Transitioning into a new century
There’s a Havana that most people have never seen.
Not the Havana of salsa music and vintage cars from the 1950s. The one I’m drawn to is quieter and older — a city of horse-drawn carriages, Spanish Colonial colonnades, and majestic palms so tall they seem to hold up the sky.
These photographs were taken around 1910, when Havana was in transition less than a decade after gaining its independence from Spain. The streets were still finding their new rhythm and people in the city moved at an unhurried pace.
In the cathedral plaza, omnibuses and their drivers waited idly for passengers. Church bells across the city marked the hour.
And from the interiors of grand hotels, a cool fountain might be heard in the Andalusian-styled courtyards that provided an escape from the tropical heat.
This is the Havana my grandfather first arrived in as a young boy, the son of a Spanish-Cuban father and French-Mexican mother.
The family had moved to the city in 1901, anticipating opportunities in the new nation, as well as the advances coming in technology and transportation.
Urban scenes of a rapidly changing city
Our travel posters feature urban scenes of daily life in this Old Havana. The photographs highlight extraordinary details, such as the textures of cobblestone streets and the delicates shapes of the balcony railings.
In the current collection, you’ll also see examples of avenues of Royal Palms — so iconic in Cuban landscapes — that in 1910 still existed within the city.
In our travel poster “El Son de Mi Cuba”, that country road you see lined by palm trees was actually just beyond the downtown area in 1910. Within a few decades, the road would be in the heart of Havana’s vibrant Vedado neighborhood.
From Atlantic & Havana: This quiet road, lined by Cuban Royal Palms, was just beyond Havana’s downtown in 1910.
Two of our other designs showcase a different photograph of gorgeous palms, but each poster has an alternate version of typography — one in English and the other in Spanish:
Dreams of Cuba / Asi Soñaba Cuba
They suggest a similar phrase, but the idea and meaning of each are quite different when understood in one’s native tongue.
From Atlantic Havana: Two similar, but different, vintage Old Havana Travel Posters - in English and in Spanish.
New designs for our Vintage Travel Posters are on the way
The old images in this collection offer usual perspectives of a city that has intrigued the imagination for over 500 years. (Havana was founded in 1519.)
What is also striking are the photographic details that can be appreciated in our fine art prints. Each palm frond is visible, each cobblestone distinct.
More designs will soon expand our variety of vintage travel posters.
These will include new sepia-toned views of Old Havana, as well as rare color images promoting early 1900s tourist travel to Cuba.
And each design will certainly offer a charming and unfamiliar view of the island’s remarkable capital city.
Havana imagery from the turn of the 20th century — warm, richly detailed and sure to be beautiful additions for your walls.
Browse our Vintage Travel Posters collection →
