Important Design 
8 December 2009
Important Design 
220

Pacific Electric Railway

Red Car destinations sign

USA, c. 1920
stenciled linen 153 h × 49¾ w in (389 × 126 cm)
estimate: $7,000–9,000
result: $11,875
own a similar item?
free evaluation

In the early part of the twentieth century, the Pacific Electric Railway connected the disparate communities in Orange County, San Bernardino and the Inland Empire with Los Angeles by a mass transit system. Unified in 1911 by Henry Huntington, the smaller transit lines became the Red Car system. This destination sign illustrates the wide reach of several of the lines across the Los Angeles area and is an example of hand-drawn typography from the early twentieth century.

print
220