Disneyland's attraction posters are the hobby's great paradox: the most iconic images in park history, and the most reprinted. The originals — big, bold silkscreens that hung in the Main Street tunnels and around the park from 1956 — are rare and expensive. The reprints, sold in park shops since the 1980s, are everywhere. Knowing the difference is the whole game, and this guide teaches it. It closes our Disneyland Memorabilia series; the reissue guide is essential companion reading.
Key Takeaways
- Originals (1956 onward) were silkscreened in small runs for in-park use, not sold; most are 36×54 inches.
- The park began selling offset reprints in the 1980s; reprints vastly outnumber originals.
- Tell them apart by printing method, size, paper, and margins — silkscreen vs. offset is the key.
- Originals are four- and five-figure items; reprints are affordable and perfectly collectible as reprints.
A short history
The poster program began in 1956 when Walt wanted the park's walkways — especially the tunnels under the railroad at the entrance — to feel like a world's fair, with bold graphic "coming attractions." Artists including Bjorn Aronson, Paul Hartley, Rolly Crump and others produced designs in a confident mid-century style: flat color, strong silhouettes, minimal text. They were silkscreened in modest quantities, hung, weathered, replaced, and generally not kept. The Walt Disney Family Museum (The E-Ticket's page on the museum is a good pointer) has exhibited originals, and a handful of Disney history books reproduce them.
Beginning in the 1980s the park began selling reprints — offset-printed, often at reduced sizes — as souvenirs, and has continued in waves ever since (the 50th anniversary in 2005 brought a big set). Then came Disney-licensed reprints through other outlets, and unlicensed reproductions on top. The result: for every original, there are hundreds of reprints.
Original vs. reprint: the checklist
| Check | Original silkscreen | Park / later reprint |
|---|---|---|
| Printing | Silkscreen: solid, slightly raised ink; color laid in layers; no dot pattern; subtle registration variance | Offset: flat ink; rosette dot pattern under a loupe; perfect registration |
| Size | Typically 36×54 in (some variants) | Often 18×24 or 24×36; some full-size |
| Paper | Heavier period stock, often toned | Bright white, coated |
| Margins / text | Period typography; sometimes sponsor credits | May carry modern copyright/"Disneyland Resort" marks |
| Condition | Usually shows use — edge wear, pinholes, tears (they hung outdoors) | Usually clean |
| Price | Four to five figures | Tens to a few hundred dollars |
The loupe test settles most cases: silkscreen has no halftone dots. Our reissue guide covers the method in detail.
The artists and the style
The look of the posters is mid-century commercial art at its most confident. Bjorn Aronson designed many of the first wave (1956–58) — the Jungle Cruise with its stylized boat and foliage, the Mark Twain, the Rocket to the Moon. Paul Hartley contributed the Matterhorn, Submarine Voyage, and Monorail posters of 1959 in a crisp, architectural style. Rolly Crump — later famous for the Enchanted Tiki Room's Tiki gods and the Haunted Mansion's early concepts — produced several in the 1960s, including the Tiki Room. Ken Chapman and others followed through the 1960s and 70s. Later decades brought posters by Jim Michaelson and the WED/WDI graphics teams, and the style evolved toward more rendered, illustrative work by the 1980s.
Knowing the artist's hand helps in two ways: it lets you date a design to its era, and it makes certain reprints more interesting — a reprint of an Aronson design still reproduces Aronson's composition, even if the ink isn't his.
Sizes and formats through the years
| Era | Original format | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1956–60s | 36 × 54 in silkscreen | Two-sheet style; hung in tunnels and on fences |
| 1960s–70s | 36 × 54 in silkscreen; some smaller variants | New Tomorrowland (1967) and New Orleans Square posters |
| 1980s | Park-sold reprints begin, commonly 18 × 24 | Offset; sold in shops as decor |
| 2005 | 50th anniversary reprint sets | Offset; widely available, popular entry point |
| 2010s–today | Ongoing reprints, licensed prints, pins and merch based on poster art | Modern marks; collect as modern |
A full-size 36 × 54 sheet with silkscreen ink is the thing; anything smaller, glossier, or dotted is a later product — pleasant, but different.
Walking through a purchase
Say you find a "vintage Skyway poster" at an estate sale. Work the list:
- Measure it. 18 × 24? Reprint. 36 × 54? Keep going.
- Loupe the ink. Dots in a rosette pattern? Offset reprint. Solid flat fields with slightly raised edges and no dots? Silkscreen — promising.
- Read every word. A "© Disney" line with a recent year, a "Disneyland Resort" mark, or a printer's credit from the 1990s settles it.
- Look at the paper and the wear. Toned stock with honest edge wear and pinholes is consistent with an original that hung in the park. Bright white and pristine usually isn't.
- Ask about provenance. Where did it come from? Disney auctions from the 1990s onward generated paperwork; earlier originals often came out through cast members and have family stories — worth recording, not worth relying on alone.
If it passes all five, you may have something significant — get a second opinion before you pay original money, and conserve it properly once you do.
The posters collectors chase
The extinct-attraction posters lead the market (see souvenirs of lost attractions): Flying Saucers, Skyway, PeopleMover, Adventure Thru Inner Space, Rocket to the Moon / Flight to the Moon, Submarine Voyage, Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland, Monsanto's House of the Future. Among surviving attractions, the early Jungle Cruise, Matterhorn, Monorail, Enchanted Tiki Room, Pirates and Haunted Mansion posters are perennial favorites. The E-Ticket Magazine reproduced many of these in its attraction features — a superb way to learn the designs.
Condition and value
Originals are almost never "mint" — they hung outdoors. Collectors accept honest wear (edge chips, pinholes, light toning) that a reprint wouldn't have, and conservation framing is standard. Values are driven by attraction, condition, and provenance; documented originals from Disney auctions or known collections command the most. Grading guide here.
Reprints: value modestly with edition and era — the earliest park reprints (1980s) have their own small following, and a clean, complete 2005 anniversary set is a nice thing. Buy reprints as reprints; pay reprint prices.
Framing and display
If you own an original, conserve it: UV glass, acid-free mat and backing, reversible hinges, out of sun — see storage and display. Never dry-mount. For the wall in a sunny room, hang a reprint; it's what they were made for.
The honest approach
At Main Street Collectibles in Martinez, Georgia, poster tags say exactly what they are — "park reprint, c. 1990s, offset, 18×24" or "original, silkscreen, with provenance" — and the prices follow. We'd rather sell you a great reprint honestly than an ambiguous "vintage poster." Come see both side by side; it's the fastest way to learn the difference.
Beyond Disneyland
Walt Disney World launched its own poster program in 1971, with EPCOT Center's pavilion posters in 1982 among the most striking of all — see EPCOT collectibles. The same original-vs-reprint rules apply.
✦ Think you have an original poster? ✦
Photograph the full sheet, the margins, and a close-up of the ink, and send it through our form — or bring it in. We'll tell you what it is before we tell you what we'd pay.
This completes the Disneyland Memorabilia series. Continue to Walt Disney World & EPCOT, or go back to the Collecting Guides.