Flashback to a time when government reports were works of art

[littlemissmartypants]

Rachel Cole, curator at the Northwestern University Transportation Library, with a whimsical cover from a 1982 Department of Agriculture report at the Northwestern University Library in Evanston, March 19, 2026. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

By Nina Metz | [e-mail] | Chicago Tribune
PUBLISHED: April 8, 2026 at 5:30 AM CDT | UPDATED: April 8, 2026 at 10:52 AM CDT

Government reports tend to make for less-than-scintillating reading. That’s the nature of the beast. Data can be dry.

But for the better part of the 20th century, the covers of these reports were works of art.

“Transporting Watermelons in Bulk and Bins by Truck,” a 1982 report for the Department of Agriculture, features an illustration of a semi-truck. But instead of hauling a trailer, the cargo is one gigantic watermelon, with an adorable tail on the end.

A 1964 annual report for the Missouri State Highway Commission titled “A Report of Highway Death in Missouri” appears to be inspired by the minimalist, geometric movie posters created by Saul Bass in the ’50s and ’60s. Against a black background, the red lettering of the title is all but crushing a prone human form. The title may be clinical and detached; the image on its cover is anything but.

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https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/04/08/transportation-library-northwestern/