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Last fall, we uncovered a cache of posters in a trunk. I blogged about this material in our Special Collections blog in October. Gertrude Hoffman (1880-1955) was a dancer in the early 20th century who traveled internationally with her troupe of dancers called The Hoffman Girls. Gertrude Hoffman was married to Max Hoffman (1875-1963), a Vaudeville producer and music composer. These posters are brittle and having been folded inside a trunk for decades, are very fragile. The posters that happened to be in decent shape were encapsulated between sheets of mylar. we’ve encapsulated about 8 posters and still have one or two left to complete this project.

One of the larger posters (6×9′) is a 4-panel affair. I’ve been slowly backing this monstrosity with a very thin Japanese paper to help it stay together and be somewhat accessible to patrons.

This large poster is a beauty and must have attracted lots of attention on the side of a building in the 1920’s.