20th Century Travel

by Allison Silver

Published 25 May 2010

Over the course of the twentieth century, travel experienced an unprecedented boom. As ocean liners broke speed records, aerodynamic trains roared down tracks, and stylish boat-plane clippers evolved into jumbo jets, travel transformed from a cushioned journey of the elite into a convenient pastime for the general public. With the mass production of automobiles, invention of airplanes, freeways and motels, America led the wanderlust phenomenon. With nearly 400 vintage print advertisements from the Jim Heimann Collection, this book documents the exponential expansion of American tourism, through the domestic and global, exclusive and popular, exotic and standardized adventure. With an introduction, decade-by-decade analysis, and an illustrated timeline, rediscover the thrilling energy of this new age of mobility in which Americans climbed aboard locomotives or ships, jets or Greyhound buses to explore distant lands, or to see whole new sides to their own country.