Collection: Travel Posters

Thanks to the development of chromolithography by French artist Jules Chéret in the 1880s, posters were not only easy and cost-effective to mass-produce, but they had become a respected art form in their own right.

Early travel posters were designed to appeal to the optimism and fantasy prevalent in France’s Belle Époque period (1880 – 1914), and so they embraced the ornate decorativeness of Art Nouveau. Travel posters were placed in public spaces such as town squares, hotels, or resorts, and in the windows of travel agencies, but you were most likely to find them in railway stations, airports, docks, and harbours.