Vintage Travel Posters

Vintage Airline Posters Take Off During Lockdown

There’s nothing like being unable to travel to make one long for it. Since the worldwide pandemic lockdowns began in 2020, many people had to adapt from taking vacations to dreaming about vacations. There’s been an explosion in home decoration to get offices set up for Zoom meetings, bedrooms set up for online school, and living rooms as a centre of recreation and entertainment. We have seen a massive uptick in interest in original, collectible vintage travel posters, which satisfy our need for happy, healthy homes.

These sometimes rare, and always collectable posters, which were feasts for the eyes, were produced to advertise international travel in the last 100 years. Sleek ocean liners in the Art Deco style with deep turquoise waters, to vividly imagined destinations like Paris, Rome, Las Vegas, New York and more. Some were designed by famous artists and some commercial artists became famous from their work as travel poster designers.

Many posters are ads for long defunct airlines; Howard Hughes’ Trans World Airlines (TWA) and Pan American among them, bringing back romantic memories of the golden age of travel. A reminder of the bygone era when travelers dressed up, had meals on real dishes and could comfortably sit without the head of the person in front of them in their lap.

Click to buy this TWA Hong Kong travel poster by David Klein

TWA New York Times Square vintage travel poster by David Klein

Although prices have increased recently since this trend to decorating with original vintage posters has exploded, Ms. Petruk cautions against buying them as investments. “There are trends in poster genres and no one can really predict how much the value of your poster will increase over time. But if you can pick up a poster where the image really resonates with you, and you love the colors or the lines or the spirit of the poster, you will always enjoy it as artwork, and if it happens to increase in value, so much the better.”

Click to buy this Air France Rome vintage travel poster