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Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

1929

  • Work on this object began.

2021

2025

  • You found it!

Poster, International Aero Exhibition

This is a Poster. It was designed by E. McKnight Kauffer and made for (as the client) Shell-Mex and BP Ltd..

This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It was able to spend time at the museum on loan from Merrill Berman as part of Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer.

It is dated 1929. Its medium is lithograph. It is a part of the department.


These two designs were made for display on the sides of moving trucks. Kauffer depicted Shell-Mex’s associations with energy and speed: a biplane flying through blocks of color and a sports car speeding along a looping track of lines and letters. The skilled quality of the lettering on the Aeroshell poster may reveal one of the first design contributions from Sidney Garrad, Kauffer’s newly hired studio assistant.

It is credited Collection of Merrill C. Berman.

Its dimensions are

76.2 × 114 cm (30 in. × 44 7/8 in.)

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/2318805140/ |title=Poster, International Aero Exhibition |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=11 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>