My original intent for this first blog of 2019 was for it to be on textile/fashion libraries with the hope of finding one related to one of the major legendary European fashion houses. While doing a basic Google search for a Gucci library, I stumbled upon a vintage digitized Gucci watch ad on the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History at the Duke University Rubenstein’s Library website. This post is less about libraries exclusively dedicated to advertising history, and more about libraries and digital resources with extensive collections related to that subject area.
HISTORY:
The field of advertising and marketing has a long history, originating in the Ancient World with papyrus wall posters and rock paintings. During the Middle Ages in Europe commercial advertising expanded to the use of signs as markers for specific types of shops. These signs primarily featured images related to the type of store they marked as oppose to words, such as an image of a “boot” for a cobbler’s shop. This tradition is still utilized today particularly with old-school tobacco shops. The advent of printing in the 15th century ultimately set in motion the rapid development of advertising mediums and strategies that would continue throughout the following centuries. For academic libraries and digital collections that focus on advertising history, their contents primarily consist of printed advertisements from the 19th and 20th centuries. These two centuries are exceptionally important in the history of advertising, because it marked the beginnings of advertising agencies. During this period there was also a vast broadening of advertising mediums and strategies, brought about through the development of new and unique technologies, such as mechanized print, radio, television, and eventually the internet. Some academic libraries include collections that reflect the dawn of the digital and computer age, such as Stanford University Libraries’ Apple Marketing Collection. Special libraries and digital collections that focus on this area intend to highlight the rich history of advertising, which often reflects the social, political, economic, and cultural mores and events of the period in which the ads were produced.
WHERE DO THEY WORK?
As mentioned in my brief introduction, Duke University’s John W. Hartman Center at the Rubenstein Library by far has one of the most comprehensive collections on the history of advertising in the United States. Other similar collections are at the Stanford University and University of Illinois libraries. As is often the case with highly specialized collection areas, there may not be a designated special library for that subject, but rather many collections spread out at various academic and special collection libraries. In addition to these traditional, physical libraries, there are many digital and online collections focusing on the history of advertising. Duke once again comes through with an outstanding surplus of high quality digital collections in this area. A large portion of the other digital collections available on the internet are curated by vintage advertisement dealers. These digitally curated collections are actually rather incredible in terms of size and scope, image quality, and the amount of information they supply in their descriptions. If one is interested in this particular sub-field of history, they can certainly pursue it either as a librarian or dealer.
Ad from the Hartman Center’s Collection
WHAT DO THEY DO?
The Hartman Center’s mission is that it “acquires and preserves printed material and collections of textual and multimedia resources and makes them available to the world. Through these collections and related programming, the Center promotes understanding of the social, cultural, and historical impact of advertising, marketing, and sales”. This mission is relatively straight forward, and accurately reflects the types of projects, work, and resources available at the Center. As noted, the Center has an outstanding selection of digital collections made available to researchers. These collections include: Ad* Access ( 7,000+ ads from Canadian and U.S. periodicals from 1911-1955); AdViews (TV commercials produced by the D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles agency); Emergence of Advertising in America (9,000+ images); J. Walter Thompson Ford Motor Company Advertisements; and Road 2.0 and Road Metadata Only Database. There are several more digital collections the Center has created that are available for free use on its website. The Center also holds events and talks related to its collections, a Travel Grant program for far away scholars, and unique exhibits.
WHAT TOOLS WILL BE HELPFUL?
Although I am not sure if jobs at libraries with these types of collections are rather plentiful, I would definitely recommend visiting the Duke Center’s site to see what they have to offer. The Library of Congress and Michigan State University provide excellent online reference pages for databases and digital collections related to the history of advertising.
WHO DO THEY SERVE?
According to the John W. Hartman Center’s website, “Faculty, scholars and students from around the world, as well as filmmakers, journalists and publishers visit the Hartman Center every year to conduct research in areas as varied as art history, communications, cultural anthropology, history, literature, music and women’s studies”. In addition to this wide range of patrons, the John W. Hartman Center and similar types of libraries also serve as indispensable resource for collectors, dealers, the general public, entrepreneurs, and current ad agencies.
A FEW CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
This particular category within the field of special libraries was rather fascinating to research for this post. The history and world of advertising has grown exponentially throughout history, and libraries both digital and physical serve as places where one can observe clearly how the field has developed and changed across centuries by viewing the actual historical ads themselves. In my opinion I imagine working at a library or on a digital project with this type of collection would be a very rewarding experience to any library science student who has an interest in advertising, marketing, and cultural history.
WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS TYPE OF SPECIAL LIBRARY ?
John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History at the Duke University
Warsaw Collection of Business Americana at the National Museum of American History
Advertising Exhibit at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Moving Image Research Center at the Library of Congress
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