Cape May-Lewes Ferry Brochure 1960s-70s Travel Water-Way NJ DE
$ 6.86
Description
Cape May-Lewes Ferry Brochure 1960s-70s Travel Water-Way NJ DE. The cover panel and interior text blocks are printed in a palette of blue, yellow, and reddish-brown inks, which retain a muted, aged quality against paper that exhibits overall yellowing and faint creases from handling. This vintage ephemera item is a tri-fold promotional brochure for the Cape May-Lewes Ferry, a vessel service connecting New Jersey and Delaware across the Delaware Bay. The brochure features a vibrant, mid-century illustration style, with the front panel depicting a stylized ferry and a family waving, accompanied by the slogan “TRAVEL THE WATER-WAY.” The cover panel and interior text blocks are printed in a palette of blue, yellow, and reddish-brown inks, which retain a muted, aged quality against paper that exhibits overall yellowing and faint creases from handling. The top banner announces “Ride the Cape May-Lewes Ferry for Fun and Convenience,” and the primary text block encourages readers to “Escape from the ordinary . . . see new sites . . . take a break from driving . . . when you sail the Delaware Bay where it meets the Atlantic Ocean.” The brochure emphasizes the ferry as both a practical and recreational alternative, noting that the seventy-minute crossing adds “convenient and enjoyable relaxation” to travel. Bulleted points highlight amenities such as free parking at each terminal, snack bars on each vessel, and the opportunity to observe boats and marine life. A dedicated section titled “Private Parties on the Water” promotes the ferry as an “ideal and unusual setting for social outings, school trips, picnics at sea and business group meetings,” with private deck space available for up to five hundred people by contacting either terminal office. The illustration style and the depiction of a classic coupe or muscle car, along with the clothing and hairstyles of the figures, suggest a date range from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. No explicit year or specific addresses are printed on the brochure, but the terminals are implied to be in Cape May, New Jersey (Cape May County), and Lewes, Delaware (Sussex County). The piece serves as a document of mid-century travel advertising, capturing an era when the ferry experience was marketed not merely as a conveyance but as a leisurely diversion and a venue for group events. The absence of handwritten annotations and the survival of the brochure’s printed text and illustrations intact make it a clean example of ephemera from the period of the Cape May-Lewes Ferry’s early operations.
