Today's Photo of the Week is the brightly colored cover of the 1970-71 Brooklyn yellow pages published by the New York Telephone Company. I was searching through our directories hoping to answer a reference question about a Brooklyn business when I was stunned to find that several 1970s volumes have gorgeous covers created by artists. Recognizing this style of art from posters of the era, I wondered if the artist, Peter Max, was known for other work.
When I looked him up, I found that not only was he very well known, he was a Brooklyn boy. Born into a Jewish family in Berlin in 1937, Max moved to several different countries before he and his family settled in Bensonhurst in 1953, where he attended Lafayette High School. After attending the Art Students League in Manhattan, Max started a commercial studio with friends and their designs garnered much acclaim. In 1967, he designed the poster for the second Be-In at Central Park, and the USPS commissioned him to design a commemorative postage stamp for the 1974 World's Fair in Spokane. In between those two high-profile commissions, apparently he designed the eye-catching cover for the Brooklyn yellow pages shown above, as well as this one for 1973-74.
Today, Max's work is more known for being featured at sales on cruise ships, and unfortunately, there has been some controversy around his wellbeing and the management of his studio. Nonetheless, his 1960s-70s work is the epitome of that era's funky design sensibility, and his phone book covers were no doubt at one time in homes all across Brooklyn.
Interested in seeing more photos from CBH’s collections? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images, or the digital collections portal of Brooklyn Public Library. We welcome appointments to research our entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections. Our reference staff is available to help with your research! You can reach us at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org.
This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.
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