![An offset lithograph on paper poster encouraging travel to Europe with American Airlines. A stylised eagle dominates the poster, composed of two flat geometric triangular planes with circular edges for their top right corners, one pale blue forms the wings, the other navy forms the body, with five small alternating white and blue stars diagonally along the eagle's back and three pale blue dashes suggesting feathers at the top of the eagle's head. The eagle is shown in profile facing right and has a navy beak protruding to the right, and an eye formed from a pale blue semi-circlular eyelid and a white semi-circular eye. The outline of a right facing arrow is drawn in white from the bottom edge of the wing onto the eagle's body, and a pulsing white line can be found on the bird's body under the stars. Capitalised text in red and white printed on a right facing diagonal from the top left corner says [AMERICAN AIRLINES], followed by blue, capitalised italicised text underneath the bird which says [TO / EUROPE]. The American Airlines logo is superimposed on a blue stripe at the bottom center, formed from two red capital letter As with the white outline of a bird of prey between them with its wings stretched upwards, surrounded by five small white stars. The poster is signed in white and blue ink [E. McKnight Kauffer] in the lower left, in the corner of the eagle's tail and along its bottom edge.]( https://images.collection.cooperhewitt.org/65119_0389eb3402775124_b.jpg
"Poster, American Airlines to Europe, 1948")
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Object Timeline
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1948 |
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1963 |
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Poster, American Airlines to Europe, 1948
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.
In the late 1940s, Kauffer and Bernard Waldman set out west on research trips for a series of American Airlines posters. These adventures resulted in one of the most successful campaigns of Kauffer’s career. The subject of flight had long brought out the best in Kauffer. A painting of Flight, the iconic poster that had kick-started his career, hung in his studio until his death. As the writer Arnold Bennett had described him years before, Kauffer was “as a bird, forever in flight, forever searching for a place to come to rest.”
This object was
donated by
Mrs. Edward McKnight Kauffer.
It is credited Gift of Mrs. E. McKnight Kauffer.
- Poster, The Invisible City
- offset lithograph on white wove paper.
- Gift of Chermayeff and Geismar Associates.
- 1981-29-59
- Poster, American Airlines to New York
- lithograph.
- Gift of Mrs. E. McKnight Kauffer.
- 1963-39-139
Its dimensions are
101.6 × 76.2 cm (40 × 30 in.)
It is signed
Printed in script in white and blue ink, lower left (on bird): E. McKnight Kauffer,
Cite this object as
Poster, American Airlines to Europe, 1948; 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; 1963-39-138
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer.
