Advertising & Public Relations: Archives of ads

Library resources

By Library resources, I mean that the Libraries pay for these ... All of these allow searching specifically for advertisements.

American Periodicals from ProQuest This link opens in a new window
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Searches digitized images/text of American periodicals from 1740 to 1940. Coverage varies by title.
From the Center for Research Libraries. Full description here. Highlights:
  –  89 journals published between 1740 and 1800
  –  Many titles from the first half of the 19th century (including more than 20 women's magazines)
  –  118 periodicals published during the Civil War (1861-1865) and Reconstruction (1865-1877) eras
  –  Trade magazines from the 19th and early 20th centuries
Chicago Tribune (1848-1995) from Proquest This link opens in a new window
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Full-text articles and images available in PDF. 1849-1995.

Creativity Gallery from AdAge.com
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Part of the subscription to AdAge.com. If this link doesn't work, try starting here instead, and search for it.
VPN required for off-campus access.

J. Walter Thompson, Advertising America from Adam Matthew This link opens in a new window
The history of modern advertising and global consumer culture is presented through this collection of memoranda, correspondence, market research and reports, print advertisements, creative briefs, staff newsletters, and more from the pioneering agency of J. Walter Thompson Company. The collection is global in scope, but with the U.S. as a major focus.
National Geographic from Gale This link opens in a new window
National Geographic Virtual Library featuring: Magazine archive 1888 - 1994
New York Times (1851-2015) from ProQuest This link opens in a new window
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Full-text articles and images; in PDF format. 1851-2015.

More historical newspapers
Here is a much more comprehensive listing of historical newspaper databases. Many allow you to search for ads, though not all.

Free online archives of ads

YouTube will already be familiar to many as a place to find ads. Below are some other free sources, though many are now limiting the number of ads you can watch.

Ad*Access
Ads from the US and Canada from the period 1911-1955. Over 5,000 images from Duke University Libraries.
Adforum
Has lists of award-winning ads.
Ads of the World
"An advertising archive and community owned by WebMediaBrands."
Advertisements in the Library of Congress' Digital Collections
Its collections span the 17th - 20th centuries.
more...less...
  –  Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920
  –  Coca-Cola Advertising; Films, 1951-1999
  –  Edison Companies; Film and Sound Recordings
  –  Broadsides and Printed Ephemera; ca. 1600-2000
  –  Coolidge Era; Multiformat, 1924-1929
  –  WPA Posters; 1936-1943
Classic TV Ads
"Just commercials ... mostly old ones."
But there are some that are more current.
Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850 - 1920
Another image collection from Duke University Libraries. Over 9,000 items.
iSpot.tv
An online archive of TV ads from a tech company that provides metrics on the effectiveness of TV commercials.
Philip Morris Advertising Archive
Radio Advertising Bureau Collection
From the University of Maryland Library, here are samples of old radio ads ...
R.C. Maxwell Company Records, 1904 - 1990's
"Nearly 10,000 photographs of billboards and other outdoor advertising, mostly on the Atlantic City Boardwalk from the 1920s to 1950s."