Advertising - Overview
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.
"Advertising - Overview" showing 75 items.
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- No Image Available
Joseph Magnin Poster Collection, 1963-1968
- Notes
- Chain of department stores, begun in 1913 by Joseph Magnin, based in San Francisco. The chain closed in 1984, due to bankrupty
- Summary
- Fifty-one color posters and fifty-two black-and-white posters (sometimes called advertising slicks) from the Joseph Magnin Department Store, designed by the fashion illustrator Betty Brader-Ashley
- Cite as
- Joseph Magnin Poster Collection, 1963-1968, Archives Center, National Museum of American History. Gift of Donald and Ellen Newman Magnin
- Date
- 1963
- 1963-1968
- creator
- Magnin (Joseph) Stores
- donor
- Magnin, Ellen Newman
- Magnin, Donald
- designer
- Brader-Ashley, Betty 1924-1986
- Local number
- 03035504 (AC Scan)
- 2002.3007 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Letter Press & Lithographic Printing Inks [Poster]
- Summary
- Poster album. Chinese man in traditional Qing garb, purple. Man is seated, behind him is image of a gate. Behind gate on left and right are men dressed in white, holding standards
- Date
- 1902
- The Ault & Wiborg Co.advertiser
- Frank B. Swick
- Local number
- AC0060-0000134 (AC Scan No.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Biotech Bay Poster
- Description (Brief)
- This poster depicts some of the biotechnology firms of “Biotech Bay” (the San Francisco Bay area) in 1991. It was created by artist Kat Wilson for Synergistic Designs, a promotional media publisher.
- Starting in 1984, Synergistic Designs created a series of artwork maps it dubbed “FusionScapes” to promote regional areas of high technology, particularly biotechnology. The maps depicted local businesses and research facilities, and were intended to serve as “both a fun conversation piece and an effective line of corporate image-enhancement tools.” Concentrated centers of biotechnology throughout the United States were given catchy nicknames referring to the region and its ties to genetics. Among these names were “Genetown” (a play on “Beantown” for the greater Boston area) and “BioForest” (the name for the Pacific Northwest biotech industry.)
- Companies, universities, and research facilities in the biotech field paid to be included on the maps as well as in regional directories, which were updated every other year. The maps were printed on posters, postcards, T–shirts and other promotional ephemera, and could be modified to highlight specific institutions. By the mid-1990s, Synergistic Designs shifted its emphasis from traditional printed promotional materials to a website that integrated all of the regions of biotechnology in a single space. BioSpace.com launched in 1996 with the intention of being a “virtual on-going trade conference for the global biotech industry.” The site was still live and publishing new regional biotech maps as of 2012.
- Today, the older maps provide unique historical snapshots of the development of the biotechnology industries in the different regions of the United States.
- Sources:
- “Synergistic designs unveils 4th Biotech Bay promotional campaign; demonstrates biospace web site enhancements” PR Newswire.
- “Md. Biotech industry setting up Web site ‘Nonstop trade show’ starts next month at www.biospace.com.” Guidera, Mark. Baltimore Sun. August 28, 1996.
- 1994 Biotech Bay Directory
- Accession File
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1991
- maker
- Synergistic Designs
- ID Number
- 1994.3092.01
- catalog number
- 1994.3092.01
- nonaccession number
- 1994.3092
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Biotech Beach Poster
- Description (Brief)
- This poster depicts some of the biotechnology firms of “Biotech Beach” (the San Diego area) in 1993. It was created by artist Terry Guyer for Synergistic Designs, a promotional media publisher.
- For more information, see object 1994.3092.01.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1993
- maker
- Synergistic Designs
- ID Number
- 1994.3092.02
- catalog number
- 1994.3092.02
- nonaccession number
- 1994.3092
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Research Triangle Poster
- Description (Brief)
- This poster depicts some of the biotechnology firms of North Carolina’s “Research Triangle” in 1992. It was created by artists Kat Wilson and Jay Jung for Synergistic Designs, a promotional media publisher.
- For more information, see object 1994.3092.01.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1992
- maker
- Synergistic Designs
- ID Number
- 1994.3092.03
- catalog number
- 1994.3092.03
- nonaccession number
- 1994.3092
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Letter Press & Lithographic Inks [poster]
- Summary
- Poster album. Poster printed in Orange, gray, green, black and tan. Woman in tan kimono dancing with orange sahs and fan. Woman in lower right corner kneeling, playing with ball. Taken from the Poster Album
- Date
- 1902
- The Ault & Wiborg Co. advertiser
- Frank B. Swick
- Local number
- AC0060-0000135 (AC Scan No.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Eskimo Pie Corporation Records, 1921-1996
- Notes
- Eskimo Pie, invented by Christian Kent Nelson in 1920, was possibly America's first chocolate-covered ice cream bar, although other inventors contested this. The company's use of Arctic and Eskimo imagery (and polar bears) in their packaging, marketing and advertising campaigns was a distinctive feature, with interesting implications for the relationships between anthropology and ethnic references in popular culture
- Summary
- Printed advertisements, photographs (including negatives and slides), sales presentation materials and packaging; patent and legal information, clippings, posters, scripts for radio commercials, sheet music for jingles, etc. Also includes personal papers (correspondence) of Christian Nelson, inventor of the Eskimo Pie
- Cite as
- Eskimo Pie Corporation Records, 1921-1996, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1921
- 1921-1996
- 20th century
- 1890-1920
- creator
- Eskimo Pie Corporation
- author
- Nelson, Christian Kent 1893-1992
- Local number
- 96-3185 to 96-3186 (OPPS slides of collection items)
- 1996.3046 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
SS United States Poster
- Description
- The phrase Newest, Largest and Fastest on this 1952 poster captures the excitement surrounding the launching of the SS United States. Designed by naval architect and marine engineer William Francis Gibbs and built in Newport News, Virginia, the ship was delivered to its owners, the United States Lines, in 1952. It immediately took its place as the most modern (Newest) liner on the transatlantic route and the pride of the U.S. passenger fleet.
- At launching, the SS United States was unquestionably the Largest U. S.-flagged passenger ship and the largest of the United States Lines’ fleet. Although at 990 feet in length it was slightly smaller than Britain’s 1,019-foot-long liner the Queen Mary, the SS United States could still carry about the same number of passengers while displacing significantly less water. The emphasis on size is suggested by the two smoke stacks (funnels) featured prominently on the poster. The funnels vented the combustion gases from the vessel’s four propulsion plants into the air. At the time, these structures were the largest ever built for this purpose. The company claimed that the funnels were so large that ten automobiles could be lined up side by side in each of them.
- In terms of speed (Fastest), there was no contest. The poster artist conveys speed with the looped arrow and one can speculate that the loop represents the round-trip voyage on the ship’s regular service between the East Coast of the United States and Europe (New York / Havre / Southampton on the poster). The maiden voyage of the SS United States broke all records for a round trip with an average speed of 35.59 knots, or 39.50 miles per hour. The ship’s fastest speed was 38.32 knots, or 44 miles per hour. This speed was achieved by four separate steam turbine propulsion systems driving four separate propellers, each measuring 18 feet in diameter. Together these units produced 240,000 shaft horsepower.
- The superlative nature of the SS United States was summed up by the British humor magazine Punch when it commented, on the arrival of the ship in port on her maiden voyage: “After the loud and fantastic claims made in advance for the liner United States, it comes as something of a disappointment to find them all true.”
- ID Number
- 1991.0856.13
- catalog number
- 1991.0856.13
- accession number
- 1991.0856
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Helen May Butler Collection, 1899-1937 (bulk ca. 1902)
- Notes
- Helen May Butler, woman bandmaster, directed an all-women traveling military band, 1898-1913. "Music for the American people, by American composers, played by American girls" was one of the band's mottoes. Born in New Hampshire in 1873, she pursued a variety of musical studies and became an accomplished performer in both violin and cornet. She announced candidacy for a U.S. Senate seat in 1936
- Summary
- The materials cover the career of a woman bandmaster with an all ladies' traveling military band, 1898-1913 , with the bulk of the material ca. 1902. Includes clippings, photographs, programs, posters, postcards, advertising fliers, letters, telegrams, biographical article announcing candidacy for U.S. Senate seat, and "The Flood of 1937" section of the Cincinnati Post, February 13, 1937
- Cite as
- Helen May Butler Collection, 1899-1937, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1899
- 1899-1937
- bulk ca 1902
- 1930-1940
- 1890-1920
- 1900-1950
- 1880-1900
- 1930-1950
- donor
- Young, Helen May Butler
- collector
- Musical Instruments, Division of (NMAH, SI)
- Subject
- Butler, Helen May 1873-19??
- Helen May Butler's Ladies Military Band
- United States. Senate
- Local number
- 242392 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Food Preservation and Home Canning Literature, 1883-1980
- Notes
- Dr. Green was a professor at Ohio State University, whose hobby was the study and collection of articles pertaining to the home preservation of food
- Summary
- Printed materials on various aspects of food preservation, including canning, pickling, freezing, and other methods. Recipe books, instruction manuals, posters, brochures and pamphlets issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, by manufacturers of food products, and by manufacturers of canning and preserving products and devices; also newsletters published by bottle and jar collecting hobby groups. A large percentage of the publications in the collection were published during World War II, and relate to preserving food to ensure an adequate food supply during the war years
- Cite as
- Food Preservation and Home Canning Literature, 1883-1980, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1883
- 1883-1980
- donor
- Green, Mary E
- collector
- Work and Industry, Division of, NMAH, SI
- Extractive Industries, Division of
- Local number
- 2007.3132 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
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