Vintage Maps

Poster Patch is adding a series of vintage maps. Maps will soon be available in the Vintage Images section of the website. Here is a preview of some of the cool maps that Poster Patch is adding to its collections.

Vintage map of Washington D.C.
Washington D.C.

Vintage illustration map of Manhatten N.Y.
Manhatten N.Y.


Vintage Americana Art

Poster Patch is doing a lit remodeling. We're adding a lot of new vintage Americana art including old photography, illustrations, and some very cool pictures of antique toys.

Vintage Bock Beer Poster
Early 1900s Bock Beer Poster

Corgi 1952 Silver Dawn Royals Royce

Roller Girl

We found this at a swap meet in the mountains and loved it. Notice the 4 digit phone number for Portland, OR. If you like this, let us know. We're looking for more of these. If you know of any, let us know please.

70s Paris - Rare Moment at the Arc

This picture is really interesting. Not because for what is in the picture but for what is not in the picture - people that is. This was shot in about 1978 and I'll bet it would be hard to find another picture of the Arc like it. Our grandmother lived just down the street from here and she always said "There's no place like Paris. It is the best".



Get Wet

Always loved water. This was taken in a mountain creek in Santa Barbara, CA. The light was right.



Many Shoes - There's an old saying "You can tell a lot about a person by the shoes they wear". I'm not sure about that but its really fun to check out shoes. They are kind of like windows into your sole ;-)





The Mast for your Money

Calm day on the ocean. Love the great reflections.  Here are a couple of photos I liked and added to the Poster Patch website.





Rick Garcia at Art Walk in Santa Barbara


It was nice to work with Rick Garcia, well known Santa Barbara artist. He is well known for his incredible agave paintings. Here is one of our favorites.

Oil Paintings from Christian Kozaki




We are very happy to announce that Christian Kozaki has joined Poster Patch. He is a very good painter and well known on the East Coast in Rhode Island and Cape Cod as seen here in these coastal scenes. Please visit his complete collection. There will be more coming!

I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival



This colorful Santa Barbara street painting festival began in 1987. The artists called madonnari, work on their paintings throughout the three day festival with spectators walking about enjoying their work.

The kid on the donkey


A kid, a donkey and a machete. If this wasn't Mexico, that might be weird. When you're driving around Mexico, the one thing you really have to watch out for is nalgas (that's butt in Spanish) donkey nalgas, pig nalgas, chicken nalgas, horse nalgas, cow nalgas, goat nalgas, dog nalgas. They all stick right out there in the road and you have to be careful not to hit any nalgas!

Bridalveil Fall Yosemite


Bridalveil Fall is one of the most prominent waterfalls in the Yosemite Valley in California cascading 620 feet from a hanging valley. The Ahwahneechee tribe believed that Bridalveil Fall was home to a vengeful spirit named Pohono which guarded the entrance to the valley, and that those leaving the valley must not look directly into the waterfall lest they be cursed. They also believed that inhaling the mist of Bridalveil Fall would improve one's chances of marriage.

The primary source of Bridalveil Falls is Ostrander Lake, some 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) to the south.
When the wind blows briskly, the waterfall will appear to be falling sideways. During lesser water flow, the falls often don't reach the ground. Because of this, the Ahwahneechee Native Americans called this waterfall Pohono, which means Spirit of the Puffing Wind.

Petroglyph of a bighorn sheep.



Petroglyphs, or carved rock designs, and pictographs, or painted rock designs, are known by the general term rock art. In what are now the states of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Colorado, prehistoric hunter-gatherer Indians began to decorate canyon walls, rock shelters, and boulders with rock art several thousand years ago. Navajos, Apaches, Pueblo Indians, and even Spanish soldiers and settlers continued to create rock art over the centuries.


The three major southwestern Indian horticultural groups who created rock art were the Hohokam of southern Arizona, the Mogollon of southern Arizona and New Mexico and West Texas, and the Anasazi--now known as the Pueblo Indians--of southern Utah, Northern New Mexico and Arizona. They existed from approximately A.D. 1 to A.D. 1500. In addition, the Fremont culture of Utah employed a dramatic rock-art style based on Anasazi motifs from A.D. 700 to A.D. 1200.

The Paris Metro


Since Paris is such a compact city (roughly 6 miles across), much of it can be covered on foot — especially the primary sightseeing spots in the city's center. There will be times, however, when a métro or bus ride is welcome. Some of the métro stations are worth a visit. For example, the stop for the Louvre (line 1) gives one the impression that the train has pulled into the Museum itself: the immaculate marble walls are lined with exhibits and replicas of art works, with glass cases containing various sculptures. On line 13, Varenne offers exhibits from the nearby Rodin Museum (including a replica of The Thinker), while Liège is paneled with beautiful tiles. Abbesses (line 12) features murals alongside its spiral staircase leading to one of the more elaborate of Art Nouveau entrances.

WW II fighter plane nose art


While World War I nose art was usually embellished or extravagant squadron insignia, true nose art appeared during World War II, which is considered by many observers to be the golden age of the genre, with both Axis and Allied pilots taking part. At the height of the war, nose-artists were in very high demand in the USAAF and were paid quite well for their services while AAF commanders tolerated nose art in an effort to boost aircrew morale. The U.S. Navy, by contrast, prohibited nose art, while nose art was uncommon in the RAF or RCAF.

Stonehenge


Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi) west of Amesbury and 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones and sits at the centre of the densest complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds. Archaeologists had believed that the iconic stone monument was erected around 2500 BC, as described in the chronology below. However one recent theory has suggested that the first stones were not erected until 2400-2200 BC, whilst another suggests that bluestones may have been erected at the site as early as 3000 BC (see phase 1 below). The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC.

London Tower Bridge


The London Tower Bridge is often mistakenly referred to as London Bridge, which is actually the next bridge upstream. A popular urban legend is that in 1968, Robert McCulloch, the purchaser of the old London Bridge that was later shipped to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, believed that he was in fact buying Tower Bridge. This was denied by McCulloch himself and has been debunked by Ivan Luckin, the seller of the bridge. Tower Bridge is a combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, England, over the River Thames. It is close to the Tower of London, which gives it its nameName. It has become an iconic symbol of London. Tower Bridge is one of several London bridges owned and maintained by the City Bridge Trust, a charitable trust overseen by the City of London Corporation. The bridge consists of two towers which are tied together at the upper level by means of two horizontal walkways which are designed to withstand the horizontal forces exerted by the suspended sections of the bridge to the left and the right. The vertical component of the forces in the suspended sections and the vertical reactions of the two walkways are carried by the two robust towers. The bascule pivots and operating machinery are housed in the base of each tower. Its present colour dates from 1977 when it was painted red, white and blue for the Queen`s Silver Jubilee. Originally it was painted a chocolate brown colour.

60s art and posters


During the mid to late 60s, the age of sex and drugs and rock and roll began the transition into psychedelia and art crept into the scene in the form of album covers, flyers and posters. As the 60s drew to close, we saw the music and art peak with events like Woodstock and the acid tests. The scene started to fade at the end of the decade, with the deaths of Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix signalling both the beginning of the 70s and the end of rock and roll as people had known it. For many, posters shown here like this sexy, nude girl are vivid reminders of an amazing time in history. 

The Pont du Gard - France


The Pont du Gard is an aqueduct in the South of France constructed by the Roman Empire, and located in Vers-Pont-du-Gard near Remoulins, in the Gard département. Pont du Gard means literally bridge of the Gard (river). The Gard River, which has given its name to the Gard département, does not actually exist under this name. The river, formed by many tributaries, several of which are called Gardon, is itself called Gardon until its end. It has long been thought that the Pont du Gard was built by Augustus` son-in-law and aide, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, around the year 19 BC. Newer excavations, however, suggest the construction may have taken place in the middle of the first century A.D, consequently, opinion is now somewhat divided on the matter. Designed to carry the water across the small Gardon river valley, it was part of a nearly 50 km (31 mi) aqueduct that brought water from the Fontaines d`Eure springs near Uzès to the Castellum in the Roman city of Nemausus (Nîmes).

Old Iowa Barn


From the days when Thomas Jefferson envisioned the new republic as a nation dependent on citizen farmers for its stability and its freedom, the family farm has been a vital image in the American consciousness. As the main structures of farms, barns evoke a sense of tradition and security, of closeness to the land and community with the people who built them. Many farmers built their barns before they built their houses, so many farm families look to their old barns as links with their past. Old barns are often community landmarks and embody ethnic traditions and local customs.

Rainbow Bridge, Lake Powell Utah


Rainbow Bridge, located on Lake Powell, is the world`s largest natural bridge and is considered a sacred place by the Navajo Indians, for whom personified rainbows have stood as guardians of the universe. This natural wonder nestles among canyons carved by streams en route to the Colorado River from Navajo Mountain`s north flank. Until the formation of Lake Powell, this was one of the most remote and inaccessible regions in the contiguous United States. It is located on 160 acres of federal land in San Juan County, Utah, immediately adjacent to Navajo Mountain and the Navajo Reservation.Today, the bridge is accessible by a two-hour, one-way boat ride from Wahweap Marina.

Kite Camera Arial Photography


Santa Barbara Harbor from the kite cam. The Harbor began almost a hundred years ago when a wealthy Santa Barbara resident wanted to keep his yacht closer to home - or so the story goes. He created the breakwater and harbor that keeps the considerable fishing and pleasure boat population of Santa Barbara safe and moored.

Santa Barbara Mission from the kite cam. 
The Santa Barbara Mission was the tenth of the California Missions to be founded by the Spanish Franciscans. It was established on the Feast of St. Barbara, December 4, 1786.

Padre Junipero Serra, who had founded the first nine Missions, had died 2 years earlier. It was Padre Fermin Francisco de Lasuen, his successor, who raised the cross and made the first converts.

The original buildings were unpretentious and made of adobe. Over time three adobe churches were constructed on the grounds, each larger than the one before until the fourth and present church was built in 1820. The third was destroyed by earthquake in 1812. The fountain in front was built in 1808.

Old Mission After EarthquakeThe earthquake of June 29, 1925 damaged the Mission church and friary considerably. The earthquake occurred during a chapel service. People rushed out of the chapel while the beams in the front of the church fell. Fortunately no one was hurt. Restoration work was completed in 1927 and the towers reinforced in 1953.


Santa Barbara Breakwater from the kite cam