Athens 1896 Olympic Poster

While there was no official poster produced for the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens, the cover of the Report of the Games was later adopted for this purpose.

This cover, which is a reproduction of the original, contains many references to antiquity, including the date 776 BC, considered the year of the first ancient Olympic Games. The young female figure is shown dressed in an outfit dating to the end of the 1800s Athens, holding a branch and an olive wreath, a reference to the fact that at the ancient Olympics, the winner of each event was crowned with an olive wreath. She stands before a view of the Acropolis and the Panathenaic Stadium, which was restored for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 and became the showpiece for the event.