WWII PROPAGANDA AND AVIATION MOVIE POSTERS ACQUIRED
Vintage Wings of Canada is proud to announce the acquisition of the Adolphe Cassandre Collection of vintage Second World War and Cold War propaganda, recruitment, and motion picture posters. After nearly a year of negotiations, the world-renowned collection was purchased in February of 2017. The collection, including 287 individual pieces (many that are the only known copies still in existence) is valued at nearly US$275,000.
Recently, at Vintage Wings, we made some strategic decisions about our own aircraft collection in order to broaden its appeal and to attract a wider range of visitors of all ages and cultural backgrounds. We seek to engage people who may have only a passing interest in aircraft but who might be drawn to the historic and cultural worlds that surround these aircraft.
In the months ahead, Vintage Wings will seek to acquire more ancillary cultural artifacts that relate to the history that our aircraft played a major part in. This will enable us to express the depth and richness of this history without just focusing on aircraft. While we may all be “aerogeeks”, not everybody shares our passion. In order to be a more inclusive aviation enterprise, we need to spread our wings, so to speak, to embrace more than just airplanes. An aquarium is not just about fish, but the oceans in which these fish swim. In the same sense, we need to speak to the broader historical milieu in which airplanes were just a part.
At the turn of the millennium, a propaganda poster with the simple words “Keep Calm and Carry On” surfaced in Great Britain and became an overnight internet and commercial sensation. Its ability to express modern society’s psychological stresses and feelings of impending doom made this artifact of a bygone age something that today’s generation could relate to. With this in mind, we set out to find and acquire similar “objets de l’histoire” that could inspire a new generation.
In order for Vintage Wings to acquire these prestigious and fascinating cultural artifacts, we will need to release certain aircraft for sale. While some “purists” will lament the loss of these aircraft, we know that the Cassandre acquisition will represent a new and positive stage in our development—one that includes everyone, even those who don’t care about what we do. Presently, the posters are in vault storage, but the Cassandre Foundation has sent us photographs of the entire collection, some of which we can share with you today.
These prints range from classic government-issue propaganda posters to motion picture lobby cards to commercial product promotions from the period, each weaving a thread in the tapestry of what is the most tumultuous time in recent history. Here is a small selection of the 287 artifacts of the Cassandre Collection, which will be on display this summer in the hangar—once we sell off aircraft to make room.
The posters of the Cassandre Foundation Collection come from a period in Western culture when attitudes toward race, women and life in general were far different from the accepted values of today (at least those of Canada). They reveal many things about the time and are not necessarily representative of the values held by Vintage Wings of Canada, its staff and volunteers.