A depiction of a Pennsylvania Railroad car float that moved between the company’s yards in New Jersey and Manhattan, circa 1950.

The first representation of New York’s cityscape at night as a single form, by Adolph Treidler, 1927.

A depiction of Manhattan skyscrapers, used to convey the size of Royal Mail Line’s transatlantic ships, by Horace Taylor, circa 1924.

A painting for an unrealized TWA poster featuring Paul Manship’s Rockefeller Center sculpture set against the lights of Times Square, by David Klein, circa 1960.

An early Aer Lingus advertisement designed for the Irish company’s first flights to Boston and New York, by Treidler, circa 1960.

One of the earliest examples of photography to be featured in a travel poster, made for the short-lived Cunard-White Star Line, circa 1935.

Another TWA poster by Klein, who designed dozens for the company, circa 1960.

A visual made for Swissair’s introduction of the Douglas DC-6B aircraft for international routes, by Henri Ott, 1951.

The first poster to use a typographic motif, made for Iberia’s direct service to New York aboard the Lockheed Super Constellation, 1966.

Manhattan seen from under the Brooklyn Bridge, a popular composition since the 1930s, circa 1959.

An advertisement for one of Red Star Line’s most well-known vessels, the *Westernland,* made to encourage immigration to New York, by Carl Saltzmann, 1893.

The poster for the 1939 World’s Fair, featuring the renowned Trylon and Perisphere structures, built for the event, by Joseph Binder, 1939.

A poster of Rockefeller Center that pre-dates the building’s completion—and inaccurately represents the surrounding area, as several buildings were never realized—by Leslie Ragan, circa 1935.

A photomontage announcing Swissair’s use of the Douglas DC-6B aircraft for new nonstop flights to Europe, by Ott, circa 1951.

A poster designed to promote bus travel to New York, by Rod Ruth, circa 1960.

A painting for an unrealized TWA poster by Klein, circa 1964.

A collage of New York photographs made for visitors interested in the city’s youthful culture and nightlife, circa 1967.

A precursor to Klein’s illustration of Times Square, by Dick Negus and Philip Sharland, circa 1954.

Poster City

A new book collects a century of posters and advertisements that shaped New York City’s rise as the cultural capital of the world

New York City wasn’t built in a day—neither its renowned skyline nor its reputation as the cultural capital of the world. The latter was shaped by decades of superb advertising. Phrases such as “First City of the World,” “City of Marvels,” and “Foremost City in the World” began circulating across Europe in the 19th century. Some of them stuck; some didn’t.

The Big Apple wasn’t always poised to become the world’s poster metropolis. In 1609, when New Amsterdam was established and fur merchants moved in from the Netherlands, England, France, and Germany, an air of lawlessness prevailed. People spat on the street and drank in public. It was so raucous that, for a time, there were more pubs than people.

In 1870, however, construction on the first skyscrapers began. The Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883, and the Statue of Liberty came three years later—the tallest structure in the country—creating a highly marketable visual identity. The advertising machines started to churn.

Over the next three decades, posters, slogans, and relentless publicity equated the city with the majesty of capitalism and of America as a whole. Gilded posters promoted tourism in its early days, the 1870s, inspiring the French and English to sail to America on transatlantic liners. In the 1920s and 1930s, the posters held images of New York’s newly minted train-station complexes. And after the war, they began touting the glamour of air travel.

It was a nuanced game. New York City had to appear appealing while also retaining a veneer of mystery. “Ultimately, to satisfy the desires of tourists and tourism promoters, New York had to be seen and marketed as both American and un-American,” writes Art M. Blake in his 2006 book, How New York Became American, 1890–1924, “treading a fine line between the bold display of difference and the reassuring show of sameness.”

To accompany an exhibition at Poster House, a new book, Wonder City of the World: New York City Travel Posters, compiles advertisements created by accomplished designers such as Leslie Ragan, Michel Kady, and Willy Hanke. The posters span 100 years, and unlike that princess in the French fairy tale, they hail a city that never sleeps. —Elena Clavarino

“Wonder City of the World: New York City Travel Posters” is on view at Poster House, in New York, through September 8

Elena Clavarino is a Senior Editor at AIR MAIL

Photos: Poster House Permanent Collection (Pennsylvania Railroad; Cunard White Star Line; Swissair, both; Rockefeller Center); Collection of Berick Treidler and Lian Dolan (New York Central Lines); Private Collection, New York (Aer Lingus, Red Star Line); Collection of William W. Crouse (World’s Fair); Collection of Andrew Zavelson, Chicago (Greyhound); courtesy of Poster House (all)