| PROJECT
INFORMATION |
| |
| Approximately
twenty-five percent of the Archives Center's Ivory Soap Advertising
Collection is represented in this database. This collection comprises
one of the largest and most complete runs of advertising for a single
product in the Center's holdings. The complementary materials are
a tiny sample from the rich and vast Warshaw Collection of Business
Americana's "Barbering" and "Soap" sections. Several
examples from the Sandra & Gary Baden Collection of Celebrity
Endorsements in Advertising, 1897-1979, and the Breck Girls Collection,
ca. 1936-1995, also are included. |
| |
| Dating
from the very origins of modern American advertising, the advertisements
shown here illustrate the wide range of marketing strategies and techniques
employed by the producers of American consumer goods. They also illustrate
changing technologies in printing (for example, the introduction of
chromolithography and photography) and the emergence of national print
media, especially magazines, at the end of the nineteenth century.
|
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| Historical
advertisements offer a unique window into the past and can be "read"
at many levels. Ads are intended to be timely making reference to
fashions, activities, and ideas of the moment. They also are meant
to inspire their viewers to act usually to purchase the product advertised
by touting its benefits to the consumer. In their texts and illustrations,
advertisements often reveal ideas, values, assumptions, and choices
of their creators (both the manufacturers of products and the creators
of advertising) and of the wider society with which they are communicating.
These aspects of advertising make them rich sources for understanding
the American past. |
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| Additional
information about the Archives Center's advertising holdings may be
located on our web pages: www.americanhistory.si.edu/archives/d-1.htm |
| |
| For
on-line access to additional advertising materials see Duke University's
Rare Book, Manuscripts, and Special Collections Library web pages:
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/ |
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| IMAGE
SELECTION CRITERIA |
| |
| Archives
Center staff discussed the criteria for image selection after an initial
survey of the collection. This discussion continued during the scanning
process. |
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| The
bulk of the images date from the late 1800s to the late 1990s. Fewer
advertisements from 1960 to 1999 are present in the database because
there were fewer examples to choose from. The project tried to capture
all of the different types of advertisements. Advertisements chosen
were representative of both text-based and visual advertisements.
However, the database focused more on visual advertisements due to
quantity and visual interest. Attractiveness of the image was a criterion
in selection; those advertisements that were visually stimulating
rated more highly than those that were not. Color images were chosen
over black and white images when duplicates existed. The condition
of each advertisement was also a factor. Advertisements had to be
in fairly good condition as this was not specifically a preservation
project. That said, some images of poorer quality were used to show
the condition of parts of the collection. This project tried to represent
various styles, artistic approaches, and other aesthetic aspects of
the advertisements. |
| |
| Chosen
materials fit into general thematic categories such as health, cleanliness,
and beauty. Advertisements were selected based on the messages they
convey, such as ideas about gender, ethnicity, beauty, and cleanliness. |
| |
| Size
was an important criterion in selection. The advertisements must fit
on the scanner without cropping. For larger advertisements, no more
than 2 passes (1 seam) was used to create a whole image. |
| |
| The
same criteria were applied to the additional advertisements chosen
to complement the Ivory materials. Discussions and evaluations of
these additional items took place while the Ivory materials were being
scanned. Collection maintenance was performed on the Soap series of
the Warshaw Collection prior to scanning. |
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| Total
advertisements included in the database: 1593 |
| |
| Sandra & Gary Baden Collection
of Celebrity Endorsements in Advertising, 1897-1979 |
40 |
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|
| Breck Girls Collection, ca. 1936-1995
|
34 |
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|
| Ivory Soap Advertising Collection,
1883-1998 |
1256 |
| |
|
| Warshaw Collection of Business Americana:
Barbering, 1750-1940 |
7 |
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|
| Warshaw Collection of Business Americana:
Soap, 1838-1953 |
256 |
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