Advertising

Ivory Soap Ad

Advertising is meant to persuade, and the themes and techniques of that persuasion reveal a part of the nation's history. The Museum has preserved advertising campaigns for several familiar companies, such as Marlboro, Alka-Seltzer, Federal Express, Cover Girl, and Nike. It also holds the records of the NW Ayer Advertising Agency and business papers from Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Carvel Ice Cream, and other companies. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana comprises thousands of trade cards, catalogs, labels, and other business papers and images dating back to the late 1700s.

Beyond advertising campaigns, the collections encompass thousands of examples of packaging, catalogs, and other literature from many crafts and trades, from engineering to hat making. The collections also contain an eclectic array of advertising objects, such as wooden cigar-store Indians, neon signs, and political campaign ads.

Button, WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE, prograph

This square-shaped button is designed to be worn as a diamond-shape.
Description
This square-shaped button is designed to be worn as a diamond-shape. It has a fluorescent orange background with purple text that reads: "WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE.” Below, in a purple rectangle with white text, it reads: "prograph.” A mark in black ink on the reverse reads: "Mac World Boston 8/90."
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c 1990
ID Number
2009.3071.598
catalog number
2009.3071.598
nonaccession number
2009.3071

Button, Memory Media Products, Spectrum, The Better Diskette

This square button, designed to look like a 3 ½” floppy diskette, has a red background with white text that reads: "Spectrum, The Better Diskette" / Memory Media Products / Tustin, California / U.S.
Description
This square button, designed to look like a 3 ½” floppy diskette, has a red background with white text that reads: "Spectrum, The Better Diskette" / Memory Media Products / Tustin, California / U.S. 1-800-228-0438 / CA 1-800-228-9699 / EUROPE +41 22 734 73 59 / Spectrum diskettes are / made in the U.S.A.”
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c. 1989
ID Number
2009.3071.554
catalog number
2009.3071.554
nonaccession number
2009.3071

Chinese-American Shop Sign

This sign was purchased by a North Beach second-hand shop from a proprietor in the neighboring Chinatown district of San Francisco. It is said to date from between 1890 and 1910.
Description
This sign was purchased by a North Beach second-hand shop from a proprietor in the neighboring Chinatown district of San Francisco. It is said to date from between 1890 and 1910. If that is so, the sign’s survival is quite miraculous: The 1906 earthquake in April of that year caused much damage throughout the city due to spreading wildfires. Residents of Chinatown grabbed what they could easily carry and evacuated the neighborhood ahead of the fires, taking up temporary residence in relief camps in San Francisco and Oakland. Relocating Chinatown permanently to Hunter’s Point or North Beach was discussed, but, with realization of the continued need for the tax base provided by foreign trade between the business community and Asia, Chinatown was ultimately rebuilt at its original location and continued to be not only a major center for the Chinese American community but a popular destination for tourists to the present day.
Translation of this shop sign would help to document a portion of the economic history of this neighborhood. It is likely that the language is Cantonese, the dialect used in Southern China, which was engaged in foreign trade long before military oppression and American labor recruitment in the mid-19th century brought immigrants to “Gun San” or the “Land of the Golden Mountain,” as the Cantonese referred to the West Coast of the United States. Not only did Chinese pan for gold in San Francisco. They labored excavating coal, mercury, and borax, building railway lines and tunnels, and working for fisheries and canneries throughout Far West. Economic depression following the Civil War brought fear, discrimination, and violence to established Chinese communities. Successively restrictive acts of Congress prohibited further Chinese immigration beginning in 1882, with continuing restrictions of civil rights until the Immigration Law of 1965 eliminated such restrictions, bringing a new wave of migration to the United States from Asia.
With dwindling opportunities to earn enough money to return home, Chinese Americans turned to such service industries as laundries and restaurants and specialized increasingly in trade abroad. But this sign also may have advertised availability of herbal medicines, foodstuffs, cookwares, or furnishings desired by the local Chinese American community, which, while changing in population, has survived in San Francisco to the present day.
ID Number
1985.0844.02
accession number
1985.0844
catalog number
1985.0844.02

Milk and Eggs

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1930s-1950s
maker
Keppler, Victor
ID Number
PG.006261.I
catalog number
6261I
accession number
238737

Progress Button, #1 in the Last Three Datapro User Surveys

This circular button has red and black text on a white background that reads: Progress. #1 in the Last Three Datapro User Surveys. Fourth Generation Language and Relational Database A mark in black ink on the reverse reads: CDX '90.Currently not on view
Description
This circular button has red and black text on a white background that reads: Progress. #1 in the Last Three Datapro User Surveys. Fourth Generation Language and Relational Database A mark in black ink on the reverse reads: CDX '90.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c 1990
ID Number
2009.3071.502
catalog number
2009.3071.502
nonaccession number
2009.3071

Focus Button, The Language for Mainframes and Micros

This circular button has black text on a pale blue background with a yellow world grid that reads: I Believe in GDN Global Data Networking From 3Com.Currently not on view
Description
This circular button has black text on a pale blue background with a yellow world grid that reads: I Believe in GDN Global Data Networking From 3Com.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c 1989
ID Number
2009.3071.329
catalog number
2009.3071.329
nonaccession number
2009.3071

Advertising Button

This circular button has black text on a white background that reads: I speak the LANguage of business. A mark on the reverse reads: Networld 9/89.Currently not on view
Description
This circular button has black text on a white background that reads: I speak the LANguage of business. A mark on the reverse reads: Networld 9/89.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c 1989
ID Number
2009.3071.063
catalog number
2009.3071.063
nonaccession number
2009.3071

Button, Memory Media Products, Spectrum, The Better Diskette

This square button, designed to look like a 3 ½” floppy diskette, has a green background with white text that reads: "Spectrum, The Better Diskette" / Memory Media Products / Tustin, California / U.S.
Description
This square button, designed to look like a 3 ½” floppy diskette, has a green background with white text that reads: "Spectrum, The Better Diskette" / Memory Media Products / Tustin, California / U.S. 1-800-228-0438 / CA 1-800-228-9699 / EUROPE +41 22 734 73 59 / Spectrum diskettes are / made in the U.S.A.” A mark in black ink on the reverse reads: "Comdex 11/89."
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c. 1989
ID Number
2009.3071.551
catalog number
2009.3071.551
nonaccession number
2009.3071

Advertising Button, Hyperglot Software Co.

This circular button has a fluorescent pink background with black text along the top border that reads: "Le monolinguisme est guerissable!" In a black circle is a black image of a Victorian lady, below which is a black stripe with pink text that reads: "HyperGlot.” The black text
Description
This circular button has a fluorescent pink background with black text along the top border that reads: "Le monolinguisme est guerissable!" In a black circle is a black image of a Victorian lady, below which is a black stripe with pink text that reads: "HyperGlot.” The black text beneath the stripe reads: "Foreign Language Software 1-800-290-GLOT.” Along the bottom border in black it reads: “(monolingualism is curable).”
Hyperglot Software Co. of Knoxville, TN, were the developers of foreign language software and offered instruction in Spanish, French, and German.
Reference: [last accessed 2019-08-14]
InfoWorld, Feb. 26, 1990, p. 87. (company advertisement.)
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2009.3071.599
catalog number
2009.3071.599
nonaccession number
2009.3071

Man analysing grain

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1930s-1950s
maker
Keppler, Victor
ID Number
PG.006261.U
accession number
238737
catalog number
6261U

Advertising Button, Reference Software International, Grammatik III

This square button was designed to be worn as diamond-shaped. It has a yellow border and a white center with grey horizontal lines.
Description
This square button was designed to be worn as diamond-shaped. It has a yellow border and a white center with grey horizontal lines. It has a large gray "III" in the background with red text written with pronunciation markings running across it that reads: "Gram.mat'.ik." Below the text is a yellow oval banner with black text that reads: "Nitpicking Corps." A mark in black ink on the reverse reads: "BCS 6/28/89."
Aspen Software Co. of Tijeras, New Mexico was the original distributor of Grammatik in 1981. Aspen Software was acquired by Wang Electronic Publishing in 1983, then Reference Software International in 1985, and was eventually acquired by the WordPerfect Corporation who incorporated Grammatik into their word processing version 6.0.
References: [last accessed 2019-08-06]
"InfoWorld," August 23, 1982, p. 43. (company advertisement.)
"The ABCA Bulletin," September 1984, p. 22.
"PC Magazine," February 14, 1989, p.38. (product comparison - Grammatik III and RightWriter version 3.0.)
InfoWorld Oct. 28, 1991, p.64-76. (product comparison review of six grammar checking programs.)
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c 1989
ID Number
2009.3071.601
catalog number
2009.3071.601
nonaccession number
2009.3071

Aunt Jemima Syrup Bottle

In 1939, Walter Landor arrived in the United States to help install the British training pavilion at the New York World’s Fair.
Description
In 1939, Walter Landor arrived in the United States to help install the British training pavilion at the New York World’s Fair. At twenty-six years old, Landor had left his home in Germany to study art and design in Britain, where he became the youngest Fellow of the Royal Society of Industrial Artists. With whispers of war circulating around Europe, Landor decided to stay in the United States and travelled to the West Coast in search of design work. In 1941, Landor and his new wife Josephine Martinelli founded Walter Landor and Associates (today Landor) in their San Francisco apartment. The company specialized in packaging and label design for a number of iconic brands ranging from Marlboro cigarettes to Aunt Jemima to Sara Lee. As the company expanded, Landor’s base of operations moved from his home through several locations until it settled in 1962 on the Klamath, a docked ferryboat in the San Francisco Bay that would become an iconic part of Landor’s own brand.
In 1966, Aunt Jemima’s ready-made pancakes debuted their own brand of syrup. Aunt Jemima began in 1889 in St. Joseph, Missouri, when Chris Rutt and Charles Underwood created the first ready-mix pancake. Searching for a character to mark their brand, the company settled on the Aunt Jemima figure after viewing a minstrel show which included a southern mammy, a fictional African American female figure happily enslaved to a White family. The use of Black characters to sell home goods to White consumers draws upon stereotypes of African-Americans established during the period of slavery; in particular it references the stereotype of African-Americans in a servile position. In 1926, Quaker Oats purchased the Aunt Jemima brand and continued to expand it. As Aunt Jemima grew in popularity, the company employed a number of Black women to act as Aunt Jemima at events ranging from World’s Fairs to grocery stores to Disneyland. In 1989, Quaker Oats redesigned and updated Aunt Jemima, changing her from an outdated stereotype to the design that is still in use today: a modern Black woman.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1966-1989
maker
Quaker Oats Company
ID Number
1993.0393.041
accession number
1993.0393
catalog number
1993.0393.041

Knifemaker's Shop Sign

Traditional American shop signs often incorporated objects made or sold by the shopkeepers, both to promote the wares and to help language-challenged customers understand what the shops offer.
Description
Traditional American shop signs often incorporated objects made or sold by the shopkeepers, both to promote the wares and to help language-challenged customers understand what the shops offer. This 1920s free-standing, wood–framed oilcloth window sign from the knife shop of Russian–immigrants Joseph and David Miller in the Lower East Side of New York City uses four implements and a legend in Yiddish to advertise their commercial offerings.
The sign reads:
Do iz Millers a brentsh [Here are Miller's forgings]
Di Miller halafim un mohel messer [The Miller ritual slaughter blades and circumcision knives]
zaynen di beste un sheynste [are the best and most beautiful]
in der gantser velt [in the whole world]
garantirt keyn mol nit tsu rosten [Guaranteed never to rust]
The Miller shop, at 25 Canal Street, made ritual Jewish cutlery for the shochet (butcher) and for the mohel (circumcisionist), using extreme care in the hand fabrication of each instrument. The large rectangular knife (gasos halef) on the sign was used to slaughter cattle, the small rectangular knife (ofos halef) was for poultry; the curved implement is a circumcision clamp (mohel mashinke); and the double sided knife is a circumcision knife (mohel messer). In compliance with Jewish tradition, great emphasis is placed upon cleanliness, speed, efficiency, and the minimization of pain in the use of these instruments.
This sign, together with knife catalogs and customer correspondence to the Millers from shochets, mohels, and rabbis from around the world, are 1992 gifts of Irene Galdston, daughter of Joseph Miller. The actual knifemaking tools used in the Miller shop are also in the Museum's collections.
Location
Currently not on view
shop owner
Miller, David
Miller, Joseph
ID Number
1992.0391.01
accession number
1992.0391
catalog number
1992.0391.01

Trading Card, Gum Inc. Superman No. 22

One of a set of 72 trading card featuring Superman, included in packages of Gum Inc.'s "Superman Bubble Gum" in 1940. Each "adventure story" card features an image of Superman on the front with a connected story on the back.
Description (Brief)
One of a set of 72 trading card featuring Superman, included in packages of Gum Inc.'s "Superman Bubble Gum" in 1940. Each "adventure story" card features an image of Superman on the front with a connected story on the back. The cards are one of the earliest examples of merchandise featuring the iconic superhero.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1940
maker
Gum, Inc.
copyright holder
Superman, Inc.
associated institution
Superman of America Club
maker
Gum, Inc.
Superman, Inc.
ID Number
1987.0213.067
accession number
1987.0213
catalog number
1987.0213.067

Florence

This black and white print is a bust portrait of actor Billy Florence wearing a suit and jewelry in the shape of a horseshoe. Below the print the words “Park Theatre, / Saturday, March 11th” appear to have been pasted on, but part of the printing is destroyed.
Description
This black and white print is a bust portrait of actor Billy Florence wearing a suit and jewelry in the shape of a horseshoe. Below the print the words “Park Theatre, / Saturday, March 11th” appear to have been pasted on, but part of the printing is destroyed. This addition of the location and date of the performance is known as a "datebill."
The Park Theater was built in 1798 on Park Row in Manhattan and was New York City’s premiere performance space in the early 19th Century. It attracted a diverse audience with each class sitting in its preferred section. Working class men sat in the pit; members of the upper class and women in the boxes; the least affluent sat or stood in the balcony. This included immigrants, people of color, and prostitutes.
William J. (Billy) Florence (1831-1891) was an Irish American performer, song writer and playwright. He was born William Jermyn Conlin (his birth name is cited in some sources as Bernard Conlin) in Albany, New York and raised in New York City. He broke into show business working as a call boy at the Old Bowery Theater while rehearsing plays at night. Florence made his professional debut in Richmond, Virginia in 1849 in The Stranger and returned to New York to perform in Home in 1850. His unassuming charm, skill at imitating various dialects and ability to convey the humanity of his characters all helped him win over audiences. He married actress Malvina Pray (1831-1906) in 1853, and the two frequently appeared together, with Florence playing the part of an Irishman and Malvina Pray as that of a Yankee. In 1836, Florence launched a successful national tour starring in The Ticket-of-Leave Man, a detective melodrama about a former convict. He and Pray also scored a hit in an 1875 play called The Mighty Dollar, which was inspired by her observations of wealthy Americans abroad. They performed together in the play more than 2500 times during the 1870s and 1880s. In his later years, Florence formed a comedy act with actor Joseph Jefferson. His stage name was inspired by his love for Florence, Italy, where he had an apartment. Billy Florence was also a Freemason and has been credited with co-founding the Shriners, whose official name was the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
This lithograph was produced by the artist Joseph E. Baker and Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company. Joseph E. Baker (1837-1914) was a lithographer, cartoonist and pencil portraitist who became especially well known for an 1860 portrait of Abraham Lincoln. He began his printing career as an apprentice at J. H. Bufford & Co. in 1857, and eventually became John Bufford’s principal draftsman and illustrator of sheet music. During the Civil War Baker produced political cartoons and lithographs for Bufford. He also did playbills and advertisements for the Forbes Company. Baker later worked for Armstrong & Company, remaining active until 1888.
The Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company was founded by William H. Forbes (ca 1836-1915), who immigrated to the United States from Liverpool, England in 1848. Forbes became an apprentice in the lithography business while still a boy and established William H. Forbes and Company in Boston in 1861. The firm expanded to become Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company in 1875 with hundreds of employees and offices in Boston, New York, Chicago, and London. During World War II the company became a major printer of allied military currency but went out of business later in the twentieth century.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
n.d.
depicted
Florence, William Jermyn
maker
Baker, Joseph E.
Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company
ID Number
DL.60.3022
catalog number
60.3022
accession number
228146

Jenny Lind by Nagel & Weingaertner and C. G. Crehenafter the daguerreotype by M.A. & S. Root,1850.

This black and white lithograph is a 3/4 length portrait of Jenny Lind wearing a formal gown with a lace shawl and holding a handkerchief in her lap. Her signature serves as the title. This print is modeled after a well-known daguerreotype by M. A. and S.
Description
This black and white lithograph is a 3/4 length portrait of Jenny Lind wearing a formal gown with a lace shawl and holding a handkerchief in her lap. Her signature serves as the title. This print is modeled after a well-known daguerreotype by M. A. and S. Root and is on thin, white paper which has been pasted to heavier cream-colored paper.
Jenny Lind (1820-1887) was an opera singer often described as “The Swedish Nightingale” for the range, purity, and melodiousness of her soprano voice. Born Johanna Maria Lind in Stockholm, Lind trained at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, began performing in her teens, and was soon creating a sensation on tours throughout Europe. When she made her London debut in 1847, frenzied theatergoers set off a stampede as they entered the theater. Queen Victoria was among those who attended that opening night performance. The Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen is said to have fallen in love with Lind and to have written fairy tales with her in mind, including “The Nightingale.” She also won the admiration of composers like Robert Schumann, Hector Berlioz, and Felix Mendelssohn, who became a close friend. In addition to Lind’s vocal gifts, she was greatly admired as a model of piety, simplicity, and generosity. In 1849, although only 29 years old, she announced her retirement from opera and turned to performing Romantic and Swedish folk songs. She resumed her operatic career in 1850, when she launched an American tour under the management of the showman P. T. Barnum. He promoted her arrival with such fanfare that she was greeted by a crowd numbering in the thousands when she sailed into New York’s harbor. She traveled across the United States and to Cuba and Canada in the year that followed, often donating her profits to the endowment of free schools in Sweden and other charitable causes. Lind and Barnum ended their partnership in 1851, but she continued to tour on her own for another year.
In 1852, Jenny Lind married her accompanist, Otto Goldschmidt, and continued to appear in occasional European concerts as Jenny Lind Goldschmidt. She died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 67. Although critics have debated whether her talent measured up to her reputation, her legendary popularity lives on in memorials and monuments around the world. She has inspired books, films, and a series of Swedish banknotes, while schools, streets, parks, hospitals, pies, clothing, and cigars all carry her name. Even a clipper ship, the USS Nightingale, and the Gold Rush town of Jenny Lind, California have been named in her honor.
This lithograph was produced by Nagel & Weingaertner and C. G. Crehen. Louis Nagel was born in Germany ca. 1817 and began working in New York as early as 1844. There he was involved in two partnerships, Nagel & Mayer (1846) and Nagel & Weingaertner (1849-1856). In 1857, he moved to San Francisco. Charles G. Crehen (1829-ca 1891) was a portrait painter, lithographer, and printer in New York.
Marcus Aurelius Root (1808-1888) was a photographer and daguerreotypist born in Granville, Ohio. He studied painting and penmanship before turning to daguerreotyping and became one of the early practitioners of the new art. He worked in Mobile, Alabama; New Orleans, Louisiana; St. Louis, Missouri; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and then in 1849 established a gallery in New York with his brother Samuel. The Root brothers were the first to produce daguerreotypes of Jenny Lind. After being disabled in a train accident, Marcus Root devoted himself to writing about photographic history and aesthetics. His book The Camera and The Pencil: Or the Heliographic Art, published in 1864, argued that photographers should be as highly esteemed as artists, and that much more was involved in photography than simply operating a camera. In recognition of his pioneering achievements, Root's daguerreotypes of famous people were included in an exhibition at the 1876 American centennial celebration in Philadelphia.
Samuel Root (ca. 1819-1889) was a daguerreotypist born in Granville, Ohio. He learned the art of daguerreotyping from his brother Marcus and the two opened a gallery in New York in 1849. Samuel Root later moved to Dubuque, Iowa, where he opened another daguerreotype business. He also published photographic books on Dubuque residences and businesses.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1850
copyright holder; publisher
Schaus, William
depicted
Lind, Jenny
maker
Nagel & Weingaertner
Crehen, C.G.
original artist
M.A. & S. Root
maker
Crehen, C.G.
ID Number
DL.60.3066
catalog number
60.3066
accession number
228146

Log Cabin Politicians

Hand colored lithograph by John Townsend Bowen (1801-ca 1856) refers to the log cabin campaign of William Henry Harrison. It is one of many that depicts several men drinking, smoking, and presumably discussing politics.
Description (Brief)
Hand colored lithograph by John Townsend Bowen (1801-ca 1856) refers to the log cabin campaign of William Henry Harrison. It is one of many that depicts several men drinking, smoking, and presumably discussing politics. Issued in 1841, shortly after the election, the print was published in Philadelphia by G. W. Burgess & Co., and painted by William Hall. The men are in front of a building labeled the "Harrison Hotel," with a sign indicating L. Stilman as proprietor. Signs on the hotel indicate a meeting for Van Buren and election broadsides for William Henry Harrison, President and John Tyler, Vice President. The hotel is clearly not a log cabin.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1841
publisher
G. W. Burgess and Company
maker
Bowen, John T.
artist
Hall, William
ID Number
DL.60.2409
catalog number
60.2409
accession number
228146

Philadelphia Fashions Spring and Summer 1847, by Samuel A. Ward and Asahel F. Ward No. 62 Walnut Street Philadelphia

Black & white print, two horizontal panels depicting seventeen figures: twelve men, three women, and two children in fashions from 1847. The upper panel depicts an interior scene; the bottom panel depicts an outdoor scene with a man and woman on horseback in the center.
Description (Brief)
Black & white print, two horizontal panels depicting seventeen figures: twelve men, three women, and two children in fashions from 1847. The upper panel depicts an interior scene; the bottom panel depicts an outdoor scene with a man and woman on horseback in the center. Numbers below the figures are keyed to a separately printed descriptive text.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1847
maker
Sinclair, Thomas
French, John T.
ID Number
DL.60.3069
catalog number
60.3069
accession number
228146

Representative Journals & Journalists of America

Black and white print containing facsimiles of twelve leading newspapers, each of which frames a bust portrait of its owner or editor, except center portrait which has no newspaper "frame". Facsimiles of signatures appear below with printed titles of papers.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Black and white print containing facsimiles of twelve leading newspapers, each of which frames a bust portrait of its owner or editor, except center portrait which has no newspaper "frame". Facsimiles of signatures appear below with printed titles of papers.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1882
depicted
Weed, Thurlow
lithographer
Buek & Lindner
publisher
Root & Tinker
ID Number
DL.60.2435
catalog number
60.2435
accession number
228146

Middle East Groceries Neon Sign

Neon signs, once coloring main streets and and highway byways, have slowly disappeared as local ordinances seek to increasingly govern their display.
Description
Neon signs, once coloring main streets and and highway byways, have slowly disappeared as local ordinances seek to increasingly govern their display. But from the abolition of the Prohibition Law in 1933 until celebration of the American Bicentennial in 1976, brilliantly lit multicolored glass tubing dominated the main streets of every city with advertisements reflecting the international diversity of foodways and business opportunities serving not only recent immigrants but tourists and locals seeking alternatives to food normally cooked in the home. This sign reflects an effort by an American culture group to more simply express their identity to outsiders not familiar with the confusion of more specific multiple country origins, foreign dialects, religious practices, and generational differences reflected after World War II. Not all customers who frequented this grocery store spoke Arabic or believed in Mohammed. The first generation to arrive in the United States from the Middle East came from Syria but political divisions, conflicts, and new national identities with new political boundaries following two world wars gave rise to a much more diverse community in the twentieth century. Third-generation offspring of 19th century immigrants no longer spoke their grandparents’ native languages but still enjoyed traditions practiced in an earlier time. Reflecting the existence of a diverse community, this sign promised availability of foods basic to many cultures that originated from the Middle East and Mediterranean, whether it be fava beans, strong coffee, flat breads, dried dates, olives, snacks, or sandwiches not offered by larger supermarket chains.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
1987.0887.07
accession number
1987.0887
catalog number
1987.0887.07

Gunner in cockpit

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1930s-1950s
maker
Keppler, Victor
ID Number
PG.006261.R
accession number
238737
catalog number
6261R

White haired woman knitting

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1930s
maker
Keppler, Victor
ID Number
PG.006263.Q
catalog number
6263Q
accession number
238737

Photographic History Collection: Berenice Abbott

During the 1920s, Berenice Abbott was one of the premier portrait photographers of Paris, her only competitor was the equally well-known Dada Surrealist Man Ray who had served as her mentor and employer before she launched her own career.
Description
During the 1920s, Berenice Abbott was one of the premier portrait photographers of Paris, her only competitor was the equally well-known Dada Surrealist Man Ray who had served as her mentor and employer before she launched her own career. An American expatriate, Abbott enjoyed the company of some of the great twentieth century writers and artists, photographing individuals such as Jean Cocteau, Peggy Guggenheim and James Joyce. One of the critical elements of Abbott’s portraiture was a desire to neither enhance nor interfere with the sitter. She instead wished to allow the personality of her subject to dictate the form of the photograph, and would often sit with her clients for several hours before she even began to photograph them. This straight-forward approach to photography characterized Abbott’s work for the duration of her career.
Thematically and technically, Abbott’s work can be most closely linked to documentary photographer Eugène Atget (COLL.PHOTOS.000016), who photographed Paris during the early 1900s. Abbott bought a number of his prints the first time she saw them, and even asked him to set some aside that she planned to purchase when she had enough money. After his death in 1927, Abbott took it upon herself to publicize Atget’s work to garner the recognition it deserved. It was partly for this reason she returned to the United States in 1928, hoping to find an American publisher to produce an English-language survey of Atget’s work. Amazed upon her arrival to see the changes New York had undergone during her stay in Paris, and eager to photograph the emerging new metropolis, Abbott decided to pack up her lucrative Parisian portrait business and move back to New York.
The status and prestige she enjoyed in Paris, however, did not carry over to New York. Abbott did not fit in easily with her contemporaries. She was both a woman in a male-dominated field and a documentary photographer in the midst of an American photographic world firmly rooted in Pictorialism. Abbott recalls disliking the work of both photographer Alfred Stieglitz and his then protégé Paul Strand when she first visited their exhibitions in New York. Stieglitz, along with contemporaries such as Ansel Adams and Edward Steichen, tended to romanticize the American landscape and effectively dismissed Abbott’s straight photography as she saw it. Not only was Atget’s work rejected by the Pictorialists, but a series of critical comments she made towards Stieglitz and Pictorialism cost Abbott her professional career as a photographer. Afterwards, she was unable to secure space at galleries, have her work shown at museums or continue the working relationships she had forged with a number of magazine publications.
In 1935, the Federal Art Project outfitted Abbott with equipment and a staff to complete her project to photograph New York City. The benefit of a personal staff and the freedom to determine her own subject matter was unique among federally funded artists working at that time. The resulting series of photographs, which she titled Changing New York, represent some of Abbott’s best-known work. Her photographs of New York remain one of the most important twentieth century pictorial records of New York City. Abbott went on to produce a series of photographs for varied topics, including scientific textbooks and American suburbs. When the equipment was insufficient to meet her photographic needs, as in the case of her series of science photographs, she invented the tools she needed to achieve the desired effect. In the course of doing so, Abbott patented a number of useful photographic aids throughout her career including an 8x10 patent camera (patent #2869556) and a photographer’s jacket. Abbott also spent twenty years teaching photography classes at the New School for Social Research alongside such greats as composer Aaron Copland and writer W.E.B. DuBois.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Abbott’s career was the printing of Eugène Atget’s photographs, one of the few instances in which one well-known photographer printed a large number of negatives made by another well-known photographer. The struggle to get Atget’s photographs the recognition they deserved was similar to Abbott’s efforts to chart her own path by bringing documentary photography to the fore in a Pictorialist dominated America. Though she experienced varying levels of rejection and trials in both efforts, her perseverance placed her in the position she now holds as one of the great photographers of the twentieth century.
Date made
1924-1956
1920
maker
Abbott, Berenice
ID Number
COLL.PHOTOS.000017
accession number
288852
234066
catalog number
69.216.01-15
6126

Daily News Vol. 46. No. 207

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1965-02-22
graphic artist
News Syndicate Co., Inc.
ID Number
2012.3028.01
accession number
2012.3028

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