“Welcome to Richmond”

What first inspired you to travel? Was it a travel poster viewed in a bus, train, or airport terminal? In a day and age where we can affordably jet around the globe, the romanticism of automobile travel has fallen by the wayside for most American families, but for the post World War II generation, family vacations by car were the norm.

Mid-20th century advances in color printing technology made inexpensive advertising posters such as “Welcome to Richmond” a readily available marketing tool and source of inspiration for an expanding middle class. World War II veterans took to the roads with their families in the 1950’s to seek out American landmarks and stories. Richmond’s relationship to the founding fathers, the American Revolution, and the American Civil War brought tourists from all over the country to the “cradle of our nation.”