Wonder City of the World: New York City Travel Posters

Wonder City of the World: New York City Travel Posters is a century-spanning visual journey through the world’s most fascinating city as promoted by the top advertisers and artists of poster history.

From the Statue of Liberty to Times Square, Harlem to Coney Island, this iconic art book covers 100 years of how New York City was sold to the world via graphic design. The book’s stunning historic posters feature New York City’s iconic skyline, unique architecture, and the warmth and charms of its individual neighborhoods. With artwork that depicts landmark events that made NYC the capital of style and entertainment, these posters capture and promote the ever-changing, idealized view of the city.

Wonder City of the World features essays from PBS’s Antiques Roadshow star, antiques expert, and author Nicholas D. Lowry alongside co-authors Angelina Lippert, Tim Medland, and Catherine Bindman and design experts Colette Gaiter, Jon Key, Jennifer Rittner, and Michele Washington.

Table of Contents:

• Early New York Tourism
• Emblem of a Nation
• Lady Liberty
• New York by Rail
• New York from the Sea
• The New York World’s Fairs
• New York from the Air
• Times Square: The Heart of New York
• Streetscapes & Urban Oases
• End of an Era

• David Klein’s New York
• I’ve Seen the Future: Sascha Maurer’s Posters for the 1939 New York World’s Fair
• Soft Light, Big City: Leslie Ragan’s New York Posters
• The Enemy is at the Gate of New York: Joseph Pennell’s Wartime Warning

Nicholas D. Lowry is president and principal auctioneer of Swann Auction Galleries in New York City, and director of the auction house’s vintage posters department. Born into a family of antiquarian book dealers, he was raised and educated in New York, and graduated from Cornell University. As one of the world’s foremost authorities on vintage posters, Lowry has spent over 20 years serving as poster appraiser on the popular PBS television series Antiques Roadshow. In addition to his auction house work, Lowry is also a collector of posters himself, and an author: he has curated two exhibitions on the history of Czech posters (at the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library, in Des Moines, Iowa, 2016-17, and the Dutch Poster Museum in Hoorn, Netherlands, in 2013). He has written numerous articles on collecting and the history of posters for diverse publications and has appeared as himself in the 2019 documentary about the antiquarian book trade, The Booksellers. He currently sits on the board of governors of the National Arts Club in New York City.