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. |
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Selected Objects |
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Drawing of Hall Mark Quirk Quality
This original artwork in pencil, ink, and wash was created for a printed piece advertising the services of Chicago wood engraver Nicholas J. Quirk about 1900. The design, including a ...
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"Famous Amos" Shirt
In 1975, on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California, Wally Amos opened his first chocolate chip cookie bakery. For years, this agent for performers such as Marvin Gaye, Bobby Goldsboro, and ...
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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. This 1920s ...
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Lithograph of the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Company
This lithograph is a bird's-eye view of the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Company, circa 1880. The company maufactured sewing machines in Watertown, N. Y., from 1851 to 1856. In 1856, ...
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Pac-Man Gumball Bank
In 1980, Namco released Pac-Man, an extremely popular video game designed by Toru Iwatani and distributed in North America by Bally/Midway. It was the first video game to spawn a ...
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Panama Hat
In 1975, on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California, Wally Amos opened his first chocolate chip cookie bakery. For years, this agent for performers such as Marvin Gaye, Bobby Goldsboro, and ...
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Photograph of McCall's Cheese
Paul Outerbridge Jr. (1896–1958) was one of the first people to fully appreciate the impact color photography would make on the field of magazine publication. He developed a version of ...
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Signboard, Pass the Acid Test
In the mid-1960s, novelist and counterculture guru Ken Kesey used this 38” x 68” plywood sign as an announcement board and invitation card to promote the activities of his “Merry ...
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"The Battle of the Sewing Machines" Sheet Music
"The Battle of the Sewing Machines" was composed and arranged by F. Hyde for the piano, and was published in 1874 by Wm. A. Pond & Co. of 547 Broadway, ...
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The Guardian IMY2KC Baseball Cap
In the early days of electronic computers, memory was not as efficient or inexpensive as it is today. To save memory space, programs stored as few digits as possible for ...
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