The image is TfL from the London Transport Museum collection.. This object is currently on display in room 302 as part of Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer. There is one other image of this object. See our image rights statement.
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Object Timeline
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1930 |
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1931 |
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1963 |
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1970 |
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2013 |
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2021 |
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2022 |
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Poster, Power, The Nerve Center of London's Underground
This is a Poster. It was designed by E. McKnight Kauffer and printed by Vincent Brooks, Day & Son and made for (as the client) Transport for London. It is dated 1930, printed 1931 and we acquired it in 1963. Its medium is lithograph. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.
For 15 years, Kauffer had promoted the Underground as a way to reach a destination. But here, he celebrated the raw energy that powered the system. Kauffer fused man and machine, drawing on images he had seen in Soviet propaganda posters. Electric bolts emanate from a muscular arm and clenched fist, which punches through a spinning turbine that doubles as the Underground logo. Blue currents of energy are drawn from a simplified yet recognizable Battersea power station.
This object was featured in our Object of the Week series in a post titled The Power Underground.
This object was
donated by
Mrs. Edward McKnight Kauffer.
It is credited Gift of Mrs. E. McKnight Kauffer.
- Poster, Capital
- screenprint on paper.
- Museum purchase from the Members' Acquisitions Fund of Cooper Hewitt....
- 2017-8-1
- Bandbox And Lid, Putnam and Roff
- block printed paper on pasteboard support.
- Gift of Mrs. Frederick F. Thompson.
- 1913-45-10-a,b
- Poster, Olivetti
- lithograph on paper.
- Gift of Milton Glaser.
- 1979-42-6
Our curators have highlighted 5 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:
- Drawing, Design for Electric Streetcar
- graphite, blue color pencil, black pastel crayon on white heavy wove paper.
- Gift of Donald Deskey.
- 1988-101-1475
- Poster, URSS: XX Aniversario del la URSS./ Comision Nacional de Homenaje...
- lithograph on wove paper/newsprint.
- Gift of William P. Mangold.
- 1997-21-20
- Poster, Botta/Cucchi, Museo Cantonale d'Arte, Lugano, 1994
- lithograph on wove paper.
- Gift of Bruno Monguzzi.
- 2009-14-1
Its dimensions are
H x W x D: 102.2 × 63.2 cm (40 1/4 × 24 7/8 in.)
It is signed
Printed in script, in black ink, lower right: EMcKnight Kauffer 1930.
It is inscribed
Printed in black ink, lower left: 17.1500. 1/31; lower right: VINCENT BROOKS, DAY & SON, LTD. LITH. LONDON. W.C.2.
Cite this object as
Poster, Power, The Nerve Center of London's Underground; Designed by Edward McKnight Kauffer (American, active England, 1890–1954); England; lithograph; H x W x D: 102.2 × 63.2 cm (40 1/4 × 24 7/8 in.); Gift of Mrs. E. McKnight Kauffer; 1963-39-45
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer.
