16 Vintage Travel Posters Dealers Buy on the Spot
Original travel posters from the golden age of ocean liners, railways, and early commercial aviation were designed to be thrown away once the season’s advertising ran its course, which is exactly why genuine surviving examples now command serious money from dealers and collectors of graphic design. Paper condition, color fading, and whether a poster is an original printing rather than a later reprint all heavily affect price.
Cassandre’s Normandie Poster
A. M. Cassandre’s 1935 poster for the French ocean liner SS Normandie, depicting the ship’s towering bow rising dramatically above the waterline, is widely considered one of the greatest achievements in twentieth-century graphic design. Its bold, streamlined Art Deco style directly influenced advertising design across multiple industries for decades afterward. Original printings in strong condition have sold at auction for well over $50,000.
Cassandre’s Nord Express Poster
Also designed by Cassandre, the 1927 poster for France’s Nord Express railway line uses converging telegraph lines and sweeping perspective to convey speed and modernity, a technique widely copied by later poster designers. It remains one of the most reproduced images in the history of railway advertising, which makes verifying an original printing especially important for buyers. Authenticated originals in good condition have sold for tens of thousands of dollars.
TWA “Fly TWA” Posters
Illustrator David Klein’s mid-century posters for Trans World Airlines, each highlighting a different destination city like New York or Paris through bold, simplified color blocks, have become defining images of the jet-age travel boom of the 1950s and 1960s. Their clean, optimistic style has made them popular with interior designers as well as poster collectors. Original examples typically sell in the range of $1,000 to $5,000 depending on the destination and condition.
Pan Am Destination Posters
Pan American World Airways commissioned a long-running series of destination posters through the mid-twentieth century, each promoting a specific country or region served by the airline’s expanding global routes. Because Pan Am ceased operations in 1991, the posters carry an additional layer of nostalgia tied to the airline’s own disappearance. Original examples in strong condition typically sell in the $500 to $3,000 range depending on destination and rarity.
WPA National Parks Posters
Produced under the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s to promote America’s national parks, these bold, simplified silkscreen posters were created in relatively small runs, making surviving originals genuinely rare compared to the countless modern reprints sold in park gift shops today. Distinguishing an original WPA printing from a later reproduction requires careful examination of paper stock and printing technique. Authenticated originals have sold at auction for well over $50,000 in exceptional cases, with more common examples still reaching five figures.
Roger Broders’ French Riviera Posters
French illustrator Roger Broders produced a prolific series of Art Deco posters through the 1920s and 1930s promoting the French Riviera and Mediterranean travel for the PLM railway company, characterized by bold flat colors and stylized figures enjoying leisure activities. His distinctive style helped define how the Riviera was marketed to travelers for decades. Original examples in strong condition typically sell in the $2,000 to $10,000 range depending on the specific design.
Matson Line Hawaii Poster
The Matson Navigation Company commissioned striking posters through the 1930s promoting ocean voyages to Hawaii, often featuring stylized depictions of hula dancers, volcanoes, and tropical scenery rendered in bold Art Deco color. These posters played a significant role in shaping mainland American perceptions of Hawaii before it became a U.S. state in 1959. Original examples in good condition regularly sell for several thousand dollars.
Cunard Queen Mary Poster
Posters advertising the Cunard Line’s RMS Queen Mary, which entered service in 1936 as one of the largest and fastest ocean liners of its era, remain highly sought after among collectors of ocean liner memorabilia. The ship itself survives today as a permanently docked hotel and museum in Long Beach, California, which has kept collector interest in its original advertising steady. Original posters in strong condition typically sell in the $1,000 to $5,000 range.
London Underground Posters
From the early twentieth century onward, the London Underground commissioned an extraordinarily wide range of posters from artists working in many different styles, encouraging Londoners to use the growing rail network to reach parks, museums, and outlying neighborhoods. The program is widely credited as one of the most significant patronage efforts in the history of British commercial art. Original examples vary enormously in price, from a few hundred dollars for common designs to tens of thousands for rare artist-signed works.
Air France Posters
Air France commissioned a series of striking posters through the mid-twentieth century, with designer Jean Carlu’s bold, simplified imagery among the most celebrated examples of French commercial art from the period. The airline’s posters often used stripped-down geometric shapes to convey speed and modern engineering. Original examples typically sell in the $1,500 to $6,000 range depending on the specific design and artist.
St. Moritz Ski Posters
Swiss artist Emil Cardinaux produced influential early twentieth-century posters promoting the alpine resort town of St. Moritz, helping establish the visual language that would define ski tourism advertising for decades afterward. His bold depictions of snow-covered peaks against dramatic color skies set a template widely imitated by later Swiss tourism posters. Original examples in strong condition can sell for well over $10,000 given their historical importance to ski poster design.
Orient Express Posters
Advertising posters for the legendary Orient Express rail route connecting Paris to Istanbul, produced across the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, appeal to collectors drawn to the romance and mystery long associated with the train, later amplified by its fictional depiction in popular literature. Because the original service ran for over a century under various operators, poster styles vary widely by era. Original examples in strong condition typically sell for several thousand dollars.
Canadian Pacific Railway Posters
The Canadian Pacific Railway commissioned an extensive series of posters through the early to mid-twentieth century promoting both its transcontinental rail routes and its associated grand hotels across Canada. Many featured dramatic depictions of the Canadian Rockies rendered in rich, painterly detail rather than the flat graphic style common to other travel posters of the era. Original examples typically sell in the $1,000 to $4,000 range depending on subject and condition.
Italian Line SS Rex Poster
Posters advertising the Italian Line’s SS Rex, briefly the fastest ocean liner crossing the Atlantic after capturing the Blue Riband speed record in 1933, capture the intense national pride Italy placed in the ship during the interwar period. The ship’s later fate, sunk by Allied aircraft during World War II, adds historical weight for collectors. Original posters in good condition typically sell in the $2,000 to $8,000 range.
PLM Côte d’Azur Railway Posters
Beyond Roger Broders’ individual work, the broader PLM railway company commissioned numerous posters from various artists promoting travel along France’s Côte d’Azur, collectively responsible for cementing the region’s glamorous image in the public imagination during the early twentieth century. Well-preserved examples from lesser-known but skilled contemporary artists can be found at more accessible prices than signature Broders designs. Original examples typically range from $1,000 to $5,000 depending on artist and condition.
Swiss Railway Posters by Herbert Matter
Herbert Matter’s posters for the Swiss National Tourist Office in the 1930s used innovative photomontage techniques, combining photography with graphic design in ways that were considered strikingly modern for their time. His work is widely credited with influencing the later development of photographic advertising design more broadly. Original examples in strong condition have sold for well over $10,000 given Matter’s significant standing in design history.
Paper That Sold a Fantasy
These posters were never meant to survive. They were printed cheaply, pasted to walls, and replaced within a season, which is exactly why the ones that did survive, tucked away in an attic or forgotten in a closed travel agency, now carry such weight with collectors.
What dealers are really buying isn’t just a piece of paper advertising a ship or a train. It’s a specific, dated vision of glamour and possibility that an entire industry once spent enormous effort selling to the public, one that no longer exists in quite the same form anywhere.
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