he produced over thirty posters for American Airlines, most of which are represented in the Cooper Hewitt collection. Travel posters should convey "the character of places, the manners and differences of people, architectural interests and amusements," Kauffer wrote. He often focused on the places and their people, rather than the travel itself, as shown in this poster. The street view of a soaring New York skyscraper with its geometric lines and minimal color palette is typical of Kauffer’s work of this period.
This object was featured in our Object of the Week series in a post titled Getting There is Half the Fun.
This object was
donated by
Kristina Parsons and Mrs. Edward McKnight Kauffer.
It is credited Gift of Mrs. E. McKnight Kauffer.
- Textile, Big City
- cotton.
- Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund.
- 2007-5-2
- Drawing, Study for Maximum Mass Permitted by the 1916 New York Zoning Law,...
- black crayon, stumped; brush and black ink over photostat, varnish on....
- Gift of Mrs. Hugh Ferriss.
- 1969-137-2
- Drawing, Two Skyscrapers, with Additional Elevation and Plan Views
- pen and black, red ink; brush and dark gray wash, graphite on illustration board.
- Gift of Mrs. Hugh Ferriss.
- 1964-5-6
Our curators have highlighted 14 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:
- Poster, American Airlines to Chicago
- offset lithograph on paper, lined.
- Gift of Mrs. E. McKnight Kauffer.
- 1963-39-135
- Poster, All Europe
- offset lithograph on paper, lined.
- Gift of Mrs. E. McKnight Kauffer.
- 1963-39-143
- Sidewall, The Lindbergh
- machine printed with engraved rollers.
- Gift of Grace Lincoln Temple.
- 1938-62-54
Its dimensions are
101.6 × 76.2 cm (40 × 30 in.)
It is signed
Printed in script in blue ink, lower right: E. McKnight Kauffer,
It is inscribed
Printed in black ink, lower left: LITHOGRAPHED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Cite this object as
Poster, American Airlines to New York; Designed by Edward McKnight Kauffer (American, active England, 1890–1954); Client: American Airlines (United States); USA; lithograph; 101.6 × 76.2 cm (40 × 30 in.); Gift of Mrs. E. McKnight Kauffer; 1963-39-139
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibitions Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer and Making Design.
