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Register as a researcher and request materials online before visiting the Rubenstein Library Reading Room.
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The John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History is a centralized repository focused on primary sources documenting the history of advertising, sales, and marketing. The Center houses the collections of ad agencies, trade associations and individuals, including the J. Walter Thompson Company Archives and the Consumer Reports Archives. Our collections are housed in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Research guides
These research guides highlight many of the Hartman Center's holdings related to these topics but are not comprehensive listings of our collections. Use the Rubenstein Library catalog to search all of our print and archival collections.
- Advertising Agency Records
- Advertising Prescriptive Literature
- Consumer Reports Archives
- Databases for Advertising and Marketing
- Direct Marketing Materials
- Food History
- Ford Motor Company
- International Advertising
- The Kevin P. Reilly, Sr. Outdoor Advertising Archives
- Ogilvy & Mather Agency and Associated Individuals
- Pan American World Airways (Pan Am)
- Personal Papers
- Print Advertisements Collections
- Radio and Television
- Selected JWT Collections
- Tobacco Collections
- Women and Advertising
- World War II and Advertising
Digitized collections
Our digital collections include print and television advertisements, newsletters from the J. Walter Thompson Company, cosmetic trade samples, and more.
Student curated projects
The Hartman Center has participated in two Story+ projects, a six-week summer paid reserach experience for Duke students--graduate and undergraduate--interested in exploring approaches to humanities research. The Hartman Center's projects combined original archival research with storytelling on a public platform that would showcase their research and offer future researchers fodder for their own exploration of our collections.
- Race & Ethnicity in Advertising
- Consuming Women, Liberating Women: Women & Advertising in the Mid-20th Century
Other Repositories
A list of other repositories and cultural institutions that house collections relating to the history of advertising, marketing, business and technology.
