Bow Wow, It's Hot!


THE NATIONAL POSTAL MUSEUM OPENS JULY 30TH The "Dog Days" of summer begin today and continue through August 11.

This period usually brings the hottest temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere. Highlighting today's canine theme, this humorous poster comes from our online exhibition Posters American Style.

Photographer Jim Erickson received howling support from dog owners in Raleigh, North Carolina, when he put out the call for models for this project. Created to announce the opening of the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum, the ad agency was well aware of the potential for public apathy at the notion of a monument to letter carriers.

This tongue-in-cheek image represents an early application of what was, in 1993, cutting-edge digital technology, seamlessly merging over fifty photographs of individual dogs and distinct backgrounds into a composite whole.

Source: Therese Thau Heyman. Posters American Style (New York and Washington, D.C.: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with the National Museum of American Art, 1998).

Pictured: James Joseph Erickson, born 1954, THE NATIONAL POSTAL MUSEUM OPENS JULY 30TH, 1993, offset lithograph on paper, 36 x 24 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Commissioned by the National Postal Museum, Smithsonian Institution.