Pan American/Bermuda
Designer
Edward McKnight Kauffer
United States, 1890 - 1954
Datec. 1950
MediumColor Lithograph
Dimensions41 x 28 1/2 in. (104.1 x 72.4 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LineGift of Judith Selkowitz
Object numberPH.9238
DescriptionThe American-born E. McKnight Kauffer spent much of his early career in England from 1914, designing book covers and illustrations, theater designs and costumes, film titles and rugs, as well as the posters for which he became famous. Among them were numerous posters for London Transport, Shell-Mex, B.P. Ltd., and the Great Western Railway, in which he introduced a radical, modernist design language to a British public that typically favored more traditional, figurative styles. In 1940, after the outbreak of war, “the poster king” settled in New York, designing graphics for federal war-relief agencies. After the war, until his death in 1954, McKnight Kauffer created numerous rather more tame posters for both American Airlines and Pan American, most, like this one for Bermuda, with cheerful, pictorial compositions describing the destinations on the airlines’ routes. On View
Not on view
