Marina City, circa 1963-65, is featured in two posters offered for sale. A poster (right) for United Airlines, painted by noted maritime artist Thomas Hoyne, depicts Marina City from the Chicago River east of the State Street Bridge. The price for the 25 x 40-inch poster is estimated at $950. However, another poster (above) for Pan Am, an international airline no longer in business, may be more rare. Printed on translucent paper, the poster is designed to display in a light box. “We have never seen a poster like this from this time,” says Alfra Martini, a gallery associate at Chisholm Gallery Vintage Posters in New York. “Just holding it up to the light creates the most amazing effect. It really looks like the building is glowing.”

The price of the 24 x 39-inch poster is estimated at $850.

“Promotional travel campaigns did (and still do) focus on the most attractive sites a city has to offer,” notes Martini. “These two posters were created in what we now dub the ‘Mad Men Era,’ which is that innovative period [around 1960] when the collective psyche lay in visions of a rapidly changing time, both philosophically and technologically.”

Admission to the poster fair is $15 on Saturday, March 26 and Sunday, March 27. A preview on Friday, March 25 will benefit Evening Associates, a members’ group of The Art Institute of Chicago. Admission that day is $45 for the general public.

Posters for sale are vetted by the International Vintage Poster Dealer Association, a non-profit organization created, according to its website, to inform and educate the public about vintage posters.

Websites:

• The International Vintage Poster Fair
• Chisholm Gallery Vintage Posters