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Object Timeline

1915

  • Work on this object began.

1916

  • Work on this object ended.

1963

  • We acquired this object.

2013

2015

2021

2025

  • You found it!

Poster, The North Downs

This is a Poster. It was designed by E. McKnight Kauffer and printed by Johnson, Riddle & Company Ltd. and made for (as the client) Underground Electric Railways of London Company Ltd.. It is dated 1915, printed 1916 and we acquired it in 1963. Its medium is lithograph. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

Kauffer’s love of landscape was a good match for his first Underground poster commissions, which illustrated scenic destinations outside London that were reachable by public transport. For his first solo exhibition, Kauffer included the poster designs for The North Downs and Godstone alongside paintings and drawings that depicted the French and English countryside.

This object was donated by Mrs. Edward McKnight Kauffer. It is credited Gift of Mrs. E. McKnight Kauffer.

  • Poster, Reigate
  • lithograph.
  • The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the designer, 1939.
  • 95.2019.2
  •
  • Poster, Oxhey Woods
  • offset lithograph on paper, lined.
  • Gift of Mrs. E. McKnight Kauffer.
  • 1963-39-13

Our curators have highlighted 3 objects that are related to this one.

Its dimensions are

76.2 × 51.1 cm (30 in. × 20 1/8 in.)

It is signed

Monogram printed in script, in green ink, lower right: E / K / 1915 [squared]

It is inscribed

Printed in black ink, lower left: ELECTRIC RAILWAY HOUSE, BROADWAY, WESTMINSTER, S.W. No. 633-1500-1-16.; lower right: JOHNSON, RIDDLE & CO., LTD., LONDON, S.E.

Cite this object as

Poster, The North Downs; Designed by Edward McKnight Kauffer (American, active England, 1890–1954); Printed by Johnson, Riddle & Company Ltd.; Client: Underground Electric Railways of London Company Ltd.; England; lithograph; 76.2 × 51.1 cm (30 in. × 20 1/8 in.); Gift of Mrs. E. McKnight Kauffer; 1963-39-15

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer.

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18447297/ |title=Poster, The North Downs |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=12 March 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>