A typical post-World War II airline poster by commercial artist Frank J. Soltesz depicts the large and distinctive triple-tail section of a TWA Super Lockheed Constellation in a striking and colorful pose, circa 1952. In the pre-commercial jet transportation era, the airlines often used aircraft as the central image in their posters and emphasized the safety and reliability of commercial flight. With the introduction of commercial jets in the late 1950s, airline advertising began to change. Aircraft were nowhere to be seen. Instead, images of relatively easy travel to distant and exotic places were the norm.

After Joanne left the National Air and Space Museum in 2008, I took over the collection. Working with Collections Processing Unit (CPU) staff, volunteers and interns, I have attempted to continue Joanne’s pioneering efforts. A longtime Museum volunteer, Ted Hamady, has been working on a subject category reclassification, which should make searching the collection easier. Meanwhile, CPU staff members Carl Bobrow and Samantha Snell have received substantial grants to rationalize the collection, provide better storage and housing for it, and prepare it for its eventual move to new collections care facilities in Phase Two of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. In the most recent behind-the scenes effort, CPU summer interns Katy Osterwald, Hannah Soh, Amelia Kile, Allison Smith, Jeff Nagel, Mark Leadenham, Rachel Goddard, and Carolyn Metcalf worked on a variety of tasks geared toward bring this collection to the public. The result: 600+ posters are now available for public access on the National Air and Space Museum website. Eventually, we hope to place the entire collection of some 1300+ posters online.

Dom Pisano is a curator in the Aeronautics Division at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.