Skip to main content

'India' in Smithsonian Vintage Air posters

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum has recently posted online more than half of the museum's 1,300 posters related to flight - ballooning, aerospace, space travel, airline ads and posters.. The collection is titled 'Fly Now!'.

Here are India related items that I found in the incredible collection:


Fly From England to India in 6 days via Egypt Iraq

Imperial Airways
Artist: Theyre Lee-Elliott
Date: 1933
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Description:
Stylized map of India with Imperial Airways "Speedbird" logo imposed over map; overlay of the "Speedbird" acts as logo for airline and suggests route map at same time; red, blue, black ink on paper.


Next one is really  rare:

Tata Air Services: Passengers Mails Freight
Tata Air Lines India, 1932 - 1946
Manufacturer: Senefelder Litho Works
Country of Origin: India
Description:
A black silhouette of an airplane flies over a route map of India, consisting of white lines and white stars with city names.
 [Previously: Uniform of Air-India Air Hostess in 1946]

Next a piece of my beautiful home state:


Visit India.Kashmir. Fly TWA. Trans world Airlines
Trans World Airlines (TWA)
Manufacturer: Survey of India Office, Dehra Dun
Sponsor: India, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting
Date: circa 1951
Country of Origin: United States of America
Description:Passengers ride in a gondola-style boat on a lake with snowcapped mountains in background and faint silhouette of city at edge of lake, airplane (Lockheed Constellation flies above).
[Previously: TWA Ad from Indian edition of The Readers Digest from 1972]

Kashmir was quite a destination at the time:


US Soldier Vaden Carney and his date Pam Rumbold (CL), walking the streets of Kashmir.
Location: Kashmir, India. Date taken: 1943. Photographer: William Vandivert
- Kashmir in Life Magazine 

Flying back:
Taj is India and Dragon is Orient.

India and the Orients by Clipper. Pan American World Airways.
Pan American World Airways
Country of Origin: United States of America
Description:Patterned fabric design frames oval inset of Taj Mahal; airplane (Boeing 377 Stratocruiser) flies underneath main text at top of poster' red, blue, and green ink on paper.
Another one for Clipper. Date is missing for both.


Fly to India and Pakistan by Clipper. Pan American World Airways. The World's most experienced Airline

[Previously: Ad for BOAC from Indian Edition of The Reader's Digest March, 1972]

-0-

Comments

  1. any idea where one can get posters of vintage ads?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wouldn't know. i think it's still a rarity in India.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sir

    Shall i use these vintage Visit India posters in my Heritage of India blog.

    Sir i am collecting vintage post cards etc. on many themes and my main focus is on Indian Heritage and Culture. Sir i am sharing my collections in my blogs.


    Sir this is my Heritage of India blog.

    http://indian-heritage-and-culture.blogspot.in/

    Sir please look into my Heritage of India and other blogs and share your comments.

    Sir shall i use above vintage posters in my Heitage of INdia blog.

    Sir did you have spare copies of these vintage post cards for me.

    Sir please reply.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I always like to hear back :)
However, irrelevant comments and irrelevant links will not be published. Needless to say, same goes for abusive comment and spam. Leaving back links related to the topic is encouraged. I know it can be tempting but try not to leave your email ids, phone nos and CVs in the comment.

Popular posts from this blog

Famous Old Faces of Doordarshan

Some people recall the faces and some people recall the names. Here are images of some of the famous readers and presenters of Doordarshan down the years. If you recognize any of them, leave a comment. [ Update 1 : Most of the faces now have names thanks to helpful comments by olio-gallimaufry ] [ Update 2 : Included image of one of the earliest presenters, Gopal Kaul. Send in generously from personal collection by son, Ashutosh Kaul. Sept, 2010.] [ Major Update 3: Got a tip-off about a documentary about the famous faces of Doordarshan from the makers   of     “The Golden Trail , DD@50 :Special feature on Golden Jubilee of Doordarshan ” from which these caps were taken. I managed to catch the incredible documentary and am adding some more faces/name and part of the docu here. New ones can be found after the image of  Narotam Puri. 30th Oct, 2010]  Pratima Puri. Believed to be the first Doordarshan reader.

Indian Cigarette Vintage Ads

He put a cigarette in his mouth and, as a matter of silent routine, offered one to Gwyn, who said ‘No thanks.”Richard looked at him.”I packed it in.”"You what?”"I stopped. Three days ago. Cold. That’s it. You just make the life choice.” Richard looked up and inhaled needfully. He gazed at his cigarette. He didn’t really want to smoke it. He wanted to eat it. Almost the only thing that he still liked about Gwyn was that he still smoked…Paradoxically, he no longer wanted to give up smoking: what he wanted to do was take up smoking. Not so much to fill the little gaps between cigarettes with cigarettes (there wouldn’t be time, anyway) or to smoke two cigarettes at once. It was more that he felt the desire to smoke a cigarette even when he was smoking a cigarette. The need was and wasn’t being met… While it would always be true and fair to say that Richard felt like a cigarette, it would now be doubly true and fair to say it. He felt like a cigarette. And he felt like a cig...

Kishore Kumar, Yodel-ay-ee-oooo Songs, A List

*Updated with corrections pointed out by Bart Plantenga , author of some incredible book on Yodeling including Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The Secret History of Yodeling Around the World. -0- Kishore Kumar 's brother Anoop Kumar, who we basically know for the line ' O manu tera toh hua ab mera kya hoga ', used to own lots of Austrian music records. And from these records, Kishore Kumar picked up the art of Yodel singing, an art perfected in bathroom and then introduced by him to the world of Hindi film music. According to his biography 'Kishore Kumar: method in madness‎ ' by Derek Bose, "Kishore was a fan of the Swiss singer Tex Norton [* Tex Morton, an Australian cowboy born in New Zealand who sang  in the gene autry / Jimmie Rodgers style ] and the Australian Jimmy Rogers [* Jimmie Rodgers , perhaps the most American and one of the most famous yodelers in the world, famous for his blue yodels ] as well." Although most of these songs by Kishore Kumar are t...