Advertising & Public Relations

Finding Ads

This guide describes some of the major print and electronic resources for the scholarly study of advertising and public relations.

Selected Sources of Print & Broadcast Ads

ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Search scanned images of newspapers and other periodicals, including ads, as far back as the mid-19th century.
ArtStor
A database of over 300,000 images plus descriptive information of art, architecture, painting, photography, sculpture, decorative arts and design, archeological and anthropological objects, and visual and material culture.
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A database of over 300,000 images plus descriptive information of art, architecture, painting, photography, sculpture, decorative arts and design, archeological and anthropological objects, and visual and material culture.
American Broadsides and Ephemera
Based on the American Antiquarian Society's landmark collection, American Broadsides and Ephemera includes facsimile images of approximately 15,000 pieces of ephemera printed between 1760 and 1900.
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Includes early trade cards, advertisements, theater and music programs, campaign literature, playbills, begging poems, and more.
Ad*Access Project
Presents images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955.
AdViews
A digital archive of thousands of television commercials dating from the 1950s to the 1980s.
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These commercials were created or collected by the ad agency Benton & Bowles or its successor, D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B) and are part of the D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles Archives found at the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History in Duke University.
The Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850 - 1920
Presents over 9,000 images, with database information, that "illustrate the rise of consumer culture, especially after the American Civil War, and the birth of a professionalized advertising industry in the United States."

Vanderbilt Television News Archive This link opens in a new window
Index of national network television news programs 1968-present. Streaming access for NBC broadcasts 1968-present and some CNN broadcasts 1995-present. Requests for other broadcasts can be made through Interlibrary Loan.

AIGA Design Archives
Over 16,000 images of past winners of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) annual competitions in the areas of Book, Brand and Corporate Identity, Promotional, Information, Package and Typographical design from 1950's to the present.

O'Neill Library

Bapst Library

Burns Library

Educational Resource Center

Law Library

Social Work Library

Theology & Ministry Library

O'Connor Library

Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies

Advertising & Public Relations

Finding Ads

Selected Sources of Print & Broadcast Ads