Pan Am Africa - Woman in Profile

The elegance of Africa is on display in this poster from the late 1960s. A woman in proud profile shows us her traditional Ankara fabric gele, or headwrap, and carries a reed. The pattern in the fabric of her head wrap is repeated in the text of the poster, and the simplicity of the design is striking. Given the head wrap and fabric styles, this woman is likely modeled after someone from Western Africa although the specific country is not known. Unfortunately, we also are not able to attribute this poster to a specific artist. Pan Am (Pan American Airlines, or PAA) was founded in 1927 by Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, Carl A. Spaatz, and John H. Jouett. The company rose to prominence by opening new travel routes to South America, and securing the support of Charles Lindbergh to help establish landing rights to many exotic locales. Pan Am was always considered a trendy airline, where the stewardesses wore designer outfits. Iconically, the Beatles flew Pan Am when they first arrived in the Uni