Skip to main content Smithsonian Institution

Catalog Data

Manufacturer:
United States Government Printing Office  Search this
Medium:
Poster, Military Aviation
Dimensions:
2-D - Unframed (H x W): 59.7 × 43.2cm (1 ft. 11 1/2 in. × 1 ft. 5 in.)
Type:
ART-Posters, Original Art Quality
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Date:
circa 1946
Physical Description:
ARMY AIR FORCES Hitch Your Future To This Star." Blue-green, gray and white illustrated print recruiting for the U.S. Army Air Forces. On a blue-green background, a jet flies upward and three jets in formation fly in background, all leaving contrails.
Full text: in light gray at top in a san-serif font, "ARMY AIR FORCES." Toward bottom in a serif font, "Hitch Your Future To This Star" overlaps an AAF logo with wings. At bottom right, "JOIN THE AAF NOW!" in a serif font. Duotone/Screen print.
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.
Inventory Number:
A19960043000
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
National Air and Space Museum Collection
Data Source:
National Air and Space Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nv984b9598c-d295-4d81-b817-34fab3f1c57e
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:nasm_A19960043000