Ikonographia Visual Archives
Ikonographia Visual Archives showcases illustration, photography, and design, with a focus on 20th-century advertisement. The Archives offer a unique perspective on American and international visual culture.
The site is organized into Stories, Products Pages, and Archive Pages.
Ikonographia Visual Archives is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in exploring history and culture through visuals. We encourage you to watch the video to get a taste of just how diverse and rich this archive is and to see the kinds of insights you can find in this living, growing resource.
Ikonographia Stories
A Story is the core module of this site. It’s a curated collection of images across the ages, surrounded by all available contexts, including historical background and text transcripts.Some stories are exclusive to the web, and often, the most qualitative and complete available. We also use the original text that you usually don’t find.
Stories’ contents range from Vintage Advertisements, Illustrations, Photography, and Design.
Some stories are work-in-progress as we add more or more qualitative content. For many topics, there are more episodes. So, get in touch.
Browse all the Stories.
Images Quality
With images being at the heart of Ikonographia, we care deeply about their quality. Images are either original photos, reproductions from original prints, or sophisticated restorations of existing digital files. Images are available for purchase as Hi-res Files or Fine-Art Prints.
Photography
Ikonographia features the work of contemporary masters such as Carol M. Highsmith on 1930s Art Deco Architecture or Roberto Bigano.
We will also add Ansel Adam’s remarkable work on the Manzanar War Relocation Center and the famous “British Algae” Cyanotype Impressions by Anna Atkins, digitally restored.
For example, discover the impressive work of Roberto Bigano about Mannequins, Bugatti, and Bburago.
Browse stock photographs or buy fine-art prints.
Illustration
Illustration-based stories are a core part of Ikonographia. We feature the work of masters but also almost unknown artists, American, British, French, Italian, and German.
Of course, we publish works out of copyright unless some of which we hold the copyright. Please look at the “Copyright Advice” tab on the pages.
Find all contents on the “Illustration Archive Page.”
For example, discover the work of Anne Fish, a British cartoonist, and illustrator. She is best known as “Fish,” her maiden name, and how she signed her works.
Magazines
We will add a new exclusive section featuring iconic magazine double pages that have fallen into the Public Domain as Flair, Brodovitch’s Portfolio, Judge, and more.
Finding the original magazines, reproducing and fitting the double spreads, and painstakingly digitally restoring them was very difficult, but the results were worth it. As usual, we extracted the text and made them available in the file’s metadata. You hardly find something similar on the internet.
The subjects are available for purchase as hi-res digital files or as fine-art prints.
Advertisement
It all started from a passion for vintage advertisements. The striking illustrations, the captivating messages, and the history seeping through the pages of yellowed magazines were always fascinating. The idea of Ikonographia was born and became a curated collection of stories through ads across the ages. We focus on American and International Advertisements from the 1910s to the 1960s.
To understand how we combine images and text and include them in its historical and social contest, look at this story about “Streamlined Trains”.
Posters
Since the earliest times, posters have been used for advertising and announcements. The invention of chromolithography allowed for mass editions of posters illustrated in vibrant colors to be printed. By the 1890s, the technique had spread throughout France and Europe.
In a century, Posters became a vital art form, attracting painters such as Toulouse-Lautrec and Mucha to theatrical and commercial designers. They have ranged in styles from Art Nouveau, Symbolism, Cubism, and Art Deco to the more formal Bauhaus and the crazy hippie posters of the 1960s. Source.
We started publishing a Story on Bugatti Poster. We’ll soon post an unbelievable collection of British 1920s and 1930s posters by “London Underground.”
Shop
Ikonographia’s Shop has three main sections:
1. High-quality digital files from vintage prints
2. Royalty-free Photo Stock Archive
3. Bburago Memorabilia.
Dedicated shop pages are also available in the sidebar menu.
Any product page contains technical and historical info on the subject and a “Right Advisory” Tab informing you if that image is copyrighted or not. You may also navigate all the products on the same topics using the “Previous” and “Next” buttons.
With images being at the heart of Ikonographia, we care deeply about their quality. Images are either original photos, reproductions from original prints, or sophisticated restorations of existing digital files. Images are available for purchase as Hi-res Files or Fine-Art Prints.
There is also a new, fast-growing Fine-Art Prints Shop.
Ikonographia Stories
A Story is the core module of this site. It’s a curated collection of images across the ages, surrounded by all available contexts, including historical background and text transcripts.
Some stories are exclusive to the web, and often, the most qualitative and complete available. We also use the original text that you usually don’t find.
Stories’ contents range from Vintage Advertisements, Illustrations, Photography, and Design.
Some stories are work-in-progress as we add more or more qualitative content. For many topics, there are more episodes. So, get in touch.
Browse all the Stories.
Illustration
Illustration-based stories are a core part of Ikonographia. We feature the work of masters but also almost unknown artists, American, British, French, Italian, and German.
Of course, we publish works out of copyright unless some of which we hold the copyright. Please look at the “Copyright Advice” tab on the pages.
Find all contents on the “Illustration Archive Page.”
For example, discover the work of Anne Fish, a British cartoonist, and illustrator. She is best known as “Fish,” her maiden name, and how she signed her works.
Photography
Ikonographia features the work of contemporary masters such as Carol M. Highsmith on 1930s Art Deco Architecture or Roberto Bigano.
We will also add Ansel Adam’s remarkable work on the Manzanar War Relocation Center and the famous “British Algae” Cyanotype Impressions by Anna Atkins, digitally restored.
For example, discover the impressive work of Roberto Bigano about Mannequins, Bugatti, and Bburago.
Browse stock photographs or buy fine-art prints.
Advertisement
It all started from a passion for vintage advertisements. The striking illustrations, the captivating messages, and the history seeping through the pages of yellowed magazines were always fascinating. The idea of Ikonographia was born and became a curated collection of stories through ads across the ages. We focus on American and International Advertisements from the 1910s to the 1960s.
To understand how we combine images and text and include them in its historical and social contest, look at this story about “Streamlined Trains”.
Magazines
We will add a new exclusive section featuring iconic magazine double pages that have fallen into the Public Domain as Flair, Brodovitch’s Portfolio Judge, and more.
Finding the original magazines, reproducing and fitting the double spreads, and painstakingly digitally restoring them was very difficult, but the results were worth it. As usual, we extracted the text and made them available in the file’s metadata. You hardly find something similar on the internet.
The subjects are available for purchase as hi-res digital files or as fine-art prints.
Posters
Since the earliest times, posters have been used for advertising and announcements. The invention of chromolithography allowed for mass editions of posters illustrated in vibrant colors to be printed. By the 1890s, the technique had spread throughout France and Europe.
In a century, Posters became a vital art form, attracting painters such as Toulouse-Lautrec and Mucha to theatrical and commercial designers. They have ranged in styles from Art Nouveau, Symbolism, Cubism, and Art Deco to the more formal Bauhaus and the crazy hippie posters of the 1960s. Source.
We started publishing a Story on Bugatti Poster. We’ll soon post an unbelievable collection of British 1920s and 1930s posters by “London Underground.”
Shop
Ikonographia’s Shop has three main sections:
1. High-quality digital files from vintage prints
2. Royalty-free Photo Stock Archive
3. Bburago Memorabilia.
Dedicated shop pages are also available in the sidebar menu.
Any product page contains technical and historical info on the subject and a “Right Advisory” Tab informing you if that image is copyrighted or not. You may also navigate all the products on the same topics using the “Previous” and “Next” buttons.
There is also a new, fast-growing Fine-Art Prints Shop.
Search & Discover
This site provides different tools to search and navigate through the contents.
On the menu bar, a Search tab searches for ALL contents.
In the Sidebar of the Shop pages a Product Search tab to search through the products only.
The dedicated Archive pages showcase all the Products and Stories.
A work-in-progress “Discover” page is a sort of curated Index, sorted by Subjects, Brands, or Artists.
