John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History

What is the Hartman Center?

The Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History in Duke's Special Collection Library acquires and preserves printed material and collections of textual and multimedia resources and makes them available to researchers around the world. Through these collections and related programming, the Center promotes understanding of the social, cultural, and historical impact of advertising, marketing, and sales.

Newly Available Collections

The Hartman Center announces new online finding aids for the following collections:

• Leo Bogart papers, 1912-2005
• David W. Dole ISCI Records, 1969-2004
• J. Walter Thompson Company. Writings and Speeches, 1912-2000
• J. Walter Thompson Company. Vergil Reed and Lubertus Smilde Papers, 1944-1960
• Charles “Chick” McKinney Papers, 1952-1993
• Popsicle Advertising Campaign Collection, 1951-1958
• Sauer, Farrell, & Co. Records, 1870-2008
• Arlie R. Slabaugh Collection of Direct Mail Literature, 1921-1953
• Robert S. Smith Papers, 1947-1982

For a more complete list, see our Newly Available Collections page.

These and other Hartman Center finding aids can be found and searched from the Archival Finding Aids page.

Special Projects at the Hartman Center

Ad*Access
An image database of over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955.

Emergence of Advertising in America
A database of over 9,000 advertising items and publications (1850 - 1920), illustrating the rise of consumer culture, and the birth of a professionalized advertising industry.

Medicine and Madison Avenue
A database of over 600 health-related advertisements printed between 1911 and 1958, as well as 35 selected historical documents relating to health-related advertising.

ROAD: Resource of Outdoor Advertising Descriptions
A database of over 50,000 descriptions of images of outdoor advertising dating from the 1920s through the 1990s, pulled from four outdoor advertising collections including the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA). No images are available from this website.

Advertising Age Encyclopedia of Advertising
Three-volume encyclopedia available for purchase through the Routledge website.

Exhibit

Maxwell Did It! Photographing the Atlantic City Boardwalk, 1920s–1950s highlights Atlantic City signs and scenes.

Center Wins Award

The Hartman Center is pleased to be a co-recipient of the 2007 Leab Award (Division Three) for the printed catalog produced in conjunction with the 2006 exhibit, Maxwell Did It!  Photographing the Atlantic City Boardwalk, 1920s-1950s.  The award is granted by the Rare Book and Manuscript Section (RBMS) of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).