Advertising History In Stocks & Bonds Investment Directory

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Ad Access Project In Stock Futures Funds Directory

 

Ad Access is a pilot project to make a selection of historical advertisements available for study and research. The project draws on part of a large collection of magazine and newspaper ads within the Duke librarys J. Walter Thompson Company Archives. The project includes over 7,000 ads, mainly from U.S. publications dating between 1911 and 1955. The 7,000 ads included in Ad*Access are only a tiny subset of all the advertisements printed during the time period in question. Rather than include just a few ads on many topics, we elected to digitize and make available hundreds or thousands of ads that relate to one of five main categories. This enables researchers and students to have enough material to draw on to begin to understand that advertising for a certain product or time period. The categories we selected are: Beauty and Hygiene, Transportation, Radio, Television, and World War II. Each of these categories is one we know attracts a lot of research interest, and most of them also reflect major developments in American society, culture, business, and technology. But still: why advertising? Many commentators have noted that advertising is such a pervasive feature of American life that the 20th century can not be fully understood without studying it. Despite its perceived importance-love it or hate it-advertising has not been as thoroughly documented as other aspects of business. Not all companies that advertise hold on to their past work. Few ad agencies retain comprehensive files of their output. And relatively few libraries, museums, or archives make an effort specifically to document the industry.

 

Website: http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/adaccess/