Eric Baker over at the Design Observer comments on this collection of travel posters : “In the interests of full disclosure, let me confess that I have long been a sucker for the golden age of travel posters. To me, they evoke a time, almost a century ago, when travel was actually exciting and adventurous, before metal detectors and security lines — and before you had to take your shoes off before boarding a plane. The British novelist Somerset Maugham produced some of his greatest literature during this period, stories filled with exotic characters — the plantation owners and aristocrats, not to mention the secret agents and scoundrels — that he met on his numerous trips to China, India and the Middle East. Indeed, to travel at that time was to engage in an activity that was, by all indications, considerably more civilized than it is today.” (read more)

Photographer: David De Maus Ship Garthsnaid, ca 1920s, Glass copy negative, Reference No. 1/2-014494-G, De Maus Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand

Subject : On board the ship `Garthsnaid’ at sea, circa 1920s, showing unidentified sailors on the rigging. Location unknown. Original photographer unidentified. This copy negative, and inscription, by David Alexander De Maus.” (more)