Purpose

A series of online searches of the Harvard University Library System – which includes the Baker Library, Houghton Library and the Radcliffe Institute’s Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library – on the History of Women in America revealed nearly 1,000 archive and manuscript holdings on advertising and related topics. This paper aims to investigate the extent of these holdings, to assess their value to advertising and marketing historians and to explore their potential for encouraging future research on under-investigated topics and questions.

Design/methodology/approach

Described are the extensive and valuable special collections and other holdings related to advertising, business and marketing of the Harvard Library System. Also described are the availability of the holdings and recommendations for accessing and studying the collections and artifacts.

Findings

The research reported here supports an overall conclusion that the Harvard Library System holds an important place among the world’s repositories of valuable historical advertisements and marketing ephemera. The research also supports four specific conclusions regarding the historical value of Harvard’s collections and archives. First, some of the collections offer access to artifacts and items from an under-investigated period – the first half of the 19th century. Second, many of the collections are international in scope. Third, the collections represent a wide array of 19th century non-periodical advertisements and ephemera, such as trade cards, posters and theatrical playbills. Fourth, and most important, the collections offer significant potential for addressing, among other under-investigated topics, the important role of women in the development of modern advertising theory and professional practices.

Originality/value

A prior search for the world’s largest and most historically significant archives and collections of advertisements and marketing ephemera (promotional objects or media executions created for a one-time, limited purpose) revealed a handful of library and museum collections of exceptional size or topical importance meriting further investigation. This paper adds to an extensive line of research published in the marketing and advertising historical literature exploring and describing the breadth, depth and historical value of the world’s important collections of historical advertisements and ephemera.

中文翻译：

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哈佛图书馆的广告和市场档案馆和临时总部：发现和机会

目的

一系列关于哈佛大学图书馆系统的在线搜索（包括贝克图书馆，霍顿图书馆以及拉德克利夫研究所的亚瑟图书馆和伊丽莎白·施莱辛格图书馆）在美国女性历史上进行了搜索，发现有近1,000份有关广告及相关主题的档案和手稿。本文旨在调查这些资产的规模，评估其对广告和营销历史学家的价值，并探索其潜力，以鼓励对未充分调查的主题和问题进行进一步的研究。

设计/方法/方法

描述了与哈佛图书馆系统的广告，商业和营销有关的广泛而有价值的特殊藏书和其他藏品。还介绍了馆藏和建议的可用性，以访问和研究馆藏和文物。

发现

此处报道的研究支持了一个总体结论，即哈佛图书馆系统在世界上有价值的历史广告和市场营销短时资料库中占有重要地位。该研究还支持有关哈佛的藏品和档案的历史价值的四个具体结论。首先，一些收藏品提供了人们在未充分研究的时期（19世纪上半叶）获得的文物和物品的机会。其次，许多馆藏都是国际性的。第三，这些收藏品代表了19世纪各种各样的非周期性广告和临时产品，例如商业卡，海报和戏剧性的传单。第四，也是最重要的一点是，这些馆藏具有解决其他未充分调查的主题的巨大潜力，

创意/价值

先前对世界上最大，历史上最重要的广告和市场营销临时资料（为一次性，有限目的创建的促销对象或媒体执行物）的档案和收藏进行的搜索显示，图书馆和博物馆的收藏品极少，具有突出的主题价值进一步的调查。本文增加了在营销和广告历史文献中发表的广泛研究领域，以探索和描述世界上重要的历史广告和短命集的广度，深度和历史价值。