Poster House

Poster House is dedicated to presenting the impact, culture, and design of posters, both as historical documents and methods of contemporary visual communication. Through temporary exhibitions, a growing permanent collection, and educational events, Poster House explores the enormous impact of posters on society and culture, and how they have been... adapted to contemporary use. As the first poster museum in the United States, Poster House provides a space for inquiry for all those interested in design, advertising, and public interventions, with an aim to improving design literacy among the general public. For a poster to succeed, it must communicate. By combining the power of images and words, posters speak to audiences quickly and persuasively. Blending design, advertising, and art, posters clearly reflect the place and time in which they were made. Through them, Poster House explores everything from avant-garde design to changing societal norms, and all the fads and fashions over the last 160 years. Poster House was founded in 2015 with an eye towards filling a long-acknowledged gap in the New York cultural landscape. While there are several poster museums around the world, New York, with its long relationship with advertising and design, did not have such a dedicated public institution. After several years of planning and construction, Poster House opened its doors on June 20, 2019. Poster House is an affiliate member of the International Vintage Poster Dealers Association. 119 West 23rd Street was built around 1901 by The National Cloak Company. The area had first been an elite residential neighborhood, shifting into an active theater district after the Civil War. But the theaters gradually moved north to Times Square and the commercial field moved to 23rd Street. At ten stories, the building was quite tall for its day, and housed more than just the National Cloak Companys tailoring services for elegant ladies. Several publishing firms occupied the building, including George Routledge & Sons. Later in the ...Read More