WALLACE BEERY IN WEST POINT OF THE AIR
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Object Details
- Physical Description
- Wallace BEERY WEST POINT OF THE AIR. Framed multicolor illustrated print with a white border, advertising the film "West Point of the Air." Over a background of blue sky with white clouds, two dark colored biplanes fly in close formation with a wing-walker on the lower plane, arms raised towards the upper plane's landing gear. To the right, a light colored Army Air Forces logo contains the black script lettering "Wallace," and black sans-serif text "BEERY WEST POINT OF THE AIR." A small triangular portion of the composition at the bottom right contains a separate scene with other biplanes in flight. At bottom, a yellow ribbon contains additional text.
- Summary
- Fly Now: The National Air and Space Museum Poster Collection
- Throughout their history, posters have been a significant means of mass communication, often with striking visual effect. Wendy Wick Reaves, the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery Curator of Prints and Drawings, comments that "sometimes a pictorial poster is a decorative masterpiece-something I can't walk by without a jolt of aesthetic pleasure. Another might strike me as extremely clever advertising … But collectively, these 'pictures of persuasion,' as we might call them, offer a wealth of art, history, design, and popular culture for us to understand. The poster is a familiar part of our world, and we intuitively understand its role as propaganda, promotion, announcement, or advertisement."
- Reaves' observations are especially relevant for the impressive array of aviation posters in the National Air and Space Museum's 1300+ artifact collection. Quite possibly the largest publicly-held collection of its kind in the United States, the National Air and Space Museum's posters focus primarily on advertising for aviation-related products and activities. Among other areas, the collection includes 19th-century ballooning exhibition posters, early 20th-century airplane exhibition and meet posters, and twentieth-century airline advertisements.
- The posters in the collection represent printing technologies that include original lithography, silkscreen, photolithography, and computer-generated imagery. The collection is significant both for its aesthetic value and because it is a unique representation of the cultural, commercial and military history of aviation. The collection represents an intense interest in flight, both public and private, during a significant period of its technological and social development.
- Credit Line
- Bequest of Melvin Buchner.
- 1935
- Inventory Number
- A20000588000
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- ART-Posters, Original Art Quality
- Medium
- Poster, Advertising, Movie
- Dimensions
- 2-D - In Frame (H x W x D): 30.5 x 38.1cm (12 x 15 in.)
- Country of Origin
- United States of America
- See more items in
- National Air and Space Museum Collection
- National Air and Space Museum
- Record ID
- nasm_A20000588000
- Metadata Usage (text)
- Not determined
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nv9aaf9ce5a-07c9-4c59-99d3-7202de6ffc78
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