Emergence of advertising in America, 1850-1920

Over 9,000 images illustrate the rise of consumer culture, especially after the American Civil War, and the birth of a professionalized advertising industry in the United States. Images have been drawn from over a dozen separate collections in the Hartman Center and Duke University's Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. Images are organized into eleven categories; users may browse images by category, or search across or within categories. EAA forms a complement to the Duke Library's earlier Ad*Access project, mounted in 1999, which features over 7,000 print advertisements from mainly U.S. magazines and newspapers covering the period from 1911 to 1955. A timeline of advertising and influential developments (1850-1920) is included.