Snapshots of the Past

Pennsylvania Railroad—Washington, the City Beautiful [c. 1940] – Vintage Wall Art

Pennsylvania Railroad—Washington, the City Beautiful [c. 1940], c. 1940 — vintage poster
Pennsylvania Railroad—Washington, the City Beautiful [c. 1940], c. 1940. Vintage poster from the U.S. Capitol collection.

(Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

Step back in time with Pennsylvania Railroad—Washington, the City Beautiful [c. 1940], a vintage poster rich in period detail. It is part of the Snapshots of the Past archive, gathered over 25 years of research.

The framed print arrives ready to hang; the unframed option suits custom framing. It brings character to any room and makes a memorable gift. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past has been bringing history to the wall since 2001, for tens of thousands of customers worldwide.

Pennsylvania Railroad—Washington, the City Beautiful [c. 1940]

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Few travel posters of the period sold a city as directly as this one, which presents Washington as the "City Beautiful" and invites viewers to arrive by Pennsylvania Railroad. Grif Teller, a commercial artist known for the railroad's poster campaigns of the late 1930s and 1940s, produced the design, and the Osborne Company of Clifton, New Jersey, printed it as a color lithograph. The poster reflects a time when railroads competed with the automobile and the airplane by stressing comfort, scenery, and the pleasure of the trip itself. Its focus on the capital's monuments and broad vistas also reflects the city's long-standing effort to present itself as a showpiece of national architecture.

Created / publishedc. 1940
Mediumprint/poster, lithograph, color, 103 x 64 cm
NotesGrif Teller. Clifton, NJ: Osborne Company
Original scan2,582 × 4,182 px · prints to 9 × 14 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-226560

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