The gorgeous large advertising and movie posters that were popular in the 20th century were mostly printed using color lithography, a wonderful, but complicated and expensive process. For more modest budgets, and for traveling shows where the signage had to change based on locale, woodblock printing was a much more economical approach.
I was at the Poster House Museum, one of New York's best small museums, this past weekend to see their to see their fabulous new exhibit "Act Black: Posters from Black American Stage & Screen." And while the color prints for the movies are spectacular, I was also drawn to the very simple, but large basswood wood blocks that were used to promote traveling shows and other events. These are fairly large blocks, all of basswood, with large blank spaces where you could separately add extra text and imagery for a custom design based on each venue.
The printing blocks in this show are from 1925 or 1946, but the prints are recent "restrikes" made from the original blocks. (As the exhibit noted, heritage printers will reprint from the blocks out of appreciation for the artistry of the posters, but also - more practically - if the blocks aren't periodically used, they will dry out, crack and deteriorate.) This is why there aren't any inserts with details. But this is the type of hand bill and poster that you would see to tell you these acts were coming to town.
Basswood is still a common wood for carving in the US, although these blocks are pretty big. Unlike finer grain and harder woods that can take smaller detail, basswood is a far better material for something easy to carve, in a big vibrant block meant to be noticed from a distance. Most of the details, including the lettering, looks like it was done with a chisel, but there is a fair amount of gouge-work too. The non-printing areas, which are about 3/16-1/4" below the surface of the material, are pretty consistently leveled, which would ordinarily suggest a router for blanking stuff out. But these blocks date back to 1925, so that wasn't likely. These blocks were carved by professionals who knew what they were doing, with a lot of skill involved. The blocks do show some gouge marks that indicate hand work, and since all the blocks are covered with layers of ink or paint, there are probably plenty more that are obscured.
A great show of the practical aspects of woodworking.
The museum's other major show, "Love & Fury: New York’s Fight Against AIDS," focuses on the AIDS awareness posters from the early days of the AIDS crisis, including the ground-breaking "Silence = Death" project.
Most of the exhibit had awesome color posters - well worth the visit
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04/29/2026 Michael Kellough
Lots of obvious fine handwork but also obvious results from a rotary router (the even plane in the broad wastelands).
“The earliest pantograph-controlled rotary engraving machine, or pantograph router, was developed in 1834 by William Leavenworth for producing wood type. This, or a similar machine, was later used by Darius Wells for manufacturing letters, marking a crucial step in automated woodworking and routing technology.”
04/29/2026 stephen thomas
The movie featured in posters "The Flying Ace" is available on many screening services as well as You Tube, and is a hoot. Also the story of the studio behind it and similar movies, to break stereotypes in the south.
Thanks for sharing this, Joel, especially the great photos of the blocks. It was interesting and enlightening to study the tool marks. It looks to me like the letters were indeed roughed out with an electric router http://vintagemachinery.org/mfgindex/detail.aspx?ID=987 of some sort. Then just the borders and corners of each recess cleaned up with gouges and chisels. Incredibly crisp skilled cutting to achieve the final lines.
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“The earliest pantograph-controlled rotary engraving machine, or pantograph router, was developed in 1834 by William Leavenworth for producing wood type. This, or a similar machine, was later used by Darius Wells for manufacturing letters, marking a crucial step in automated woodworking and routing technology.”