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 230 items.
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Signboard, Pass the Acid Test
- Description
- 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 Pranksters" (an itinerant band of free thinkers) during their memorable cross-country rides on an old bus named "Further." Kesey and his band drove Further from northern California to Washington, D.C., and New York, ostensibly to attend Kesey book parties. In the process they used the bus rides to encourage people to discuss anything with them, to try anything, to perform civic pranks of various sorts, and to otherwise call attention to alternative ways of thinking about the issues of the day.
- Like the bus, the sign is a colorful smorgasbord of offerings from the Pranksters and visitors to the bus. Splashes of day–glo paint are overlaid with newspaper clippings, political cartoons, doodles, yarn, and the names of influential West Coast figures from the counterculture movements of the 1950s and 1960s. During a 1992 visit to the Kesey farm in rural Oregon to examine the remains of Further, the Smithsonian found this signboard in the loft of a chicken coop, covered with dust and feathers. A family of foxes occupied the rear seat of Further, moldering in a field, so Kesey decided to donate this sign instead of the bus.
- Date made
- 1960s
- user
- Kesey, Ken
- ID Number
- 1992.0413.01
- accession number
- 1992.0413
- catalog number
- 1992.0413.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Middle East Groceries Neon Sign
- 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
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Tavern Sign
- Description
- This inn owner took visible pride in his country’s new national identity. The image displayes a bald eagle with a puffed chest displaying the Great Shield of 13 red, white and blue stripes representing the unified states of the young nation. One talon holds an olive branch; the other talon holds 13 arrows. His beak holds a scroll inscribed “E Pluribus Unum” (out of many, one). The original artistic rendering proposed by William Barton to Congress met disapproval by Benjamin Franklin and other political leaders. But following congressional approval in 1782 of the image as the Great Seal of the United States, images of bald eagles and colorfully striped shields could be found everywhere in the nation’s visual landscape, from coinage to ships’ figure heads, furnishings to textiles, and on signs such as this one.
- Taverns were not new to this country at the time this sign was painted. Puritans had first sought to regulate consumption of liquor in the 17th century through building of “Ordinaries” or “Public Houses.” By the 18th century, such inns were known as “Taverns,” a familiar and welcome sight for travelers traversing coach, or post, roads. Such “Houses of Entertainment” not only provided comfort and convenience to long-distance travelers but sociability for locals. Not only were food and liquor sales offered, but also a variety of music, games, stories, humor, as well as more serious news and opinion-sharing, providing a sense of home beyond the home as well as mental escape.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1800 - 1830s
- ID Number
- CL*65.0974
- accession number
- 256396
- catalog number
- 65.0974
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Hope Mutual Fire Insurance Company Fire Mark
- Description (Brief)
- Beginning in the 1750s, some American insurance companies issued metal fire marks to policyholders to signify that their property was insured against fire damage. The fire marks bore the name and/or symbol of the insurer, and some included the customer’s policy number. The company or agent would then affix the mark to the policyholder’s home or business. For owners the mark served as proof of insurance and a deterrent against arson. For insurance companies the mark served as a form of advertising, and alerted volunteer firefighters that the property was insured.
- The Hope Mutual Fire Insurance Company of St. Louis was active from 1857 until 1901, when it was purchased by the National Fire Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut. The shield-shaped fire mark is made of zinc, with an anchor in its center. The mark has a raised rim and raised lettering that reads “HOPE/MUTUAL.”
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1857
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2005.0233.0040
- accession number
- 2005.0233
- catalog number
- 2005.0233.0040
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Philadelphia Contributionship Fire Mark
- Description (Brief)
- Beginning in the 1750s, some American insurance companies issued metal fire marks to policyholders to signify that their property was insured against fire damage. The fire marks bore the name and/or symbol of the insurer, and some included the customer’s policy number. The company or agent would then affix the mark to the policyholder’s home or business. For owners the mark served as proof of insurance and a deterrent against arson. For insurance companies the mark served as a form of advertising, and alerted volunteer firefighters that the property was insured.
- The Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire issued this fire mark for policies 334 and 335 to Jacob Cooper for four properties, at numbers 118, 120, 122 and 124 on Cuthbert Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1755. The fire mark consists of the company’s symbol cast in lead showing four hands clasped at the wrist painted red, attached to a varnished shield-shaped wooden backing. The Philadelphia Contributionship was established in 1752, becoming the first successful fire insurance company in America. Benjamin Franklin was one of its founding members. The Contributionship began as a mutual insurance company and this concept is represented by its “Hand in Hand” fire mark. The Philadelphia Contributionship is still in operation.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1755
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2005.0233.0344
- accession number
- 2005.0233
- catalog number
- 2005.0233.0344
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Philadelphia Contributionship Fire Mark
- Description (Brief)
- Beginning in the 1750s, some American insurance companies issued metal fire marks to policyholders to signify that their property was insured against fire damage. The fire marks bore the name and/or symbol of the insurer, and some included the customer’s policy number. The company or agent would then affix the mark to the policyholder’s home or business. For owners the mark served as proof of insurance and a deterrent against arson. For insurance companies the mark served as a form of advertising, and alerted volunteer firefighters that the property was insured.
- The Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire issued this fire mark for policy number 413 to William Bromwich of 102 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1758. The fire mark consists of the company’s symbol cast in lead showing four hands clasped at the wrist, attached to a varnished shield-shaped wooden backing. The Philadelphia Contributionship was established in 1752, becoming the first successful fire insurance company in America. Benjamin Franklin was one of its founding members. The Contributionship began as a mutual insurance company and this concept is represented by its “Hand in Hand” fire mark. The Philadelphia Contributionship is still in operation.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1758
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2005.0233.0345
- accession number
- 2005.0233
- catalog number
- 2005.0233.0345
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Philadelphia Contributionship Fire Mark
- Description (Brief)
- Beginning in the 1750s, some American insurance companies issued metal fire marks to policyholders to signify that their property was insured against fire damage. The fire marks bore the name and/or symbol of the insurer, and some included the customer’s policy number. The company or agent would then affix the mark to the policyholder’s home or business. For owners the mark served as proof of insurance and a deterrent against arson. For insurance companies the mark served as a form of advertising, and alerted volunteer firefighters that the property was insured.
- The Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire issued this fire mark for policy number 1029 to Martin Flick of 24 Queen Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1765. The fire mark consists of the company’s symbol cast in lead showing four hands clasped at the wrist attached to a shield-shaped wooden backing. The Philadelphia Contributionship was established in 1752, becoming the first successful fire insurance company in America. Benjamin Franklin was one of its founding members. The Contributionship began as a mutual insurance company and this concept is represented by its “Hand in Hand” fire mark. The Philadelphia Contributionship is still in operation.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1765
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2005.0233.0346
- accession number
- 2005.0233
- catalog number
- 2005.0233.0346
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Philadelphia Contributionship Fire Mark
- Description (Brief)
- Beginning in the 1750s, some American insurance companies issued metal fire marks to policyholders to signify that their property was insured against fire damage. The fire marks bore the name and/or symbol of the insurer, and some included the customer’s policy number. The company or agent would then affix the mark to the policyholder’s home or business. For owners the mark served as proof of insurance and a deterrent against arson. For insurance companies the mark served as a form of advertising, and alerted volunteer firefighters that the property was insured.
- The Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire issued this fire mark in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania around 1765. The fire mark consists of the company’s symbol cast in lead showing four hands clasped at the wrist attached to a shield-shaped wooden backing. The Philadelphia Contributionship was established in 1752, becoming the first successful fire insurance company in America. Benjamin Franklin was one of its founding members. The Contributionship began as a mutual insurance company and this concept is represented by its “Hand in Hand” fire mark. The Philadelphia Contributionship is still in operation.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1765
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2005.0233.0347
- accession number
- 2005.0233
- catalog number
- 2005.0233.0347
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Philadelphia Contributionship Fire Mark
- Description (Brief)
- Beginning in the 1750s, some American insurance companies issued metal fire marks to policyholders to signify that their property was insured against fire damage. The fire marks bore the name and/or symbol of the insurer, and some included the customer’s policy number. The company or agent would then affix the mark to the policyholder’s home or business. For owners the mark served as proof of insurance and a deterrent against arson. For insurance companies the mark served as a form of advertising, and alerted volunteer firefighters that the property was insured.
- The Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire issued this fire mark for policy number 1904 to Robert Fulton of 121 South Second Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania around 1765. The fire mark consists of the company’s symbol cast in lead showing four hands clasped at the wrist attached to a shield-shaped wooden backing. The Philadelphia Contributionship was established in 1752, becoming the first successful fire insurance company in America. Benjamin Franklin was one of its founding members. The Contributionship began as a mutual insurance company and this concept is represented by its “Hand in Hand” fire mark. The Philadelphia Contributionship is still in operation.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1765
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2005.0233.0348
- accession number
- 2005.0233
- catalog number
- 2005.0233.0348
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Philadelphia Contributionship Fire Mark
- Description (Brief)
- Beginning in the 1750s, some American insurance companies issued metal fire marks to policyholders to signify that their property was insured against fire damage. The fire marks bore the name and/or symbol of the insurer, and some included the customer’s policy number. The company or agent would then affix the mark to the policyholder’s home or business. For owners the mark served as proof of insurance and a deterrent against arson. For insurance companies the mark served as a form of advertising, and alerted volunteer firefighters that the property was insured.
- The Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire issued this fire mark in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania around 1760. The fire mark consists of the company’s symbol cast in lead showing four hands clasped at the wrist attached to a shield-shaped wooden backing. The Philadelphia Contributionship was established in 1752 as the first fire insurance company in America, and included Benjamin Franklin as one of its founding members. The Contributionship was a mutual assurance company, represented by its “Hand in Hand” fire mark.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1760
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2005.0233.0349
- accession number
- 2005.0233
- catalog number
- 2005.0233.0349
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center