Hawaii Recalls: Selling Romance to America - Nostalgic Images of the Hawaiian Islands, 1910-1950

Historian DeSoto Brown and graphic artist Anne Ellett have combed the archives to bring back to the light nostalgic images of the Hawaiian Islands between 1910 and 1950. These illustrations depict Hawaii s commercial graphic arts at its most glorious. Before the days of color photography, Hawaii called with romantic images of Diamond Head and Waikiki Beach, hula girls and beach boys, ukuleles, flowers and fish, in an evocative richness rarely equaled in the history of regional graphic art.

It s a fantasy of Hawaii that was developed over a period of about 40 years by people who were promoting the islands. During this time an imaginary version of Hawaii was fabricated by the businesses that really needed to make the rest of the country and the world aware of the islands: the steamship companies and airlines, the tour guide and car rental firms, and even the pineapple growers and aloha wear manufacturers. They (and the Territory of Hawaii itself) all came to increasingly depend on tourism for their economic well being, and everyone knew that creating a good reputation and keeping it strong were essential for success. They were selling romance, not just repeating facts, in the torrent of printed matter on the subject; from hand-tinted postcards to small brochures to large colorful booklets, all extolling Hawaii and its products.

Like all recollections, this tropical island heaven where hula girls strum their ukuleles under the moonlit palms, and care and worry are taboo was never real. This then, is the Hawai'i version of the good old days .