19th Century Shipping Posters

Alberto Forero, a New York based graphic designer, has an interesting set of pictures up on Flickr. Collected from a book sale, he has photographed a selection of 19th century shipping posters.

Actually these are 19thc Clipper Cards. I recently saw one at a rare book expo, and it was about as big as an ipod. I was surprised because of all the detail poured into these. They certainly would work as posters too, and maybe there were larger versions. Read more here:

“Clipper ship trade cards are cards that were issued by dispatch lines to advertise specific voyages of clipper ships from one port (usually New York or Boston) to another (usually San Francisco). They were distributed primarily during the late 1850s and early 1860s.”

www.tradecards.com/articles/br/

Check out the poster slideshow, his blog, and his portfolio.