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Paul George Lawler was one of the most recognized American airline poster artists of the early commercial aviation period. He was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. After graduating from high school, Lawler attended art school first in Cleveland, then at the Yale University School of Fine Arts. Around 1930, he relocated to New York City, a major advertising industry hub at the time, to work as a commercial artist. In 1936, he received a WPA (Works Progress Administration) commission for a series of thirteen large panels for the Library of the Textile High School of New York City (now the Bayard Rustin Educational Complex) depicting the history of the textile industry—these were painted over in the 1960s and recently restored. During the 1950s, he was the art director for the pharmaceutical company E. R. Squibb & Sons (Squibb Laboratories), based in New York City. In the latter part of the decade, Lawler served for several years as the editor of Art Direction: The Magazine of Creative Advertising as well as editor for the New York Art Director’s Club Annual of Advertising Editorial. See "Artists of the Airways: Airline Travel Posters from the SFO Museum Collection" on display in the Aviation Museum and Library. The Aviation Museum and Library is located pre-security, in the International Terminal. https://bit.ly/AirwaysArtists The History of the Textile Industry mural panel 1936 Paul George Lawler Courtesy of the Bayard Rustin Educational Complex, Manhattan New York City School Construction R2024.0604.001 This image was posted on May 08, 2024.