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Free American Vintage Travel Posters

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By WordPlay


I love these vintage travel posters so much because I love to travel and I'm a big fan of vintage art. What could be better than the two combined?

These vintage posters are from all over America, although they don't represent every state. But the main tourist destinations are represented, as well as some cool "See America" posters that feature iconic American landmarks or landscapes. Airlines are also represented on some of the posters and some of them urge you to "travel by train."

The posters I love the most have artwork that is truly period-specific. I estimate these are all from the early to mid-20th Century and clearly some of the clothing, airline names or other specifics could only be from those eras. For example, the poster for the New York Municipal Airports has a reference to then-New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and the 1934 World's Fair poster makes it pretty clear when it was published. One of my favorites in the blast-from-the-past department, though, has to be the Philadelphia poster that depicts a Leave It to Beaver-like family in 50s garb, posing in front of the Liberty Bell.

But the poster I like the best is for Yosemite. I love the colors and the art style but that's not the reason it's my favorite. It's because I have a vivid Yosemite-related memory from when I was a child. My family and I were playing one of those car games that keep kids occupied while we were on vacation when I was seven or eight (although if memory serves we were driving to San Francisco, not Yosemite). I don't remember what the game was but I think it had something to do with naming a place that started with a letter that was the same as the last letter of the place named by the person before. I had seen the word "Yosemite" somewhere but had never heard anyone pronounce it. So when it was my turn, I needed a place that started with a "Y." I hemmed and hawed for a moment and then I realized that Yosemite was a good answer. I got so excited, I yelled out "YOZ-MYTE! For those outside the U.S. who aren't familiar with the pronunciation of this beautiful American national park's name, it's definitely not Yoz-myte, but rather Yo-seh-mah-tee. Of course, everyone thought that was hilarious and I didn't hear the end of it for a very long time.

These vintage posters are from Vintagerio, which has a tremendous selection of vintage art that includes much more than just travel posters. To visit them, click the ad below the posters in the right column.


Vintage Travel Posters

Click thumbnail to view full-size
Chicago vintage travel poster
Chicago vintage travel poster

Vintage Travel Posters Downloading Instructions

Choose any of the thumbnail vintage travel poster images above the large images in the right column. When you click on one of the images, it will appear larger.

IMPORTANT: Once you've chosen an image and see it larger, double-click on the larger image, which will make the best version of the art appear. Sorry for the extra step, but this will give you the highest quality art.

If you have a PC, once you've done the steps above, just right-click and save the final version of the artwork to your hard drive. If you're a Mac user, you should control-click the image until you get a pop-up menu that will give you an option to save the file.


Please click to see a clearer version
Please click to see a clearer version

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Comments

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Dink96 profile image

Dink96  says:
6 months ago

These are beautiful!! Do you have any ideas, besides these, where I could find some artwork for decoupaging on old cigar boxes for making purses? I've got some of the boxes, but have yet to make the purses. Thanks for yet another ga-ga blog!!!! Keep 'em coming!!!

WordPlay profile image

WordPlay  says:
6 months ago

Hi, Dink96. If you're looking for scads of art, click the "Click to Visit Vintagerio" link under the Vintagerio ad on this page. It's inexpensive (as low as $18) for unlimited downloads of 15,000 vintage images. There are some *really* incredible images on that site.

cym profile image

cym  says:
6 months ago

I love these little blocks with thumbnails you make and then the big image under it when you click on it. How do you do that? That looks so nice. Is that a feature from hubpages? I haven't found it yet...

alekhouse profile image

alekhouse  says:
6 months ago

Very nice. The posters are awesome.

WordPlay profile image

WordPlay  says:
6 months ago

cym: Choose the "Thumbnail" option from the pulldown menu under the heading "Display Settings" in the photo capsule. That will cause the thumbnails to display. You might also want to choose the checkbox that will allow people to see larger versions if they click on the photos.

alekhouse: Thanks for your comment. I'm glad you like the posters.

cym profile image

cym  says:
6 months ago

Thanks Wordplay, for the thumbnail explanation! I will have a look at it in my next hub.

Shay  says:
6 months ago

I am doing a display for our public library on summer travel and using the "See America" poster as the theme. Thanks for offering these terrific old posters.

WordPlay profile image

WordPlay  says:
6 months ago

Hi, Shay. These would be great for that! I'm so glad you're going to find them useful.

apeksha profile image

apeksha  says:
6 months ago

Oh! would definatly visit...

Laura Spector profile image

Laura Spector  says:
5 months ago

I use a lot of these vintage posters as inspiration for my artwork, and the travel ones are a bit harder to find. Thanks for sharing them - they're great!

WordPlay profile image

WordPlay  says:
5 months ago

Hi Laura. I'm always excited to hear about an artist using vintage art as inspiration for new works. I hope you have a great time creating art inspired by these. :-)

Erick Smart  says:
5 months ago

Have you tried printing these out? I would be interested to know how big you could print before they began to fall apart.

WordPlay profile image

WordPlay  says:
5 months ago

Hi, Erick. No I haven't tried printing them. But I would imagine you'd get good quality on most of them at least up to about 8-1/2" x 11". I don't know that for a fact though.

Dolores Monet profile image

Dolores Monet  says:
5 months ago

I just love these old posters, the style is so unique, you sure don't see 'em like that anymore. I love to stop by your hubs and check out all your cool, vintage posters, postcards and greeting cards. Thanks for sharing all the lovely old pix, Wordplay!

WordPlay profile image

WordPlay  says:
5 months ago

Thanks so much, Dolores! I'm glad you enjoy the posters and all the other art.

bbjane profile image

bbjane  says:
5 months ago

I love it... Checkout my travel hub: http://hubpages.com/hub/Top-5-places-to-visit-in-E . I hope you like it.

girly_girl09 profile image

girly_girl09  says:
4 months ago

wooohooo! thanks...I love vintage travel posters/lables/stickers/brochures!. I'll definitely be printing some of these off for some altered art projects that I love to do in my spare time.

Felicia  says:
4 months ago

Thank you so much! These are beautiful!

Miss Theory profile image

Miss Theory  says:
2 months ago

Oh, I love these! There's something not only classic about this art style, but it just "feels good". Thanks for sharing them.

WordPlay profile image

WordPlay  says:
2 months ago

You're welcome, Miss Theory. I'm so glad you get a good feeling from them!

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