About Milwaukee's neighborhood posters

You just moved to Milwaukee. You are sitting in your bungalow in Bay View and staring at the blank walls. You are a full-fledged grown-up, so those leftover posters from your college dorm don’t cut it anymore.

For generations, the Milwaukee neighborhood posters have provided an easy and classy way to decorate your new space. They were unveiled in 1983 by the City of Milwaukee’s Discover Milwaukee program, with colorful, eye-catching artwork by Jan Kotowicz of local landmarks, like the lower east side’s Oriental Theatre and Washington Park’s bandshell. Wait, what is Pigsville? Thankfully, local historian John Gurda provided illuminating text on the back of the posters about each neighborhood. The posters even popped up in “Wayne’s World” to lend authenticity to Alice Cooper’s Milwaukee-centric cameo.

Best of all, the posters follow the egalitarian spirit of the city. The original run of 21 neighborhoods initially cost just $2 apiece. Now there are 39 options available from Historic Milwaukee, Inc., including one with all the neighborhoods, for only $10. There’s no excuse for those blank walls.

See the rest of Milwaukee's 100 objects

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: About Milwaukee's neighborhood posters