Images of an Era: the American Poster 1945-75

Washington DC: National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, 1975. First edition. Hardcover. Very Good Minus/Very Good Minus. SIGNED by eight of the organizers. Quarto [25.5 cm] Black cloth over boards. Pictorial endpapers reproducing a photograph taken in Manhattan. Dampstaining to the bottom quarter of the spine and the surrounding areas of the boards. Name discreetly written in pen in top fore-edge corner of second page. In the illustrated dust jacket, with a moisture stain along the bottom edge, measuring approximately 5 inches wide by 2 inches deep at its deepest point. Promotional material for the exhibition laid in. A catalog for an exhibition occurring at the time of the American Revolution Bicentennial 1776-1976. From the Foreword- "In the last decade of the nineteenth century, America was swept by a 'poster craze' of larger-than-life proportions. Posters created for commercial use by artists like Edward Penfield, Will Bradley, Louis J. Rhead and Maxfield Parrish were shown throughout the country and avidly collected. Dealers and special publications briefly flourished. The bright colors and bold forms which had appeared nearly half a century earlier in anonymous theartrical and circus posters were subtly refined by highly skilled lithographic printers who produced the designs of these gifted artists."

This copy is signed by eight of the organizers, including John Garrigan and Margaret Cogswell, on the title page. Catalog designer Derek Birdsall, researchers Carol Mulvihill and Bette Walker, and Gordon Bowman (Creative Programs, Mobile Oil Corporation) are also included among those who have signed.