Fly Now!: The Poster Collection of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum |
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Author:
Joanne Gernstein London
By National Geographic
Average Customer Rating:   
List Price: $25.00
Our Price: $3.96
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Product Description
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum draws more visitors than any other museum in the world—90,000 a day in the summertime—and the highlight of summer 2007 at the NASM will be "Fly Now," the exhibit of air travel posters featured in this unique companion volume which combines arresting, colorful art, rare archival material, and a unique approach to aeronautical history.
The posters—most of them never before published—feature barnstormers, gliders, and flying boats; the earliest passenger flights, the first luxury-liners, mail carriers, jets, and much more. Spanning a century and a half, they combine the popular art and the commerce of their eras, with both explored in the entertaining, informative text by a longstanding National Air and Space Museum curator. From 19th-century circus impresarios offering rides in gaudy hot-air balloons to the sleek 21st-century airliners, they offer a fascinating illustrated history of flight as it evolved from an exotic realm inhabited only by visionaries and daredevils into our modern world of speedy jets and frequent flyers—no longer extraordinary, perhaps, but still echoing with the exhilarating thrill and glamorous excitement captured here.
Countless visitors to the museumÕs traveling poster exhibition and the permanent exhibition "America by Air" will delight in the gorgeous and wonderful graphics collected in this appealing, affordable book—and so will aviation buffs, armchair travelers, and poster connoisseurs everywhere.
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Big disappointment, 2008-08-24
Wow this book was a major disappointment! The selection of posters is really poor compared to others on this subject. As an avid collector of aviation art and as an artist myself give this book a miss.
Not worth the purchase price, 2008-03-13
A poor design, bad editing, and incredibly lackluster. A purchase I regret making.
The writer seems content in believing that her words are more important than the very subject she's supposed to be covering - Airline Posters. What's with the 3rd grade point size? Are we all that far-sighted that we need 18 point text to deliver the message? Some of the nicest images - and there aren't nearly enough - are reduced to the point of being worthless. Or worse - they're enlarged so big that they're cropped. What? Is centering that difficult a concept for The Smithsonian? And explain why one would double-page through the gutter? Fully one-fifth of the image is stuck in between the binding!
Virtually worthless. The only saving grace is that there are a handful of nice images that are: Centered, not cropped, not cluttered or crowded off the page with text, and of decent quality. But not nearly enough to justify the purchase price.
I wonder how good this could have been had Chronicle Books handled the book?
Great poster book, 2007-12-15
I've been a fan of vintage flying and travel posters for many years. This book is one of the best I've seen. There is a poster on every page describing a little about each one. Some of I've seen before, but most I've never seen before. The printing and colors in the book are very well done.
If anyone is interested in travel or retro posters, this is a good book to start.
Fly Back to the Golden Age of Aviation, 2007-09-23
This book is a wonderful combination of eye-catching graphics and insightful commentary. It really transported me back to an era when flying was special, elegant and exciting. Anyone interesting in the history of transportation will enjoy this book.
Make You Wnat to Soar, 2007-06-03
Fly Now! is a collection of the air and space museum but a wonderful invitation into the world of flight. I found the posters fascinating. The stories with each of them brought me into the time of which they were speaking. We take flying so for granted today. this books reveals the wonder, the danger, and the passion that brought us to this day. Bravo! Great work!
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 629.1309
EAN: 9781426200885
ISBN: 1426200889
Label: National Geographic
Manufacturer: National Geographic
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 192
Publication Date: 2007-05-15
Publisher: National Geographic
Release Date: 2007-05-15
Studio: National Geographic |
