The flying Merkel ... J.P. Schantin crossing the great American desert on his flying Merkel motorcycle – Historic Print
(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)
Description
A window into the past: The flying Merkel ... J.P. Schantin crossing the great American desert on his flying Merkel motorcycle, preserved in this vintage poster. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.
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.
The flying Merkel ... J.P. Schantin crossing the great American desert on his flying Merkel motorcycle
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Few motorcycle advertisements of the 1910s put a rider in the open desert, but this color poster does just that, showing J.P. Schantin crossing the American West on his Merkel machine under a low sun. Its sunrise-and-sunset subject matter suggests the makers wanted the image to suggest endurance and open-road freedom. In the early 1910s, motorcycles were still sold as serious touring machines, and long-distance rides were a common way to prove a model's reliability to buyers. Posters like this one, issued under the Miamicycle & Mfg. Co. copyright, used such feats to make an ordinary machine look like an adventure.
| Created / published | c1913. |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 print (poster) : color. |
| Genre | Advertisements 1910-1920.Posters American 1910-1920.Prints Color 1910-1920. |
| Notes | Copyright by Miamicycle & Mfg. Co. Promotional goal: U.S. C71. 1913. |
| Subjects | Motorcycles--1910-1920. Sunrises & sunsets--1910-1920. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division |
| Original scan | 1,144 × 1,459 px · prints to 4 × 5 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | AMZ-SOTP-HPA-217062 |
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