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.

Frosty the boy hand puppet advertising Coca Cola

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
user
Haines, Elizabeth L.
Haines, Frank D.
maker
Haines, Elizabeth L.
Haines, Frank D.
ID Number
2007.0137.007.01
accession number
2007.0137
catalog number
2007.0137.007.01

Oyster Tin, Foote's Best Oysters

This gallon tin once contained fresh oyster meats packed by the D. E. Foote & Co., Inc. Established in 1870 on West and Jackson Streets in Baltimore, D. E.
Description
This gallon tin once contained fresh oyster meats packed by the D. E. Foote & Co., Inc. Established in 1870 on West and Jackson Streets in Baltimore, D. E. Foote was one of a hundred oyster packing firms in the city that year, reflecting the enormous volume of trade in oysters from the Chesapeake Bay.
In 1906 the U.S. Congress passed several pure food laws in response to outbreaks of typhoid fever and gastrointestinal ailments linked to poor sanitation. Several new regulations were imposed on the oyster industry after contaminated oysters were blamed for serious illnesses. The laws required inspections of oyster beds and packing houses, as well as the identification of shellfish sources and standardized labeling.
This tin probably dates to the period 1920-30, when colorful lithographed tins became popular. It includes the old-style bail handle, a feature that was phased out around this time in an effort to reduce manufacturing costs. Like many Baltimore oyster packers, the Foote Company addressed consumers’ fears about sanitation by emphasizing the clean conditions under which the oysters were handled and citing its compliance with the law. The message to consumers on the reverse of the can reads: “THIS CAN CONTAINS STRICTLY FRESH SHUCKED SALT WATER OYSTERS PACKED UNDER PERSONAL SUPERVISION IN THE MOST SANITARY MANNER IN CONFORMITY WITH THE NATIONAL PURE FOOD LAW. KEEP ON ICE UNTIL USED.”
date made
1920-1930
maker
D. E. Foote & Co., Inc
ID Number
2007.0062.01
catalog number
2007.0062.01
accession number
2007.0062

Let your kodak keep the Christmas story

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1921
advertiser
Eastman Kodak Company
maker
Eastman Kodak Company
ID Number
2016.0066.379
catalog number
2016.0066.0379
accession number
2016.0066

ScreenStar Button

This square button has blue text on a white background that reads: ScreenStar. montage FR1. It has a blue line border with four blue circles and an image of an American Flag. A mark in black ink on the reverse reads: NGGA 2/91 Chi.Currently not on view
Description
This square button has blue text on a white background that reads: ScreenStar. montage FR1. It has a blue line border with four blue circles and an image of an American Flag. A mark in black ink on the reverse reads: NGGA 2/91 Chi.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c 1991
ID Number
2009.3071.257
catalog number
2009.3071.257
nonaccession number
2009.3071

Advertising Button, Logitech

This circular button has black text on a pink and yellow background that reads: Logitech KIDZ Mouse. The letters KIDZ are in blue, yellow, green, and orange and have several grey mice with blue ears crawling on them. It includes a large grey image of a mouse face and nose.
Description
This circular button has black text on a pink and yellow background that reads: Logitech KIDZ Mouse. The letters KIDZ are in blue, yellow, green, and orange and have several grey mice with blue ears crawling on them. It includes a large grey image of a mouse face and nose. A mark on the reverse reads: Comdex L.V. 11/92.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c 1992
ID Number
2009.3071.088
catalog number
2009.3071.088
nonaccession number
2009.3071

"The Stage at Coyote Holes" Mutoscope Movie Poster

Posterboard with pre-printed design and painted advertisement for the mutoscope motion picture "The Stage at Coyote Holes" - starring Wally Wales.
Description (Brief)
Posterboard with pre-printed design and painted advertisement for the mutoscope motion picture "The Stage at Coyote Holes" - starring Wally Wales. An attached photograph depicts a scene from the movie in which a man threatens a Native American with a revolver in an "Old West" town. The Western film genre is almost as old as the motion picture itself; Edwin S. Porter's 1902 film "The Great Train Robbery" is often considered the first narrative motion picture, and it also gave birth to the Western genre. The motion picture advertised on this poster stars Wally Wales (born Hal Taliaferro), an actor who appeared in over 200 films and usually played a cowboy or prospector in low-budget "B" Westerns. By the 1920s, when this poster was made, Western films were highly popular among American audiences and stars like Wally Wales could attract audiences who were familiar with their past performances.
Description
The Mutoscope Collection in the National Museum of American History’s Photographic History Collection is among the most significant of its kind in any museum. Composed of 3 cameras, 13 viewers, 59 movie reels and 53 movie posters, the collection documents the early years of the most successful and influential motion picture company of the industry’s formative period. It also showcases a unique style of movie exhibition that outlasted its early competitors, existing well into the 20th century.
The American Mutoscope Company was founded in 1895 by a group of four men, Elias Koopman, Herman Casler, Henry Marvin and William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, to manufacture a motion picture viewer called the mutoscope and to produce films for exhibition. Dickson had recently left the employ of Thomas Edison, for whom he had solved the problem of “doing for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear” by inventing the modern motion picture. Casler and Dickson worked together to perfect the mutoscope, which exhibited films transferred to a series of cards mounted in the style of a flip book on a metal core, and avoided Edison’s patents with this slightly different style of exhibition. The company’s headquarters in New York City featured a rooftop studio on a turntable to ensure favorable illumination, and the short subjects made here found such success that by 1897, the Edison company’s dominance of the industry was in danger. American Mutoscope became American Mutoscope & Biograph in 1899, when the namesake projector, invented by Casler, became the most used in the industry.
Mutoscope viewers were found in many amusement areas and arcades until at least the 1960s. Their inexpensiveness and short, often comical or sensational subjects allowed the machines a far longer life than the competing Edison Kinetoscope. The company also found success in its production and projection of motion pictures, though its activity was mired by patent litigation involving Thomas Edison through the 1910s. The notable director D. W. Griffith was first hired as an actor, working with pioneering cinematographer G. W. “Billy” Bitzer, before moving behind the camera at Biograph and making 450 films for the company.
Griffith and Bitzer invented cinematographic techniques like the fade-out and iris shot, made the first film in Hollywood and launched the careers of early stars Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish. The company, simply renamed the Biograph Company in 1909, went out of business in 1928 after losing Griffith and facing a changing movie industry.
The Museum’s collection was acquired in the years between 1926 and the mid-1970s. The original mutograph camera and two later models of the camera were given to the Smithsonian in 1926 by the International Mutoscope Reel Company, which inherited Biograph’s mutoscope works and continued making the viewers and reels through the 1940s. The viewers, reels and posters in the collection were acquired for exhibition in the National Museum of American History, and were later accessioned as objects in the Photographic History Collection. Many of the mutoscope reels in the collection date to the period from 1896-1905, and show early motion picture subjects, some of which were thought to be lost films before their examination in 2008.
date made
ca 1928
depicted
Wales, Wally
ID Number
2008.0095.009
accession number
2008.0095
catalog number
2008.0095.009

Coming up - a day to remember - in snapshots!

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
advertiser
Eastman Kodak Company
ID Number
2016.0066.369
accession number
2016.0066
catalog number
2016.0066.0369

Advertisement for the Chris Miller Model, Schmitt Stix skateboard

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1980s
advertiser
Schmitt, Paul
ID Number
2013.0224.12
accession number
2013.0224
catalog number
2013.0224.12

Reddy Kilowatt Marionette

This is a marionette of the character “Reddy Kilowatt,” first created in 1926 by Ashton B. Collins of the Alabama Power Company. This Reddy Kilowatt puppet was made in 1934 by the husband-and-wife team of Elizabeth L. and Frank D.
Description
This is a marionette of the character “Reddy Kilowatt,” first created in 1926 by Ashton B. Collins of the Alabama Power Company. This Reddy Kilowatt puppet was made in 1934 by the husband-and-wife team of Elizabeth L. and Frank D. Haines for window display performances in the Philadelphia Electric showroom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From the late 1930's to the 1950's puppets were a popular advertising medium. Puppeteers like the Haines’ utilized puppets in store window displays, motion pictures, and television shows to promote a wide array of businesses and products.
date made
1934
user
Haines, Elizabeth L.
Haines, Frank D.
maker
Haines, Frank D.
ID Number
2007.0137.013.01
accession number
2007.0137
catalog number
2007.0137.013.01

Fresh as a Daisy-Do puppet

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
user
Haines, Elizabeth L.
Haines, Frank D.
maker
Haines, Elizabeth L.
Haines, Frank D.
ID Number
2007.0137.009.01
accession number
2007.0137
catalog number
2007.0137.009.01

Kodak as you go

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1926
advertiser
Eastman Kodak Company
maker
Eastman Kodak Company
ID Number
2016.0066.371
catalog number
2016.0066.0371
accession number
2016.0066

Flash Drive, On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences

This flash or thumb drive has a silver-colored metal case with a metal handle. A cover at the opposite end fromthe handle protects connection, which fits in a USB port.
Description
This flash or thumb drive has a silver-colored metal case with a metal handle. A cover at the opposite end fromthe handle protects connection, which fits in a USB port. A mark on the drive reads: OEIS (/) On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences.
The object was collected at the January, 2014, Joint Mathematics Meeting of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
2014
ca 2014
ID Number
2014.3126.01
catalog number
2014.3126.01
nonaccession number
2014.3126

Interior of The Westminster Arcade

black and white stereograph mounted on mint green cardstock; printed on recto "Providence, R.I. / American Stereoscopic Views. / No.
Description (Brief)
black and white stereograph mounted on mint green cardstock; printed on recto "Providence, R.I. / American Stereoscopic Views. / No. 6.--The Arcade.--Interior."; The Westerminster Arcade, 130 Westminster Street, Providence, Rhode Island; long interior commercial space with three levels and skylights overhead; three signs for a photographer's studio read "Alden's Ferrotype Room's Best Place for Pictures", "Alden's Photograph Rooms" and "A.E. Alden's Photograph Rooms 63."; photograph likely made by A.E. Alden himself
date made
late 1860s
maker
Alden, Augustus Ephraim
ID Number
2012.3033.0637
nonaccession number
2012.3033
catalog number
2012.3033.0637

"No Wedding Bells for Him" Mutoscope Movie Poster

Green posterboard with painted advertisement for the mutoscope motion picture "No Wedding Bells for Him." Two attached photographs, stills from the film, show two men and a woman arguing in a park.The Mutoscope Collection in the National Museum of American History’s Photographic
Description (Brief)
Green posterboard with painted advertisement for the mutoscope motion picture "No Wedding Bells for Him." Two attached photographs, stills from the film, show two men and a woman arguing in a park.
Description
The Mutoscope Collection in the National Museum of American History’s Photographic History Collection is among the most significant of its kind in any museum. Composed of 3 cameras, 13 viewers, 59 movie reels and 53 movie posters, the collection documents the early years of the most successful and influential motion picture company of the industry’s formative period. It also showcases a unique style of movie exhibition that outlasted its early competitors, existing well into the 20th century.
The American Mutoscope Company was founded in 1895 by a group of four men, Elias Koopman, Herman Casler, Henry Marvin and William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, to manufacture a motion picture viewer called the mutoscope and to produce films for exhibition. Dickson had recently left the employ of Thomas Edison, for whom he had solved the problem of “doing for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear” by inventing the modern motion picture. Casler and Dickson worked together to perfect the mutoscope, which exhibited films transferred to a series of cards mounted in the style of a flip book on a metal core, and avoided Edison’s patents with this slightly different style of exhibition. The company’s headquarters in New York City featured a rooftop studio on a turntable to ensure favorable illumination, and the short subjects made here found such success that by 1897, the Edison company’s dominance of the industry was in danger. American Mutoscope became American Mutoscope & Biograph in 1899, when the namesake projector, invented by Casler, became the most used in the industry.
Mutoscope viewers were found in many amusement areas and arcades until at least the 1960s. Their inexpensiveness and short, often comical or sensational subjects allowed the machines a far longer life than the competing Edison Kinetoscope. The company also found success in its production and projection of motion pictures, though its activity was mired by patent litigation involving Thomas Edison through the 1910s. The notable director D. W. Griffith was first hired as an actor, working with pioneering cinematographer G. W. “Billy” Bitzer, before moving behind the camera at Biograph and making 450 films for the company.
Griffith and Bitzer invented cinematographic techniques like the fade-out and iris shot, made the first film in Hollywood and launched the careers of early stars Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish. The company, simply renamed the Biograph Company in 1909, went out of business in 1928 after losing Griffith and facing a changing movie industry.
The Museum’s collection was acquired in the years between 1926 and the mid-1970s. The original mutograph camera and two later models of the camera were given to the Smithsonian in 1926 by the International Mutoscope Reel Company, which inherited Biograph’s mutoscope works and continued making the viewers and reels through the 1940s. The viewers, reels and posters in the collection were acquired for exhibition in the National Museum of American History, and were later accessioned as objects in the Photographic History Collection. Many of the mutoscope reels in the collection date to the period from 1896-1905, and show early motion picture subjects, some of which were thought to be lost films before their examination in 2008.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2008.0095.027
accession number
2008.0095
catalog number
2008.0095.027

"A Kick that Didn't Miss" Mutoscope Movie Poster

Green posterboard with painted advertisement for the mutoscope motion picture "A Kick that Didn't Miss." Two attached photographs, stills from the film, show a farmer discovering and kicking a tramp underneath a tree.
Description (Brief)
Green posterboard with painted advertisement for the mutoscope motion picture "A Kick that Didn't Miss." Two attached photographs, stills from the film, show a farmer discovering and kicking a tramp underneath a tree. Mutoscope reels, by nature of their short length, often featured very simple plots explicitly revealed in the title and photographs on the poster which advertised the movies. This fact didn't seem to dissuade contemporary audiences from paying to view the features since the novelty of seeing images move was almost worth the price in itself.
Description
The Mutoscope Collection in the National Museum of American History’s Photographic History Collection is among the most significant of its kind in any museum. Composed of 3 cameras, 13 viewers, 59 movie reels and 53 movie posters, the collection documents the early years of the most successful and influential motion picture company of the industry’s formative period. It also showcases a unique style of movie exhibition that outlasted its early competitors, existing well into the 20th century.
The American Mutoscope Company was founded in 1895 by a group of four men, Elias Koopman, Herman Casler, Henry Marvin and William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, to manufacture a motion picture viewer called the mutoscope and to produce films for exhibition. Dickson had recently left the employ of Thomas Edison, for whom he had solved the problem of “doing for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear” by inventing the modern motion picture. Casler and Dickson worked together to perfect the mutoscope, which exhibited films transferred to a series of cards mounted in the style of a flip book on a metal core, and avoided Edison’s patents with this slightly different style of exhibition. The company’s headquarters in New York City featured a rooftop studio on a turntable to ensure favorable illumination, and the short subjects made here found such success that by 1897, the Edison company’s dominance of the industry was in danger. American Mutoscope became American Mutoscope & Biograph in 1899, when the namesake projector, invented by Casler, became the most used in the industry.
Mutoscope viewers were found in many amusement areas and arcades until at least the 1960s. Their inexpensiveness and short, often comical or sensational subjects allowed the machines a far longer life than the competing Edison Kinetoscope. The company also found success in its production and projection of motion pictures, though its activity was mired by patent litigation involving Thomas Edison through the 1910s. The notable director D. W. Griffith was first hired as an actor, working with pioneering cinematographer G. W. “Billy” Bitzer, before moving behind the camera at Biograph and making 450 films for the company.
Griffith and Bitzer invented cinematographic techniques like the fade-out and iris shot, made the first film in Hollywood and launched the careers of early stars Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish. The company, simply renamed the Biograph Company in 1909, went out of business in 1928 after losing Griffith and facing a changing movie industry.
The Museum’s collection was acquired in the years between 1926 and the mid-1970s. The original mutograph camera and two later models of the camera were given to the Smithsonian in 1926 by the International Mutoscope Reel Company, which inherited Biograph’s mutoscope works and continued making the viewers and reels through the 1940s. The viewers, reels and posters in the collection were acquired for exhibition in the National Museum of American History, and were later accessioned as objects in the Photographic History Collection. Many of the mutoscope reels in the collection date to the period from 1896-1905, and show early motion picture subjects, some of which were thought to be lost films before their examination in 2008.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2008.0095.024
accession number
2008.0095
catalog number
2008.0095.024

Snap hand puppet from Rice Krispies cereal

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
user
Haines, Elizabeth L.
Haines, Frank D.
maker
Haines, Elizabeth L.
Haines, Frank D.
ID Number
2007.0137.009.02
accession number
2007.0137
catalog number
2007.0137.009.02

Winter calls your kodak

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1923-03
advertiser
Eastman Kodak Company
maker
Eastman Kodak Company
ID Number
2016.0066.385
accession number
2016.0066
catalog number
2016.0066.0385

Take a Kodak with you

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1924
advertiser
Eastman Kodak Company
ID Number
2016.0066.366
accession number
2016.0066
catalog number
2016.0066.0366

Let your kodak keep the Christmas story

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1921-12
advertiser
Eastman Kodak Company
maker
Eastman Kodak Company
ID Number
2016.0066.377
catalog number
2016.0066.0377
accession number
2016.0066

Let the children kodak

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
advertiser
Eastman Kodak Company
maker
Eastman Kodak Company
ID Number
2016.0066.391
catalog number
2016.0066.0391
accession number
2016.0066

Pictures of your pets with a Brownie

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1922-10
advertiser
Eastman Kodak Company
maker
Eastman Kodak Company
ID Number
2016.0066.389
accession number
2016.0066
catalog number
2016.0066.0389

Oyster Tin, Pride of the Chesapeake Brand

This gallon tin once contained fresh oyster meats packed by the J. D. Groves & Co., located at 117 S. Calvert St. and 116 Cheapside, in Baltimore, Maryland. J. D.
Description
This gallon tin once contained fresh oyster meats packed by the J. D. Groves & Co., located at 117 S. Calvert St. and 116 Cheapside, in Baltimore, Maryland. J. D. Groves also packed fish, fruits, and produce at this address, and was a delegate at the first annual meeting of the Oyster Growers and Dealers Association of North America, held in Baltimore May 18-19, 1909.
In 1906 the U.S. Congress passed several pure food laws in response to outbreaks of typhoid fever and gastrointestinal ailments linked to poor sanitation. Several new regulations were imposed on the oyster industry after contaminated oysters were blamed for serious illnesses. The laws required inspections of oyster beds and packing houses, as well as the identification of shellfish sources and standardized labeling.
This tin probably dates to the period 1920-30, when colorful lithographed tins became popular. The distinctive orange tin features a porthole design with a sailing schooner inside. Like many Baltimore oyster packers, the J. D. Groves Company included a message to consumers concerning the sanitary conditions under which the oysters were packed. The reverse of the can reads:
“WE GUARANTEE THIS CAN TO CONTAIN STRICTLY FRESH SHUCKED OYSTERS / FREE FROM PRESERVATIVES OF ANY KIND / QUALITY AND QUANTITY GUARANTEED.”
date made
1920s
1920-1930
maker
J. D. Groves & Co.
ID Number
2007.0054.01
catalog number
2007.0054.01
accession number
2007.0054

"Cleopatra" Mutoscope Movie Poster

Purple posterboard with painted advertisement for the mutoscope motion picture "Cleopatra." An attached photograph is a still from the film, showing a woman dancing before a man seated on a throne.
Description (Brief)
Purple posterboard with painted advertisement for the mutoscope motion picture "Cleopatra." An attached photograph is a still from the film, showing a woman dancing before a man seated on a throne. Many early motion picture producers borrowed plots from familiar classical and biblical stories. American filmmakers made at least seven motion pictures about Cleopatra before 1920.
Description
The Mutoscope Collection in the National Museum of American History’s Photographic History Collection is among the most significant of its kind in any museum. Composed of 3 cameras, 13 viewers, 59 movie reels and 53 movie posters, the collection documents the early years of the most successful and influential motion picture company of the industry’s formative period. It also showcases a unique style of movie exhibition that outlasted its early competitors, existing well into the 20th century.
The American Mutoscope Company was founded in 1895 by a group of four men, Elias Koopman, Herman Casler, Henry Marvin and William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, to manufacture a motion picture viewer called the mutoscope and to produce films for exhibition. Dickson had recently left the employ of Thomas Edison, for whom he had solved the problem of “doing for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear” by inventing the modern motion picture. Casler and Dickson worked together to perfect the mutoscope, which exhibited films transferred to a series of cards mounted in the style of a flip book on a metal core, and avoided Edison’s patents with this slightly different style of exhibition. The company’s headquarters in New York City featured a rooftop studio on a turntable to ensure favorable illumination, and the short subjects made here found such success that by 1897, the Edison company’s dominance of the industry was in danger. American Mutoscope became American Mutoscope & Biograph in 1899, when the namesake projector, invented by Casler, became the most used in the industry.
Mutoscope viewers were found in many amusement areas and arcades until at least the 1960s. Their inexpensiveness and short, often comical or sensational subjects allowed the machines a far longer life than the competing Edison Kinetoscope. The company also found success in its production and projection of motion pictures, though its activity was mired by patent litigation involving Thomas Edison through the 1910s. The notable director D. W. Griffith was first hired as an actor, working with pioneering cinematographer G. W. “Billy” Bitzer, before moving behind the camera at Biograph and making 450 films for the company.
Griffith and Bitzer invented cinematographic techniques like the fade-out and iris shot, made the first film in Hollywood and launched the careers of early stars Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish. The company, simply renamed the Biograph Company in 1909, went out of business in 1928 after losing Griffith and facing a changing movie industry.
The Museum’s collection was acquired in the years between 1926 and the mid-1970s. The original mutograph camera and two later models of the camera were given to the Smithsonian in 1926 by the International Mutoscope Reel Company, which inherited Biograph’s mutoscope works and continued making the viewers and reels through the 1940s. The viewers, reels and posters in the collection were acquired for exhibition in the National Museum of American History, and were later accessioned as objects in the Photographic History Collection. Many of the mutoscope reels in the collection date to the period from 1896-1905, and show early motion picture subjects, some of which were thought to be lost films before their examination in 2008.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2008.0095.018
accession number
2008.0095
catalog number
2008.0095.018

Mrs. Calvin Coolidge discussing cameras

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1930-05
depicted (sitter)
Coolidge, Grace Goodhue
advertiser
Eastman Kodak Company
maker
Eastman Kodak Company
ID Number
2016.0066.392
catalog number
2016.0066.0392
accession number
2016.0066

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