Customer Reviews

Railway Posters 1923-1947: From the Collection of the National Railway Museum, York, England

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This volume immediately moved onto my all-time favorites list. It is chockablock with color illustrations of wonderful British railway posters from that medium's golden age, the creation of the Big Four in 1923 until their nationalization effective January 1, 1948. A book simply stuffed with posters would have been sufficient, but the authors have placed the works of art in their appropriate historical and cultural context, and added to a poster lover's knowledge with interesting asides on artists and their subjects. (The authors both work as curators for the National Railway Museum's extensive poster collection, a job that seems the rough equivalent of dying and going to heaven every Monday through Friday.) There is one serious criticism to be offered: I see no reason why the book should not have been at least twice as long.

I only wish I had lived during this time, when railroads, ship-lines and airlines commissioned artists to produce travel posters like the ones in this book. I've been renewing a copy from UIC library continuously for the last 7 years; nice to finally return it and have a copy of my very own.

I still find it hard to believe that a country the size of England used to have four different railways, and that the Flying Scotsman used to be the longest nonstop train route in the world.

If you're an art fan, a poster fan, or a railroad fan, this book is for you. The presentation of the artwork is top-notch, as are the bios of the various artists who created them.

One difference: My library copy was originally published in England by Laurence King; my bought copy was published by Rizzoli in the U.S. For some reason, the cover art and type arrangement and color scheme is completely different on the two versions(the typefaces used are exactly the same, however). The orange, blue and green cover design on the U.S.-published version, with the rushing Southern railways steam engine and a black spine with orange lettering outlined in white, is just flat-out better. The British version uses a different illustration of the Coronation Scot crossing the Border Bridge, which wraps onto the spine. Whoever made the decision to place dark blue spine text outlined in black against the dark gray of the bridge should go back to art school. No differences inside, though.