Posters

The Inman Line: A scarce shipboard menu for Transantlantic passengers in steerage

A scarce shipboard menu catering to ‘the other half.’

(Food and Maritime History) Broadside, “‘INMAN’ LINE INTERMEDIATE BILL OF FARE“, 1 page, 265 x 124 mm. (10 1/2 x 4 7/8 in.), c. 1875, a menu for the passengers classified as Intermediate, which is similar to Steerage Class: “Intermediate Passengers are not allowed in the Cabins or on the Saloon Deck, and are subject to the same General Rules and Regulations as Steerage Passengers, but they are landed at New York with the Saloon Passengers.” Meals included an 8 A.M. Breakfast consisting mostly of coffee, bread, porridge and a meat; a 12:30 P.M. Dinner consisting of soup, potatoes, meat, and pudding or cheese; and a 5:30 P.M. Tea consisting of tea, bread and butter, cold meat or jams and gruel. A note informs the Passengers that “The Bill of Fare might be slightly altered according to circumstances.”

The Inman Line Steamship Company was established in 1850, founded originally as the Liverpool and Philadelphia Steam Ship Company. The Line provided transatlantic travel until the company’s liquidation in 1885, when the company’s assets were purchased by the Red Star Line and the American Line.

Usual folds, light creasing, light edge wear (moderate edge wear to bottom margin not affecting content), overall fine condition.

(EXA 5646) $150

Scarce flyer for the Progressive Citizens of America, featuring Lena Horne & Edward G. Robinson: “Yes We’re Actors, but We’re Citizens too!”

(Progressive Citizens of America) Scarce broadside advertising a “Mass Meeting” of the Progressive Citizens of America, 10 July [c. 1948[?]] at Park View Manor in Los Angeles, 303 x 230 mm. (12 x 9 in.), featuring images of Hollywood party advocates John Garfield, Lena Horne, Edward G. Robinson, Anne Revere, George Coulouris, Richard Conte, Gene Kelly, Paul Henreid, Betty Garrett and Larry Parks, proclaiming “YES! We’re Actors… but we’re citizens too! That’s why we joined P.C.A[,] to fight for a prosperous and free country in a peaceful world! Join your neighbors in this ‘Stop Depression’ MASS MEETING!” The verso explores the issues at hand: “Are you worried? No wonder! Last Year! the N.A.M. spent millions of dollars for ads which promised you ‘if OPA is permanently discontinued… prices will quickly adjust themselves to levels that consumers are willing to pay.’ Today! YOU check your budget and find that expenses have gone up 30% since Congress killed O.P.A. (meanwhile corporation profits are 33% higher, although small business failures and unemployment are increasing.) Tomorrow! DESPRESSION. But… you CAN do something about it! Join the P.C.A. ‘Stop Depression’ Drive!” Speakers and entertainers were Albert Dekker, Marie Bryant, Sam Levine, Stanley Prager, Raphael Konigsberg, chaired by Edward Mosk with “Skits & Songs by Actors Division PCA“.

The Progressive Citizens of America, spearheaded by an outspoken Gene Kelly, was extremely active in the campaign to end Hollywood blacklisting and ideological persecution by abolishing the House of unAmerican Activities Committee.

Toning, creasing, usual folds with some separation at folds, edge wear and some marginal tearing, else very good condition.

(EXA 5913) $300

An early and attractive 1950s Mid Century TWA tourism poster for Rome.

(Travel) A large and attractive promotional poster issued by Trans World Airlines (TWA), 1007 x 636 mm. (40 x 25 in), c. 1955. Printed just before TWA began acquiring jet planes in 1956.

Pin holes and minor tears mostly at margins, else very good to fine condition. Will be shipped rolled.

(EXA 5351) $500

An unusual Ku Klux Klan broadside advertising a “KLANTAUQUA” – Illinois, c. 1924

(Ku Klux Klan) Broadside, “KLANTAUQUA The Klansman’s Famous Chautauqua” ([Illinois, c. 1924^*]), 350 x 525 mm. (14 x 21 in.). An unusual advertisement for the Ku Klux Klan’s version of a Chautauqua meeting.

The Chautauqua movement was a populist adult education drive spawned from the 1874 New York Chautaqua Assembly, an educational camp for families established on Chautauqua Lake in New York State. The Chautauqua was the successor to the Lyceum movement, which provided a lecture circuit for transcendentalists, as well as other prominent social reformist lecturers such as Abraham Lincoln and Susan B. Anthony. The Chautauquas infused entertainment into the reformist lecture circuit, to engage families and appeal for attendance in rural areas. Though founded by Methodists, the Chautauqua movement was strictly nondenominational, and the chapters determined the extent of nature of religious integration into their programming independently. The Chautauqua movement declined in the early 20th century with the advent of mass communication, such as the automobile in 1910 and radio in 1920, which made information more accessible to rural Americans.

The predominantly Protestant participants in the Chautauquas were progressives by nature, but deeply divided on matters of race relations. Although race was a consistent topic of lecture and discussion on both sides of the spectrum, the Chautauquas cultivated a general sentiment of noninvolvement regarding race issues beyond intellectual contemplation. In contrast, Klantauqua sought to politicize the Chautauqua platform by galvanizing the gatherings around the Ku Klux Klan’s anti-Black, anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish agendas.

Marginal tears and soiling, some larger tears repaired on verso, else good condition overall.

(EXA 5349) $475

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^* A Klantauqua with a similar billing (Gorrell as well as the Frazers) appeared in Rochelle, Ill. from 29-31 July 1924 (Daily Register Gazette, Rockford, Ill., 24 July 1924, 3).

1910 Cunard Line Trans Atlantic Rate Poster

(Travel and Immigration) Circular, 505 x 310 mm. (19 7/8 x 12 1/4 in.), ([Liverpool?, 1910]), advertising rates for the Cunard Line as of 11 April, 1910. Featuring a dramatic image of the steamer Mauretania, the circular details rates from Liverpool and Queenstown to New York and Boston aboard Cunard’s entire Atlantic fleet of Royal Mail steamers including the Mauetania, Lusitania, Carmania, Caronia, Franconia, Campania, Saxonia, Ivernia, Sylvania, Carpatia, Ultonia and Pannonia.

The most interesting reading is perhaps on the verso. Entitled “INFORMATION FOR THIRD CLASS PASSENGERS” which details meals, accommodations and the other amenities of steerage. Immigrants into the United States are warned, “That the following classes of aliens shall be excluded from admission into the United States: All idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded persons, epileptics, insane persons, and persons who have been insane within five years previous; persons who have had two or more attacks of insanity at any time previously; paupers; persons likely to become a public charge; professional beggars; persons afflicted with tuberculosis or with a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease; persons not comprehended within any of the foregoing exclude classes who are found to be and are certified by the examining surgeon as being mentally or physically defective, such mental or physical defect being of a nature which may affect the ability of such alien to earn a living… polygamists, or persons who admit their belief in the practice of polygamy, anarchists, or persons who believe in or advocate the overthrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States, or of all government, or of all forms of law, or the assassination of public officials; prostitutes, or women or girls coming into the United States for the purpose of prostitution or for any other immoral purpose…” Apart from other restrictions, the circular advises that “In view of stringent regulations now prevailing at the various United States Ports for the landing of immigrants, the United States Commissioner has called attention too the large number of passengers arriving destitute of funds, in consequence of which many are being deported. All passengers must have at least $25 (£5) in addition to through rail ticket to destination, and families must have a larger amount as circumstances may require.”

Minor partial fold separations, a few chips and minor tears at margin, uneven toning on verso, else good to very good overall. Piece has been stored folded and will be shipped in the same manner.

(EXA 5348) $525

1940s Forest Fire Prevention Poster

(Forest Fire Prevention) Broadside, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, “The Good Earth? FOREST FIRES DESTROY lives • homes • wild life • timber • crops” ([Washington]: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1948) 463 x 327 (18 1/4 x 12 7/8 in.).

A wonderfully colorful and evocative public service advertisement. (Cataloged as US 6122 in Hoover Institution Political Poster Database).

Extremely minor marginal ear, a few light creases at corners, else very fine.

(EXA 5362) $125

Pittsburgh Farmers’ and Mechanics’ Turnpike Company Broadside

(Turnpikes and Toll Roads) Broadside, “RATES OF TOLLS. PITTSBURGH FARMERS’ AND MECHANICS’ TURNPIKE COMPANY. 560 x 405 mm. (22 x 16 in).

The broadside lists rates for nearly every conceivable vehicle and animal that used the road including pigs, sheep, and cattle (charged 6 1/4 cents by the dozen) as well a variety of horse-drawn vehicles charged on basis of size of wheels as well as number of axles. Also, two oxen were considered equivalent to one horse for toll-taking purposes. (And you thought tolls at the Lincoln Tunnel were complicated.)

The Farmers’ and Mechanics’ Turnpike Company was established around 1829 and had completed a road on the outskirts of Pittsburg around 1837. The road continued in operation for several decades until it was sold to the City of Pittsburgh in 1871 after years of falling tolls and growing indebtedness.^* The road roughly followed the course of modern-day Fifth Avenue.

Light foxing and soiling, some light edge wear, contemporary ink marks at margin, folds, separated vertical fold repaired on verso with archival tape, else very good.

(EXA 5363) $475
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^* Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1837), 322; [Advertisement] The Daily Pittsburgh Gazette (1 Apr. 1836) calling for proposals for “grading, stoning, and erecting the necessary Bridges and Culverts of the first two miles…commencing at the city line”; Pennsylvania Session Laws (1863), 431-433; Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1871), 579-580.

1880 Boston and Hingham Steam Boat Company broadside

(Steam Boats) Broadside, “BOSTON AND HINGHAM STEAM BOAT CO. ON AND AFTER MONDAY OCTOBER 11th, 1880 STEAMER GOV. ANDREW WILL LEAVE ROWE’S WHARF, BOSTON…” (Boston: F. A. Searle, Printer, [1880]) 496 x 370 mm. (19 1/2 x 14 1/2 in.). For only a quarter you could get a one-way ticket from Boston to either Hull, Downer Landing or Hingham. The same ride today would set you back $8.00 ($16.00 if you’re going to Logan Airport). The steamer Gov. Andrew was built in 1874 and plied the Boston/Hingham/Hull route well into the 1880s.^*

Laid onto a larger linen sheet, light dampstain at top left corner, looses affect some text which has been filled in, overall very good.

(EXA 5364) $350

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^* Thomas Tracy Bouvé et al, History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts, (1893) Vol. 1, 250-251.

John Glenn returns to a hero’s welcome in his hometown of New Concord, Ohio

(John GLENN) Poster, NEW CONCORD SALUTES JOHN H. GLENN JR. LT. COL. USMC (New York: Murray Poster Printing Co. [1962?]) 612 x 457 mm. (24 1/8 x 18 in) on thick stock.

An excellent period poster most likely printed for his 3 March 1962 homecoming in New Concord, Ohio. It appears that arrangements for the poster were hastily made and the organizers had anticipated that Glenn would be accompanied by his fellow Mercury 7 astronauts, as was the case for his New York ticker-tape parade on 1 March and other public celebrations of his orbital flight—hence the names of Shepard, Grissom and others listed below. However, Glenn was not accompanied by other members of the Mercury 7, nor other NASA officials to New Concord. Nearly 50,000 people flocked to New Concord to welcome Glenn home, overwhelming the town of 2,500 people.

Minor marginal wear including a few small tears not affecting text, creased at bottom left corner, light toning at top left, some toning on verso, else very good.

(EXA 5366) SOLD.

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^* “Glenn Cheered by 50,000 During Ohio Homecoming” New York Times (4 Mar. 1962) 1.

19th Century prosthetic eye color chart

(19th Century Medicine) A wonderful poster, 575 x 360 mm. (22 3/4 x 14 1/8 in.) on thick card stock, (Philadelphia: Queen & Co., 1891). Queen & Co. were Philadelphia oculists and opticians located on the corner of 8th and Arch streets. The chart, illustrating twelve styles of prosthetic eyes in shades of blue and brown, was designed to be cut vertically into seven pieces.

Edge wear and losses to corners minor surface abrasions, else very good.

(EXA 5250) $150

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