20th Century Travel: 100 Years Of Globe-Trotting Ads
Posted by Charisse Gallagher | Filed under Advertising, Travel
I recently ordered some summer reading, mostly filled with my usual lighthearted beach reads and memoirs. Then I remembered a magazine clipping that I had placed on my fridge a few months back—20th Century Travel: 100 Years of Globe-Trotting Ads. While not a beach read by any means (this book weighs about 10 lbs, I swear!), I couldnt wait to crack it open. I was instantly fascinated by the story of how travel has evolved over time, and by all the creative, especially the ads from the early 1900s. The artwork was beautifully done (by hand, of course) and so detailed. It put into perspective a bit how much time and effort it must have taken for just one piece of artwork, and by contrast, how easy it is for us to take or buy a photograph to use in our layout now. Truly a fascinating read and a great coffee table book that allows you to travel along with the changing times.
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Description from Amazon:
The metabolism of travel changed more in the last century than in the previous half-millennium, a stunning transformation triggered by American wanderlust. In less than 100 years, the U.S. mass-produced the automobile, invented airplanes, freeways, motels, even sent men to the Moon. Travel grew ever faster and easier. Above all, it was democratized — enabling millions to explore distant lands, or see their own more fully.
At the start of the 20th century, only people with extensive disposable income and time to spare could enjoy leisure travel. By the century’s end, journeys took hours, not days, and mass travel — especially brief air flights — became the new normal. Along the way, ocean liners broke speed records, aerodynamic trains roared down the tracks, stylish boat-plane clippers evolved into jumbo jets. Whether aboard high-speed locomotives or ships, jets or Greyhound buses — or when setting their own schedule on the open road — Americans demanded ever greater mobility and wider choice of destinations, thereby setting a new standard for travelers around the world.
A lush visual history of this national wanderlust, this volume features 400-plus print advertisements from the Jim Heimann Collection, which illustrate the evolution of leisure travel — from domestic to global, exclusive to popular, exotic to standardized — and its crucial role in American culture.
With an introduction, decade-by-decade analysis, and an illustrated timeline, this book highlights the cultural and technological developments that transformed travel from a cushioned journey of the elite into a convenient leisure pastime for the general public. 20th Century Travel takes us on a grand tour of travel’s golden age.
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