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 1373 items.
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- No Image Available
[Trade catalogs from Public Ledger]
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Public Ledger
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_33879
- Data source
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries
- No Image Available
[Trade catalogs from R. L. Polk & Co.]
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- R. L. Polk & Co.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_34267
- Data source
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries
- No Image Available
[Trade catalogs from Public Utilities Advertising Assoc.]
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Public Utilities Advertising Assoc.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_34449
- Data source
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries
- No Image Available
[Trade catalogs from Business and Legal Reports Inc.]
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Business and Legal Reports Inc.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_35358
- Data source
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries
- No Image Available
[Trade catalogs from Carter & Van Peel]
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Carter & Van Peel
- Related companies
- CVP
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_35705
- Data source
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries
- No Image Available
Alka-Seltzer Documentation and Oral History Project, 1953-1987
- Notes
- In the late 19th century, Dr. Franklin Miles created Miles Laboratories which introduced Alka-Seltzer in 1931. Miles competed with many large pharmaceutical companies producing proprietory medicines claiming to remedy a broad range of ailments. The company experimented with different ways (from a puppet to the "creative revolution") to promote Alka-Seltzer
- In 1986 and 1987, Dr. Barbara Griffith, oral historian for the Archives Center, conducted taped interviews of Miles Laboratories executives and advertising agency personnel regarding Alka-Seltzer advertising campaigns. These tapes form the nucleus of the collection
- Summary
- Collection includes background information about Miles, Inc. (19th century-present) and the advertising agencies the corporations employed, interviews with significant individuals, and advertisements in print, film, and electronic media,especially covering the campaigns of Alka-Seltzer (1931-1984)
- Series 3: Original master audio cassettes made in the field and two sets of researcher copies of each tape
- Cite as
- Alka-Seltzer Oral History and Documentation Project, 1953-1987, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1953
- 1953-1987
- 1950-1990
- 1950-2000
- 20th century
- collector
- Archives Center, NMAH, SI
- interviewee
- Beals, Richard
- Lawrence, Mary Wells
- Case, Eugene
- Chaplin, Charles
- interviewer
- Griffith, Barbara S. Dr
- Subject
- Miles, Franklin Dr
- Miles Laboratories, Inc
- Local number
- 1989.3099 (NMAH Acc.)
- 1989.3101 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Sohmer & Co. Records, 1872-1989
- Notes
- When Sohmer & Co. was founded in 1872 by Hugo Sohmer and his partner Joseph Kuder, it became one of 171 piano manufacturers in New York City. Over the next 110 years, Sohmer & Co. was one of the few active and successful family-owned and operated piano-making ventures in the United States. Nationally known for tonal quality and fine craftmanship, the firm's product, in the music trade, came to be referred to as "The Piano-Maker's Piano."
- Upon the death of Hugo Sohmer in 1913, his son, Harry J. Sohmer, assumed company leadership. In 1940 Harry incorporated the company and upon his death in 1971, his son, Harry J. Sohmer, Jr., became president. When Sohmer & Co. was purchased by the Pratt Read Corporation in 1982, it moved to Ivoryton, Conn., and left Steinway & Sons as the only piano manufacturer in New York. In 1986 the Ivoryton factory was sold to Sohmer,which continued to make pianos there until a lack of skilled workers and financial losses forced its closing, Dec. 1988. In 1989 the Sohmer company was sold to the Falcone Custom Grand Piano Company, Haverhill, Massachusetts
- Summary
- Legal, financial, inventory & appraisal, manufacturing, marketing, advertising, and sales are the major series. Photographs, awards, family papers, publications about Sohmer, general publications, miscellaneous, and correspondence are the remaining series
- Financial records, 1895-1962 : Includes journals, general ledgers, and private ledgers. Marketing records, 1901 to as late as 1983, include catalogs, brochures, fliers and postcards published by Sohmer
- Advertising records, 1880-1989, include art work and mechanicals, reprints, proof sheets, and scrapbooks of advertisements. They reflect Sohmer & Co.'s heavy dependence on advertising. Early scrapbooks also include newspaper clippings relating to Hugo Sohmer s̕ brother William and his activities in New York City politics
- No corporate records, personnel records (including payroll and job desriptions), articles of incorporation, executive records, minutes, or annual reports
- Photographs: Pictures of company personnel, activities, and facilities, and celebrities seated at Sohmer pianos. There is little correspondence
- Correspondence: Small amount, consisting primarily of testimonial letters of satisfied Sohmer customers
- Cite as
- Sohmer & Co. Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1872
- 1872-1989
- 20th century
- 1850-1900
- creator
- Sohmer & Company
- donor
- Pratt, Read and Company
- collector
- Musical Instruments, Division of (NMAH, SI)
- lender
- Falcone Custom Grand Pianos
- Subject
- Sohmer, Hugo
- Kuder, Joseph
- Sohmer, Harry J
- Sohmer, Harry J. Jr
- Sohmer, William
- Sohmer & Company
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- 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