Primary Sources - History

An archive of images and videos of over 60,000 ads in a variety of formats from over 50 countries. You can limit by medium, country, region, or industry. Full-text search does not currently appear to work.

Database of digitized online images of American print advertisements, focusing on the subjects of beauty/hygiene, radio, television, transportation, and World War II. Information about date, publication source, company being advertised and target audience is provided. Created by Duke University.

Database of digitized online images of American print advertisements. Along with general search options, the ‘Special Features’ search option allows for searching by specific themes and media genres. Information about date, publication source, company being advertised and target audience is provided for each image.

A project of U. C. Davis, this collection includes approximately 100 annotated images of 1920's product advertisements from the United States.

Collection of digitized trade catalogs of businesses that were run by women or that produced products for women and women's magazines, as well as books, pamphlets, diaries, memoirs, institutional records, and photographs related to women at work during this period.

"The primary objective of this website is to preserve and display specimens of American package design from the early decades of the 20th century." Photographs of product packaging including a dime placed next to the item for size comparison.

Database of digitized online images of broadsides and other printed ephemera from the collections of the Library of Congress. The genre search option allows for limiting searches to advertisements, menus, programs, catalogs, etc. Information about date, publication source, and company being advertised is provided for each image.

Highlights from the Motion Picture Archives at the Library of Congress.

"A digital collection of advertisements for runaway and captured slaves and servants in 18th- and 19th-century Virginia newspapers. Building on the rich descriptions of individual slaves and servants in the ads, the project offers a personal, geographical and documentary context for the study of slavery in Virginia, from colonial times to the Civil War."

Database of digitized online images of American print advertisements relating to medicine, focusing on the subjects of household products, over-the-counter drugs, personal hygiene, institutional and pharmaceutical advertisements, cigarettes and ‘supplementary documents.’ Information about date, publication source, company being advertised and target audience is provided for each image.

More than 55,000 color images of tobacco advertisements, dating back to 1909.