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 1364 items.
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- No Image Available
Smithsonian World/WETA "Selling the Dream" Collection, 1990-91
- Notes
- "Selling the Dream" was an hour-long television documentary that aired in early 1991 as part of the public television series "Smithsonian World." The program traces the evolution of advertising from the late 19th century through the creative revolution of the 1960s to explore how advertising both influences and reflects American culture. In addition to historical imagery, the program follows a contemporary Mitsubishi GT3000 automobile advertising campaign from conception to production. The program features interviews with the men and women who created the advertising as well as with scholars, historians, industry advocates and government officials who comment on the role and history of advertising in a comsumer culture. "Selling the Dream" was underwritten by Southwestern Bell and co-produced by WETA and the Smithsonian Institution. The Center for Advertising History served as a resource and consultant to the producers
- Summary
- Series 1, boxes 1-15: 16 mm color film shot for the program, arranged in two subseries. Subseries A, boxes 1-10, consists of primary source materials including film footage of a meeting of scholars, historians, archivists, Weiden & Kennedy advertising agency personnel, and Nike executives at the Smithsonian's Center for Advertising History for the Nike Advertising Oral History and Documentation Project; interviews with scholars, historians, industry representatives (including transcripts for some interviews); and documentation of a Mitsubishi GT3000 ad from pitch to production, including meetings between Grey advertising agency personnel and Mitsubishi account representatives, a live commerical shoot and a production session with a commercial narrator. Subseries B, boxes 11-15, consists of secondary materials created during production, including pre-production sync pulls, trims, and lifts as compiled and edited by producer Steven York and Associates. Series 2, box 16, contains documentary materials relating to the show's production and broadcast, including correspondence, press releases, and publicity. Transcripts for the interviews are located here
- Cite as
- Smithsonian World/WETA "Selling the Dream" Collection, 1990-1991, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1990
- 1990-1991
- 1990-91
- 1990-2000
- 1950-2000
- producer
- Smithsonian World
- Subject
- Ogilvy, David
- Polykoff, Shairley
- Pertshuk, Michael
- Gitlin, Todd
- Oda, Frances
- Marchand, Roland
- WETA
- Mitsubishi
- Grey Advertising
- Wieden & Kennedy
- Center for Advertising History
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Sally L. Steinberg Collection of Doughnut Ephemera, 1920s-1987
- Notes
- Steinberg describes herself as a "doughnut princess," since her grandfather, Adolph Levitt, was America's original "doughnut king." He was the developer of the automatic doughnut making machine and founder of the modern American doughnut industry. In 1920 he founded the Doughnut Machine Company to make and sell the machine across the country and to sell doughnuts under the name "Mayflower". Soon the company began preparing and selling standardized mixes for the machine, and began to acquire bakeries. In 1931, the company opened the first Mayflower doughnut shop in New York City; ultimately, 18 shops were opened across the country---the first retail doughnut chain. The company changed its name to the Doughnut Corporation of America, dominating the industry through a large-scale approach with a full range of product and equipment systems unique in the food industry. As consumers demanded a wider variety of doughnuts, the company developed and manufactured the necessary machinery, prepared the ingredients, and marketed the products. The company diversified in the 1940s to produce pancake and waffle mixes and machinery, including Downyflake Food products. The company is still in operation as DCA Food Industries, Inc
- Summary
- Ephemeral materials gathered by Sally L. Steinberg while researching "The Donut Book" (publ. 1987), and a copy of the book. Photographs comprise the bulk of the collection. These depict doughnut-making machines, early doughnut packaging, shops, promotional activities (many of them sponsored by D.C.A.), celebrities and entertainment figures with doughnuts, and the role of doughnuts in World War Two. Also advertisements, posters, news clippings, sheet music, examples of doughnut packaging, and artwork; and several publications that feature doughnuts, notably such children's classics as "Curious George Learns the Alphabet", "Who Needs Donuts?", and "Homer Price". Materials relating to the history of D.C.A. include a 1947 memo, "History of Mayflower Operations, 1933-1944;" pages and clippings from the company's in-house magazines, "The Doughnut Magazine", 1931-1936, and "DCA News", 1945-1947; a 1961 DCA "Study of the Donut Market"; and a 1973 prospectus for DCA Food Industries, Inc.; a store display figure of "Danny Donut," the symbol of Mayflower Doughnuts; a 1980 "Annual Report" from Dunkin' Donuts, Inc., and a sample degree from their "Dunkin' Donuts University."
- Photographs: Include entertainers and celebrities with doughnuts [27 items], such as Gracie Allen and George Burns, Lucille Ball and John Hodiak, Zero Mostel (including a contact sheet), Adlai Stevenson, Steve Lawrence and Edie Gorme, Red Skelton, Sid Caesar, Bobby Benson, Jimmy Durante, Pres. John F. Kennedy, Joe E. Brown, and a copy negative of "Major General [sic] Eisenhower, Commander of the American Forces in Europe, samples real American donuts at opening of Washington Club in London."
- The 2009 addendum includes: Photographs, catalogs, articles and clippings, a playbill, magazines, a photograph album, audiocassettes and one videocassette
- Cite as
- Sally L. Steinberg Collection of Doughnut Ephemera, 1920s-1987, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1920
- 1987
- 1920s-1987
- 20th century
- 1980-1990
- collector
- Steinberg, Sally L (Sally Levitt) author
- Subject
- Levitt, Adolph
- Allen, Gracie
- Stevenson, Adlai E (Adlai Ewing) 1900-1965
- Skelton, Red 1913-1997
- Kennedy, John F (John Fitzgerald) 1917-1963
- Durante, Jimmy
- Brown, Joe E
- Eisenhower, Dwight D (Dwight David) 1890-1969
- Mayflower Doughnut Shop
- Doughnut Machine Company
- Doughnut Corporation of America
- DCA Food Industries, Inc
- Mayflower Doughnuts
- Dunkin' Donuts, Inc
- Mister Donut
- Local number
- 1991.3175 (NMAH Acc.)
- 1993.3071 (NMAH Acc.)
- 2009. 3069 (NMAH acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Men's clothing : stereographs, ca. 1870s
- Summary
- One stereograph used as advertising for six business establishments, listed on the verso, in Martinsburg, W. Va., ranging from druggists to ticket agents
- Cite as
- Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1870
- 1880
- ca 1870s
- 1870-1880
- 1880-1900
- collector
- Warshaw, Isadore d. 1969
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Streetcars and subways : stereographs, ca. 1870s-1890s
- Summary
- Primarily New York City's elevated railroad, with views by J. S. Johnston and unidentified photographers, incl. one with advertising for Cyrus Carter House Furnishing Goods
- Cite as
- Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1870
- 1900
- ca 1870s-1890s
- 1870-1990
- 1850-1900
- 1870-1900
- photographer
- Johnston, J.S.
- Subject
- Cyrus Carter House Furnishing Goods
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Coney Island (New York) : business ephemera vertical files, ca. 1870-1920
- Summary
- Postcards, guidebooks, brochures, and advertising ephemera on Coney Island as a tourist attraction and recreational area. Includes hotel advertisements, programs for concerts by Patrick Gilmore and John Philip Sousa, railroad timetables, souvenirs, humorous cartoons about swimming, etc
- Date
- 1870
- 1870-1920
- ca 1870-1920
- 1940-1980
- collector
- Warshaw, Isadore d. 1969
- Subject
- Gilmore, P. S (Patrick Sarsfield) 1829-1892
- Sousa, John Philip
- Hotels, taverns, etc Advertising
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Caroline R. Jones Collection, ca. 1942-1996
- Notes
- Ms. Jones d. June 28, 2001
- Summary
- Personal papers, business records and audio visual material. The relatively small body of personal papers highlights Jones's childhood in Benton Harbor, Michigan and college experiences at the University of Michigan. Material from years at J. Walter Thompson consists primarily of the notebook from her copywriting class; a small body of business records for Zebra Associates (ca. 1969-1972?); and somewhat greater volume for Mingo-Jones (1977-1986). These files include business correspondence, internal memoranda, market research, and client files. The years at Caroline Jones Associates (1986-1995) are most thoroughly documented and include extensive incoming and outgoing correspondence, market research, client files, and print, radio and television advertisements for clients including Seagram's, Miller High Life, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald's, and Denny's, as well as numerous Ad Council campaigns, including the United Negro College Fund, Healthy Start, and the Campaign for a Drug Free America. Also speeches and articles by Jones, primarly on targeted marketing to minority consumers, and publicity files, awards, and photographs
- Cite as
- Caroline R. Jones Collection, ca. 1942-1996, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1942
- 1996
- ca 1942-1996
- 1950-2000
- creator
- Jones, Caroline Robinson (advertising executive) 1941-2001
- Subject
- Mingo-Jones Advertising
- Thompson, J. Walter (advertising agency)
- Zebra Associates (advertising agency)
- United Negro College Fund advertising
- Kentucky Fried Chicken (restaurants) advertising
- Campaign for a Drug Free America advertising
- Healthy Start advertising
- Denny's (restaurants) advertising
- McDonald's Corporation
- Bahamas Ministry of Tourism advertising
- Local number
- 1996.3045 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Commercial Decal, Inc. Corporate Records, 1926-1993
- Notes
- Printing company founded December 1938, based in Mount Vernon, New York. Produced maps, ceramic and plastic decals for decorating china, glassware, pottery, overlay decorations and advertising specialties, including trademarks, using lithography and silk-screen. Major producer of millions of decals until the business closed in 1992. The company produced popular decals based on Norman Rockwell paintings, as well as advertsing for products such as Coca-Cola
- Summary
- Production records, sample decals, photographs, and publications, such as annual reports
- Cite as
- Commercial Decal, Inc., Corporate Records, 1940-1991, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1926
- 1993
- 1926-1993
- 20th century
- 1940-1990
- 1970-2000
- author
- Commercial Decal, Inc
- artist
- Rockwell, Norman 1894-1978
- Seliger, Charles 1926-
- Local number
- 1993.3012 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
America is infested with spies! Read Gerard's Second Great Book commencing Feb. 24 / Public Ledger. Public Ledger : [Poster.]
- Summary
- Police officer pointing at the reader
- Date
- 1918
- Creator
- Public Ledger
- Gerard's Second Great Book
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
At home and abroad they use Wells Fargo checks Paris Liverpool London. Wells Fargo & Company. [Poster.]
- Summary
- Illustration: American soldier and sailor next to a cathedral, houses, and the Eiffel Tower
- Date
- 1917
- 1910-1920
- artist
- Falls, Charles Buckles
- Creator
- Wells Fargo & Company
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Sumner Hosiery Mill Records, 1946-1957
- Notes
- Hosiery manufacturer in Gastonia, North Carolina, started in 1938. History of company by Mr. Sumner and notes from an interview with Mr. Sumner by Craig Orr in Archives Center control files
- Summary
- Archival records from the Sumner Hosiery Mill, including two documents relating to the construction of the hosiery; a booklet of product samples entitled "Sumner See-Shells Fall and Winter Shades", 1952; a scrapbook containing articles, packaging, photographs of the product, and of models wearing it; and numerous advertisements for the hosiery and for stores selling it
- Cite as
- Sumner Hosiery Mill Records, 1946-1957, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1946
- 1946-1957
- 20th century
- creator
- Sumner Hosiery Mill
- donor
- Sumner, Harold Townsend
- Local number
- 2000.3034 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH