The metabolism of travel changed more in the last century than in the previous half-millennium, a stunning transformation triggered by American wanderlust. In less than 100 years, the U.S. mass-produced the automobile, invented airplanes, freeways, motels, even sent men to the Moon. Travel grew ever faster and easier. Above all, it was democratized — enabling millions to explore distant lands, or see their own more fully.
At the start of the 20th century, only people with extensive disposable income and time to spare could enjoy leisure travel. By the century’s end, journeys took hours, not days, and mass travel — especially brief air flights — became the new normal. Along the way, ocean liners broke speed records, aerodynamic trains roared down the tracks, stylish boat-plane clippers evolved into jumbo jets. Whether aboard high-speed locomotives or ships, jets or Greyhound buses — or when setting their own schedule on the open road — Americans demanded ever greater mobility and wider choice of destinations, thereby setting a new standard for travelers around the world.
A lush visual history of this national wanderlust, this volume features 400-plus print advertisements from the Jim Heimann Collection, which illustrate the evolution of leisure travel — from domestic to global, exclusive to popular, exotic to standardized — and its crucial role in American culture.
With an introduction, decade-by-decade analysis, and an illustrated timeline, this book highlights the cultural and technological developments that transformed travel from a cushioned journey of the elite into a convenient leisure pastime for the general public. 20th Century Travel takes us on a grand tour of travel’s golden age.
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"The world is a book; those who do not travel read only a page." - St. Augustine"
About the Author
bout the editor:
Cultural anthropologist and graphic design historian Jim Heimann is Executive Editor for TASCHEN America, and author of numerous books on architecture, pop culture, and the history of the West Coast, Los Angeles, and Hollywood. His unrivaled private collection of ephemera has been featured in museum exhibitions around the world and dozens of books.
About the author:
Allison Silver is a writer and editor based in New York City. A former contributing editor to Culture & Travel magazine, she was editor of The Los Angeles Times Sunday "Opinion" section, an editor of The New York Times "Week in Review," and a founding editor of The Washington Independent.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By Robin Benson
Format:Hardcover
Travel ads get the Taschen treatment (though if you own their All-American Ads series you'll have all these anyway) in this handsome oversize book. With just over four hundred ads showing the change from sea travel to jets, streamline trains to autos and the rise of the hotel chains round the world assuring tourists of uniform standards everywhere.
Ads from the early decades of the last century used illustrations to sell the luxury of liner travel or the ambience of a resort and even into the early sixties artists were still gently distorting reality. An interesting feature in many of the airline ads are the route maps, frequently irregular shapes and obviously difficult to design with. Pan Am and Panagra airlines had a neat solution by dropping their map into a large poncho (on page 266). Many of the airline ads in later decades use photos of stewardesses, probably the only opportunity to get sexy ladies into the ads. Streamline trains, fighting a losing battle with cars and planes, stressed the comfort, food and the passing scenery. An American Loco Company 1946 ad suggests that new trains will feature a movie theater, phones and playrooms for children. The ad has a big illustration of passengers watching a movie.
The images and headlines are obviously the grabbers for any ads but then the copy has to sell. Travel copy is no different in overselling the product and the flowery and clichéd text of what tourists can expect to see and do in foreign lands is worth a read. The Havana Hilton in 1959 was selling 630 lavishly appointed rooms, each with a large private balcony (what better place to watch the revolution from). Alaska in 1935 was selling itself as a place to play baseball at midnight without artificial light. Pan Am Blue Ribbon `El Presidente' service in 1950 served up a `...7-course Continental dinner with vintage wines'.
The book is lovely print job, as you would expect from Taschen. The ads are divided into eight chapters from 1900 to 1999. Each has a short introduction and a neat text and graphic timeline running across the bottom of these pages. The ads are either one to a spread, a page or two on a page, all are dated. One annoyance is that there are several text heavy ads that are reproduced too small to read easily and sometimes next to a whole page picture ad, they should have appeared the other way round.
`20th Century Travel' will allow armchair travelers to easily escape to foreign lands in their transport of choice, designers and illustrators can check up on the typography of yesteryear and slick painting styles.
***TRAVEL THROUGH SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.
Ads from the early decades of the last century used illustrations to sell the luxury of liner travel or the ambience of a resort and even into the early sixties artists were still gently distorting reality. An interesting feature in many of the airline ads are the route maps, frequently irregular shapes and obviously difficult to design with. Pan Am and Panagra airlines had a neat solution by dropping their map into a large poncho (on page 266). Many of the airline ads in later decades use photos of stewardesses, probably the only opportunity to get sexy ladies into the ads. Streamline trains, fighting a losing battle with cars and planes, stressed the comfort, food and the passing scenery. An American Loco Company 1946 ad suggests that new trains will feature a movie theater, phones and playrooms for children. The ad has a big illustration of passengers watching a movie.
The images and headlines are obviously the grabbers for any ads but then the copy has to sell. Travel copy is no different in overselling the product and the flowery and clichéd text of what tourists can expect to see and do in foreign lands is worth a read. The Havana Hilton in 1959 was selling 630 lavishly appointed rooms, each with a large private balcony (what better place to watch the revolution from). Alaska in 1935 was selling itself as a place to play baseball at midnight without artificial light. Pan Am Blue Ribbon `El Presidente' service in 1950 served up a `...7-course Continental dinner with vintage wines'.
The book is lovely print job, as you would expect from Taschen. The ads are divided into eight chapters from 1900 to 1999. Each has a short introduction and a neat text and graphic timeline running across the bottom of these pages. The ads are either one to a spread, a page or two on a page, all are dated. One annoyance is that there are several text heavy ads that are reproduced too small to read easily and sometimes next to a whole page picture ad, they should have appeared the other way round.
`20th Century Travel' will allow armchair travelers to easily escape to foreign lands in their transport of choice, designers and illustrators can check up on the typography of yesteryear and slick painting styles.
***TRAVEL THROUGH SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Jayne Greene
Format:Hardcover
Great pictures and information that really capture the golden age of travel.
A good reference for travel graphics and ads throughout the different decades.
Great vintage illustrations and graphics.
A good reference for travel graphics and ads throughout the different decades.
Great vintage illustrations and graphics.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Steve A
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A beautiful book. Very nicely produced. An excellent addition for anyone interested in the golden age of air, sea and land transportation ads. As an airline/airliner enthusiast, I especially enjoyed the historic airline ads. Definitely a solid pick for my collection.
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Listmania!
So You'd Like to...
Look for Similar Items by Category
- Books > Arts & Photography > Decorative Arts & Design
- Books > Arts & Photography > Graphic Design > Commercial > Advertising
- Books > Arts & Photography > Graphic Design > Techniques
- Books > Humor & Entertainment > Pop Culture > Art
- Books > Travel > Reference > General
- Books > Travel > Specialty Travel > Adventure
