American MemoryThe National Digital Library Program: Archived Documentation

The Library of Congress / Ameritech National Digital Library Competition (1996-1999)

Image from collection

Duke University

The Emergence of Advertising in America, 1850-1920

Amount of award: $75,000

This collection consists of 8,500 images relating to the history of American advertising. The items are drawn from one of the largest and most important advertising collections in the world and documents a critical moment in US cultural, commercial, and industrial history. Duke will draw from Eastman Kodak ads; tobacco related posters and insert cards; ephemera representing ads for bicycles, patent medicines and food; and selections from several dozen printed books, pamphlets, and periodicals created by advertising agents to promote the concept and methods of the new industry. This collection will be of great interest to students and scholars grappling with the evolution and intersection of consumerism, technology, economic change, and popular culture.

Online Collection



Image Caption: Put your business before the public.... 1902. (Duke University, Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, J. Walter Thompson Company Archives. Reproduction Number: J0103)