“This exhibition charts the course as New York grew into an international city,” says Nicholas Lowry, president of Swann Auction Galleries where he helms the vintage poster department, who curated the show. The posters range from the earliest depictions of New York as just another place to visit in New York State to scenes from the 20th century as the skyline we all know today begins to take shape.

Many of the posters were made for airlines and other transportation providers, such as an early 1890 poster from the Delaware and Hudson Railway. Others had less commercial motivation, like the 1918 poster of a New York City skyline with the text, “Help Protect Liberty’s Gateway,” commissioned to promote war saving stamps. Others, still, were converted from existing artwork, like the poster of a July 1931 Vanity Fair cover by New York illustrator Hugh Gray Lieber, that shows white skyscrapers, trimmed in red, against a starry blue sky.

Brooklyn artist David Klein, famous for the dozens of posters he designed for TWA in the 1950s and ’60s, has some of the most recognizable pieces in the exhibition—including one of Lowry’s favorites. “It’s an abstract, futuristic view of the ‘Crossroads of the World,’” he says, referring to Times Square, captured by Klein in an aerial view of bright colors depicting billboards, marquees, neon signs, and traffic.

Unsurprisingly, the Statue of Liberty is pretty ubiquitous among the posters, but other famous NYC landmarks—Rockefeller Center’s Prometheus statue, the United Nations building, and the beloved Twin Towers—also make appearances. As a whole, the posters show not just how graphic design evolved throughout the 20th century, but New York City too.

“The exciting factor about New York is the constant reinvention,” says Lowry. “Other major global cities have more tradition, but New York is the capital of dynamism.

“These posters highlight the constant change that is inherent in the city itself, and the variety of images compound that,” he adds.

Wonder City of the World: New York City Travel Posters is on view at Poster House in New York, March 14 to September 8, 2024.