30 Mid-Century Travel Ads to Spark Retro Wanderlust

First, a Public Service Announcement: LAST CHANCE to enter the Galley Giveaway / Pimp My Postcard contest! (Original deadline was this Thursday, but I'll probably accept anything I get through the weekend.)

 And now I present to you ... thirty old-fashioned travel ads from Life magazine in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s. I found these when I was at the library researching my retro-European-travel-and-stuff book (cough-ahem, comes out April 3rd). They're in chronological order, starting with the 1940s. Most are for specific destinations or ways to get there (e.g. airlines), but I've also included some for travel accessories or that offer some sort of insight into how Americans thought about travel in a given year--like the Chef Boy-Ar-Dee ads that claim popping open a can of spaghetti is "Almost like being in a cafe in Rome." 

Note how the mode of transportation and the specific places being advertised evolves over the years. The earliest ones, with one notable exception, are all about seeing the USA by road or rail. Later on, they're about package tours to Europe. And at the very end, in the 1960s, the ads emphasize independent travel to Europe. Okay, enough set-up. You're just here for the ads. 

1.

1946

2.

1946. Close-up of text below. Basically, this ad was invited US service men and women 

who fought in Europe to come back as tourists.

Close-up of the above ad. Apologies for the low quality of the image.

3.

1946

4.

1947

5.

1947

6.

1948

7.

1948

8.

1950

[many more after the jump]

9.

1950

10.

1951

11.

1951

12.

1952. Prize for the best caption for this one.

13.

1952

14.

1956

15.

1956

16.

1956

17.

1956

18.

1956

19. 

1956

20.

1956

21. 

1956

22.

1964

23.

1965

24.

c. 1965

25.

1965. Ad is for the Pacific Area Travel Association.

26.

1966

27.

1966

28.

1966

29.

1966

30.

1966