Designs on Delivery: GPO Posters from 1930 to 1960

The Archives Hub website is providing online access to a new exhibition of posters from the British Postal Museum and Archive, 'Designs on Delivery: GPO Posters from 1930 to 1960'. The exhibition is a joint project from the University of the Arts London Archive and Special Collections Centre and the British Postal Museum and Archive. It includes some very striking posters from the British Postal Museum and Archive and related items from the University of the Arts Archive. John Grierson's film Night Mail (1936) is also being shown on loop at the University of the Arts.

Pat Keely (died 1970) Night Mail, 1939 © Royal Mail Group Ltd
courtesy of the British Postal Museum & Archive

The images I've included from the exhibition perfectly illustrate the point made about the exhibition in the promotional material - 'the General Post Office was at the cutting edge of poster design and mass communication'. The image which I think is the most striking is the poster by Pat Keeley from 1939, Night Mail. I've included a few more images from the exhibition but I recommend going to the Archives Hub website to view it online, or even better, if you're in London, go and visit the exhibition at the University of the Arts at the London College of Communication.

Harold Sandys(HS)Williamson(1892-1978) Loading mails at the docks in London, 1934 © Royal Mail Group Ltd courtesy of the British Postal Museum & Archive

John Armstrong (1893-1973) Mail Coach A.D. 1784 , 1935 © Royal Mail Group Ltd
courtesy of the British Postal Museum & Archive

Edward McKnight Kauffer (1890-1954) Air Mail Routes, around 1937 © Royal Mail Group Ltd
courtesy of the British Postal Museum & Archive

The John Grierson Archive here at Stirling University includes material on his career at the GPO Film Unit. Grierson established the film unit at the GPO which went on to produce a series of acclaimed films including Coal Face , Night Mail , Song of Ceylon and North Sea . Filmmakers and artists who worked at the unit included important figures such as Humphrey Jennings, Alberto Cavalcanti, W H Auden and Benjamin Britten.

Still from Night Mail, John Grierson, 1936 © John Grierson Archive, University of Stirling

N.B. I don't think I made it clear in the original post that Night Mail was produced by John Grierson, but was actually directed by Harry Watt and Basil Wright.