What are Posters for?

1. Advertising products - Travel, goods


2. Promoting events - Exhibitions, theatre, movies, concerts


3. Politics and propaganda - War, elections, demonstrations


4. News - Newspaper billboards

Poster History

1. There have always been posters, at least since there have been walls to stick them to and certainly since the invention of printing (Shakespeare used posters).


2. Printing press was a boon.


3. Invention of lithography in 1796 (and chromolitholithography later) meant that text based posters were not the only type of poster.


4. 1800s French poster makers like Toulous Lautrec took posters to artistic heights.


5. 1900s Photographic processes

What makes a Poster Record?

1. Non Projected Graphic record type (Number 011 on the pull down list).

2. Fixed fields
Type of Material is "Picture".
Form of Material is " Two-dimensional nonprojectable graphic ".

3. General Material Designation is "Picture".

4. Physical description is "Poster".

5. 520 summary field conveys information about the contents (text and picture).

6. Subject subdivision "Poster".

7. Specific subject headings (e.g. "War posters").

8. Subject based call number has been retained, but the prefix "XV*" has been removed (e.g POSTERS/WORLD WAR, 1914-1918/69). This is for co-location.

Why is our Posters Collection So Good?

1. It's a snap shot of social mores, history and politics of New South Wales (with special reference to the 1970s and 1980s).

2. It contains significant collections of historical interest (e.g. World War I, The Vietnam War and the Australian Bicentennial, 1988).

3. Shows the types of printing and the typographical styles that were used at the time.

4. It contains valuable art posters by famous name poster artists (e.g. Martin Sharp and James Northfield).

5. It gives information not available elsewhere (e.g. photos of cultural identities pre internet, and non mainstream political views).

6. For the cataloguer it visualises how the subject headings work and how marc records provide that leap forward (i.e. every peice of information in the record is searchable, not in one "drawer").

Historical Snap Shots

1. It's a snap shot of social mores, history and politics of New South Wales (with special reference to the 1970s and 1980s).

Significant Collections

2. It contains significant collections of historical interest (e.g. World War I, The Vietnam War and the Australian Bicentennial, 1988).


Vietnam War

World War I

Printing and Typography

3. Shows the types of printing and the typographical styles that were used at the time (e.g. screen printing).