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.
Page 1 of 137
- No Image Available
Tom Black/Smithsonian Magazine Oral History Interview, 1993
- Notes
- Tom Black was Smithsonian magazine's first director of advertising. His career in advertising also includes work for ABC Television, The March of Time Newsreels, Life Magazine and Time Magazine
- Summary
- Oral history interview, transcripts, and background material documenting Tom Black's career as director of advertising for Smithsonian Magazine from its founding in 1969 until his retirement in 1994
- Cite as
- Tom Black/Smithsonian Magazine Oral History Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1993
- 1960-2000
- 1990-2000
- 1980-2000
- interviewee
- Black, Tom 1924-
- interviewer
- Wiener, Tom
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
[Stadium seats and advertisements in outfield of baseball field.] [Acetate film photonegative, undated.]
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1920
- 1940
- undated
- 1930-1950
- 1930-1940
- photographer
- Scurlock, Addison N. 1883-1964
- Local number
- 618ns0242031pg.tif (AC Scan)
- Freezer box 11, Envelope 3
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Ivory Soap.99 44/100 Per Cent. Pure. [Print advertising.] The Century Magazine. 1911
- Summary
- Caption: "Ivory Soap..99 44/100 PerCent. Pure." Ad discusses Ivory's consistent advertising
- Published May 1911
- Date
- 1911
- Creator
- Procter & Gamble Company
- Local number
- 244560
- Ivorydata4 417
- 0207910407 (Scan No.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Pears' Soap The Famous English Complexion Soap. [Print advertising.] 1885
- Summary
- Caption: "Pears' Soap The Famous English Complexion Soap."
- Date written in pencil at top of ad
- Date
- 1885
- Creator
- Pears' Soap
- Subject
- Beecher, Henry Ward 1813-1887
- Wilson, Erasmus, Sir 1809-1884
- Local number
- 245208
- Ivorydata4 1065
- 0300600229 (Scan No.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
[Hairlox container] [cellulose acetate photonegative]
- Notes
- BROKEN IMAGE LINK
- Date
- 1940
- 1960
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- Local number
- AC0618.004.0000144.tif (AC Scan)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Ally and Gargano, Inc., Print Advertisements, 1962-ca. 1995
- Notes
- New York advertising agency, started in 1962. The company went public in 1983 and went out of business in 1995
- Summary
- Advertising portfoloios including copies of each print advertisement published for ninety accounts over a twenty-five year period. Clients include Hertz, Federal Express, IBM and MCI
- Cite as
- Ally and Gargano, Inc., Print Advertisements, 1962-ca. 1995, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1962
- 1962-1987
- 1962-ca 1995
- creator
- Ally and Gargano Advertising Agency New York (N.Y.)
- Ally, Carl
- donor
- Gargano, Amil
- Subject
- Bank of New York
- Canadair
- Dunkin' Donuts, Inc
- Federal Express Corporation
- Fiat
- Hertz Corporation
- Karastan
- Kobrand Corporation
- International Business Machines
- MCI Communications Corporation
- Northeast Airlines
- Pan American World Airways, Inc
- Pearl Brewing
- Pentax Precision Instrument Corporation
- Pharmacraft
- Piper Aircraft Corp
- Saab (Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget AB)
- Scandinavian Airlines System
- Volvo
- Local number
- 2007.3005 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Progress, [black & white advertisement; tear sheet]
- Summary
- Promotion for the company's 50th Anniversary with image of various post WW I technologies and text about how best to make progress in peace. Number 5 in a series of 12
- Cite as
- N. W. Ayer Advertising Agency Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
- Date
- 1919
- 1910-1920
- advertiser
- N. W. Ayer and Son
- Local number
- AC0059-0000010 (AC Scan)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
[N. W. Ayer building site] [black & white photoprint]
- Summary
- West Washington Square, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Cite as
- N. W. Ayer Advertising Agency Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
- Date
- 1927
- January 3, 1927
- collector
- N. W. Ayer and Son
- Local number
- AC0059-0000072 (AC Scan)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
[N. W. Ayer building] [black & white photoprint]
- Summary
- 210 West Washington Square, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Cite as
- N. W. Ayer Advertising Agency Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
- Date
- 1930
- 1950
- Undated
- collector
- N. W. Ayer and Son
- Local number
- AC0059-0000073 (AC Scan)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Knifemaker's Shop Sign
- Description
- 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 free-standing, wood–framed oilcloth window sign from the knife shop of Russian–immigrants Joseph and David Miller in the Lower East Side of New York City uses four implements and a legend in Yiddish to advertise their commercial offerings.
- The sign reads "Here is Miller's / Miller's knives are the best and finest in the entire world. / They are guaranteed never to rust." The Miller shop at 25 Canal Street made ritual Jewish cutlery for the shochet (butcher) and for the mohel (circumcisionist), using extreme care in the hand fabrication of each instrument. The large rectangular knife (gasos halef) on the sign was used to slaughter cattle, the small rectangular knife (ofos halef) was for poultry; the curved implement is a circumcision clamp (mohel mashinke); and the double sided knife is a circumcision knife (mohel messer). In compliance with Jewish tradition, great emphasis is placed upon cleanliness, speed, efficiency, and the minimization of pain in the use of these instruments.
- This sign, together with knife catalogs and customer correspondence to the Millers from shochets, mohels, and rabbis from around the world, are 1992 gifts of Irene Galdston, daughter of Joseph Miller. The actual knifemaking tools used in the Miller shop are also in the Museum's collections.
- shop owner
- Miller, David
- Miller, Joseph
- ID Number
- 1992.0391.01
- accession number
- 1992.0391
- catalog number
- 1992.0391.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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