Search Results

Creator:

Lippard, Lucy R.  Search this

Names:

Addison Gallery of American Art  Search this

Alliance for Cultural Democracy  Search this

Art Workers Coalition  Search this

Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Political Art Documentation/Distribution (Organization)  Search this

Printed Matter, Inc.  Search this

Studio International (Firm)  Search this

University of Colorado -- Faculty  Search this

Women's Caucus for Art  Search this

Andre, Carl, 1935-  Search this

Chicago, Judy, 1939-  Search this

Darboven, Hanne  Search this

Edelson, Mary Beth  Search this

Hammond, Harmony  Search this

Henes, Donna  Search this

Johnson, Ray, 1927-  Search this

Judd, Donald, 1928-  Search this

LeWitt, Sol, 1928-2007  Search this

Pearson, Henry, 1914-2006  Search this

Stevens, May  Search this

Extent:

70.5 Linear feet

0.454 Gigabytes

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Gigabytes

Sound recordings

Interviews

Photographs

Date:

1930s-2010

bulk 1960-1990

Summary:

The papers of New York and New Mexico writer, art critic, and curator, Lucy R. Lippard, measure 70.5 linear feet and 0.454 GB and date from the 1930s to 2007, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1960s to the 1990s. Over half of the collection consists of correspondence files documenting Lippard's professional relationships with artists, writers, galleries, art institutions, and political organizations, and her interest in conceptual and minimalist art, feminism and political activism. Also found are Lippard's notes and writings including sound recordings and interviews, teaching and exhibition files, printed and digital material, several works of art, and photographs of artwork and artists. Scattered throughout the collection are a small number of records concerning Lippard's personal life. An addition of 3.0 linear feet donated 2015 includes subject files on feminist and conceptual art as well as land use, development, and local politics and history in New Mexico.

There is a 17.0 linear foot unprocessed addition to this collection donated in 2015 and 2021 that incudes research files (press clippings, notes, correspondence, ephemera) related to the publications 'Lure of the Local' and 'Undermining' are a significant portion. In addition there are approximetley 50 notebooks ranging from 1965-1996, containing notes and daily tasks. Printed material and ephemera includes promotional materials for talks and public engagements, as well as press clippings of reviews and other news items featuring Lippard. Another significant portion of the addition is labeled "miscellaneous professional correspondence."Materials date from circa 1965-2010.

Scope and Contents:

The papers of New York and New Mexico writer, art critic, and curator, Lucy R. Lippard, measure 70.5 linear feet and 0.454 GB and date from the 1930s to 2007, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1960s to the 1990s. Over half of the collection consists of correspondence files documenting Lippard's professional relationships with artists, writers, galleries, art institutions, and political organizations, and her interest in conceptual and minimalist art, feminism and political activism. Also found are Lippard's notes and writings including sound recordings and interviews, teaching and exhibition files, printed and digital material, several works of art, and photographs of artwork and artists. Scattered throughout the collection are a small number of records concerning Lippard's personal life. An addition of 3.0 linear feet donated 2015 includes subject files on feminist and conceptual art as well as land use, development, and local politics and history in New Mexico.

A small amount of biographical material comprises resumes and an address book.

Correspondence files document all aspects of Lippard's professional life including her relationships with artists such as Carl Andre, Judy Chicago, Hanne Darboven, Ray Johnson, Sol LeWitt, and Henry Pearson; feminist artists including Mary Beth Edelson, Harmony Hammond, Donna Henes, and May Stevens; political and art-related activist groups such as Alliance for Cultural Democracy, Art Workers Coalition, Political Art Documentation/Distribution, Printed Matter, and Women's Caucus for Art; galleries and museums including Addison Gallery of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art, and publishers including Art International and Art Forum. The series also traces the development of Lippard's involvement in activist causes including censorship and the rights of artists, Central America and the impact of U.S. policy on the region, and equality and reproductive rights for women, as well as her interest in conceptual and minimalist art. The series includes scattered artwork and photographs of artists.

Writings are primarily by Lippard and include correspondence, manuscript drafts, extensive notes, and publication records for some of her best-known books such as The Graphic Work of Philip Evergood (1966), Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object (1973), Eva Hesse (1976), Ad Reinhardt (1985), and Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America (1990), as well as essays for publications such as Art Forum and Studio International and contributions to exhibition catalogs. Also found are edited transcripts from conferences, symposia and interviews conducted by and of Lippard, some audio recordings of interviews and symposia, including an interview with Donald Judd, and notes and typescripts for lectures and speeches.

A small number of files document Lippard's teaching work during the 1970s and 1980s, primarily at the University of Colorado, Boulder where she taught several courses and seminars.

Exhibition files document Lippard's involvement with exhibitions she helped to organize or curate such as A Different War: Vietnam in Art (1989-1991) 557,087 and 955,000 (1969, 1970), 2,972, 453 (1971) c.7,500 (1973-1974) and those for which she wrote catalog contributions.

Printed material includes a collection of articles written by Lippard and a small amount of material concerning events, such as speaking engagements, in which Lippard was involved. Other printed material reflects Lippard's wide range of artistic, political and activist interests and documents exhibitions and performances and the activities of art-related and political groups. Material includes many exhibition catalogs, announcements, invitations, printed posters, news clippings, journal articles, brochures, pamphlets and other publications.

Artwork includes sixteen items by unidentified artists, including two by children. Photographs consist primarily of photographs of works of art in addition to a small number of photos of exhibition installations.

There is a 17.0 linear foot unprocessed addition to this collection donated in 2015 and 2021 that incudes research files (press clippings, notes, correspondence, ephemera) related to the publications 'Lure of the Local' and 'Undermining' are a significant portion. In addition there are approximetley 50 notebooks ranging from 1965-1996, containing notes and daily tasks. Printed material and ephemera includes promotional materials for talks and public engagements, as well as press clippings of reviews and other news items featuring Lippard. Another significant portion of the addition is labeled "miscellaneous professional correspondence."Materials date from circa 1965-2010.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as nine series:

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1960s-circa 1980s (Box 1; 2 folders)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1950s-2006 (Boxes 1-28, 51, OVs 54-63; 28.8 linear feet)

Series 3: Writings, 1930s-1990s (Boxes 28-41, 51-52, OVs 64-66; 13.24 linear feet, ER01; 0.454 GB)

Series 4: Teaching Files, 1966-1993 (Boxes 41, 52; 0.76 linear feet)

Series 5: Exhibitions, 1960s-1990s (Boxes 42-45, 52, OVs 67-68; 4.2 linear feet)

Series 6: Printed Material, 1940s-2007 (Boxes 45-49, 52, OVs 69-77; 5.3 linear feet)

Series 7: Artwork and Ephemera, circa 1960s-circa 1990s (Boxes 50, 53; 4 folders)

Series 8: Photographs, 1950s-circa 1990s (Boxes 50, 53, OV 71; 1.0 linear foot)

Series 9: Unprocessed Addition, circa 1965-2010, (Boxes 78-94; 17.0 linear feet)

Biographical / Historical:

New York and New Mexico writer and art critic, Lucy R. Lippard, is the curator of numerous exhibitions and the author of over twenty-four books and other writings that trace the emergence of minimalist and conceptual art and document Lippard's commitment to feminism and political activism.

Born in New York City in 1937, Lippard earned a B.A. from Smith College in 1958 and an M.A. in 1962 from New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. In the 1960s she began writing art criticism for the journals Art International and Artforum. In 1966 she curated the landmark exhibition Eccentric Abstraction at the Fischbach Gallery in New York City. Lippard then curated the first of four defining conceptual art exhibitions that became known as her "numbers" shows, each titled after the populations of the cities in which they took place, with catalogs in the form of a set of 10 x 15 cm index cards. Opening at the Seattle Art Museum in 1969, 557,087 was followed by 955,000 in Vancouver, Canada, a few months later. 2,972,453 was held at the Centro de Arte y Comunicacíon in Buenos Aires in 1971 and c.7500 opened in Valencia, California, in 1973-1974 before traveling to several other venues in the United States and Europe.

Lippard's first book, The Graphic Work of Philip Evergood was published in 1966, followed by Pop Art the same year, and a collection of her early essays, Changing, in 1971. Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object (1973) and From the Center: Feminist Essays on Women's Art (1976) documented the emergence of conceptual art and the early years of feminist art respectively. In 1976 Lippard published her seminal book on the life and work of Eva Hesse.

Between 1977 and 1978 Lippard lived on a farm in Devon, England, and worked on a novel, The First Stone, about the role of politics in the lives of three generations of women. During her walks across the English countryside she became interested in landscape art and conceived of her book Overlay: Contemporary Art and the Art of Prehistory which was subsequently published in 1983. Other books include Get the Message?: A Decade Of Art For Social Change (1984), Ad Reinhardt (1985), and Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America (1990). Lippard has also written regular columns on art and politics for the Village Voice, In These Times and Z Magazine, and has been a contributing editor of Art in America.

Lippard was radicalized during a trip to Argentina in 1968 when she was invited to be a juror at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires. On her return to the United States she became heavily involved in anti-war activities and the Art Workers Coalition. She is a co-founder of several feminist and artist organizations including the feminist collective Heresies, which produced Heresies: A Feminist Journal on Art and Politics from 1977-1992, Ad Hoc Women Artists, Alliance for Cultural Democracy, Artists Call Against U.S. Intervention in Central America, Women's Action Coalition, and Women's Art Registry. In 1976 she was a founder of Printed Matter, a New York nonprofit dedicated to producing artists' publications. She also worked closely with Franklin Furnace, an artist-run space devoted to the promotion of artists' books, installation art, and video and performance art, and served on the organization's International Committee.

Lippard has been a visiting professor at the School of Visual Arts, the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the University of Queensland, Australia, and was Eminent Artist in Residence at the University of Wyoming Department of Art in 2015. She has received honorary doctorates in fine arts from Maine College of Art, the Massachusetts College of Art, Moore College of Art, San Francisco Art Institute, and others, and awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts grants in criticism, the Smith College Medal, the ArtTable Award for Distinguished Service to the Visual Arts, and the Bard College Center for Curatorial Studies Award for Excellence.

Lippard has lived in New Mexico since 1992 and works as a freelance writer and speaker.

Related Materials:

Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Lucy Lippard conducted in 2011 March 15, by Sue Heinemann, for the Archives of American Art's Elizabeth Murray Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts project, funded by a grant from the A G Foundation.

Provenance:

Lucy R. Lippard donated her papers in several increments between 1972-1995, 2006, 2015 and 2021.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice. Contact Reference Services for more information.

Rights:

The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.

Occupation:

Curators -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Authors -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Art critics -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Topic:

Art -- Study and teaching  Search this

Artists -- Political activity  Search this

Art criticism  Search this

Feminism and art  Search this

Women authors  Search this

Women art critics  Search this

Art, Modern -- 20th century  Search this

Conceptual art  Search this

Minimal art  Search this

Women museum curators  Search this

Women educators  Search this

Genre/Form:

Sound recordings

Interviews

Photographs

Citation:

Lucy R. Lippard papers, 1930s-2007, bulk 1960s-1990s. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art

Identifier:

AAA.lipplucy

See more items in:

Lucy R. Lippard papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9101c6a69-dde9-42ed-94cc-d03650c249ed

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-lipplucy

Creator:

Ayer (N W) Incorporated.  Search this

Names:

American Telephone and Telegraph Company -- Advertisements  Search this

Cunningham & Walsh.  Search this

Hixson & Jorgenson  Search this

United Air Lines, Inc. -- Advertisements  Search this

Ayer, Francis Wayland  Search this

De Kooning, Willem, 1904-1997  Search this

O'Keeffe, Georgia, 1887-1986  Search this

Extent:

270 Cubic feet (1463 boxes, 33 map-folders, 7 films)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Business records

Interviews

Oral history

Print advertising

Proof sheets

Proofs (printed matter)

Scrapbooks

Trade literature

Tear sheets

Advertisements

Date:

1817-1851

1869-2006

Summary:

Collection consists of records documenting one of the oldest advertising agencies created in Philadelphia. The company then moves to New York and expanses to international markets. During its history NW Ayer & Sons acquires a number of other advertising agencies and is eventually purchased. The largest portion of the collection is print advertisements but also includes radio and television. NW Ayer is known for some of the slogans created for major American companies.

Scope and Contents:

The collection consists primarily of proof sheets of advertisements created by NW Ayer & Son, Incorporated for their clients. These materials are in series one through thirteen and consist primarily of print advertisements. There are also billboards, radio and television commercials. The advertisements range from consumer to corporate and industrial products. The majority of the advertisements were created for Ayer's New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and international offices. Printed advertisements created by Cunningham & Walsh, Hixson & Jorgensen and Newell-Emmett are also included among these materials. Researchers who are interested in records created by Ayer in the course of operating an advertising agency will find these materials in Series fourteen-nineteen.

Series fourteen consists of advertisements created by NW Ayer & Son to promote their services to potential clients.

Series fifteen are scrapbooks of some of the earliest advertisements created by the company. Series sixteen are publications. Some of the publications were created by Ayer while others were about Ayer or the advertising industry in general. Provides good background materials and puts the company in perspective. Series eighteen are the legal records. Materials relating to employees including photographs, oral histories etc. are found in series nineteen.

Series twenty is one of the smallest amounts of materials and includes information relating to the history of NW Ayer & Son.

The container lists for series one-thirteen are part of a database and are searchable. The list has been printed for the convenience of the researcher and is included in this finding aid. Series fourteen-twenty container lists are also a part of the finding aid but are not in a searchable format.

Series 1, Scrapbooks of Client Advertisements, circa 1870-1920, is arranged into three boxes by chronological date. There are two bound scrapbooks and one box of folders containing loose scrapbook pages. NW Ayer & Son compiled an assortment of their earliest ads and placed them into scrapbooks. Besides the earliest advertisements, the scrapbooks contain requests to run advertisements, reading notices and listings of papers Ayer advertised in. The early advertisements themselves range from medical remedies to jewelry to machines to clothing to education and more. Most of the advertisements in the bound scrapbooks are dated.

Series 2, Proofsheets, circa 1870-1930, NW Ayer was fond of creating scrapbooks containing proofsheets. The series contains proofsheets created between 1892 and 1930, organized into 526 boxes. For convenience of storage, access and arrangement, the scrapbooks were disassembled and the pages placed in original order in flat archival storage boxes. The proofsheets are arranged by book number rather than client name. Usually the boxes contain a listing of the clients and sometimes the dates of the advertisements to be found within the box.

Series 3, Proofsheets, circa 1920-1975, is organized into 532 oversize boxes, and contain proofsheets and tearsheets created between 1920 and 1972. Within this series, materials are arranged alphabetically by company name (occasionally subdivided by brand or product), and thereunder chronologically by date of production. Many major, national advertisers are represented, including American Telephone & Telegraph, Armour Company, Canada Dry, Cannon Mills, Carrier Corporation, Domino Sugar, Caterpillar tractor company, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, Goodyear, Hills Bros. Coffee, Ladies Home Journal, National Dairy, Plymouth (Chrysler Corporation), Steinway, TV Guide, United Airlines and the United States Army. Also contained in this series are three scrapbooks of client advertisements including Canada Dry, Ford Motor, and Victor Talking Machine.

Series 4, 2001 Addendum, circa 1976-2001, is organized into ninety three oversized boxes,one folder and contains proofsheets for select Ayer clients, created between 1975 and 2001. Within this series, materials are arranged alphabetically by client name and there under chronologically by date of production. Major national advertisers represented include American Telephone & Telegraph, Avon, the United States Army, DeBeers Consolidated Diamond Mines, Dupont, TV Guide, Sealtest, Kraft Foods, Gillette, General Motors, Cannon Mills.

Series 5, Billboards, circa 1952-1956, consists of mounted and un-mounted original art/mock-ups. Twenty-two pieces of original art created as mock-ups for Texaco billboards.

Series 6, Film and Video Commercials, 1967-1970,

Series 7, Radio and Television Materials, 1933-1993, undated, is arranged into eight boxes and includes radio scripts, television scripts, and story boards for commercials.

Subseries 7.1, Scripts and storyboards for Radio and Television Commercials, dates Scripts for radio and television commercials includes title, date, length of commercial, advertising agency, client information

NW Ayer's radio and television materials mainly focus on the American Telegraph and Telephone account. Some of Ayer's materials relate to Bell Telephone Hours.

Storyboards are used in television and film to assist the director in working with crew to tell the story. To show the viewer through the use of figures, visual effects and camera angles. When directors first start thinking about their storyboard they create a story in their mind. They think of all the camera angles, visual effects and how the figures will interact in their mind. They try to create an extraordinary story in their head to attract the viewer (YOU) In order for the storyboard to be entirely effective it can't be a passive document. When done properly, a storyboard serves as a central design, meeting the needs of many team members including graphics artists, video personnel and programmers.

Another function of a storyboard is to help the team communicate during the training development process. This communication is very important in working with a large team as in the movie King, produced in 1996. Figures help the director explain to the crew how they are going to record the film and how to present it to the audience. Sometimes the director wants special effects to be added to the film, but his budget might not be that big so the director will have to change the story to fit their budget.

The Visual Effects are an important part in the storyboards it adds a special touch of creativity to your film. Camera angles are an important expects in your film because the camera angles determine where the viewing audience will look. If you want your audience to look at a certain object you must turn their attention to it by focusing on that object and maybe you might try blocking something out. Then you will have your audience's attention and you may do whatever else you have to, it could be scaring them are just surprising them or whatever you do.

Also included is talent information and log sheets relating to the storage of the commercials.

Bell Telephone Hour Program, 1942-[19??], The Bell Telephone Hour, also known as The Telephone Hour, was a five minute musical program which began April 29, 1940 on National Broadcasting Company Radio and was heard on NBC until June 30, 1958. Sponsored by Bell Telephone showcased the best in classical and Broadway music, reaching eight to nine million listeners each week. It continued on television from 1959 to 1968.

Earlier shows featured James Melton and Francia White as soloists. Producer Wallace Magill restructured the format on April 27, 1942 into the "Great Artists Series" of concert and opera performers, beginning with Jascha Heifetz. Records indicate that the list of talents on the program included Marian Anderson, Helen Traubel, Oscar Levant, Lily Pons, Nelson Eddy, Bing Crosby, Margaret Daum, Benny Goodman, José Iturbi, Gladys Swarthout and .The series returned to radio in 1968-1969 as Bell Telephone Hour Encores, also known as Encores from the Bell Telephone Hour, featuring highlights and interviews from the original series.

National Broadcasting television specials sponsored by the Bell System, 1957-1987includes information relating to Science series, Bell system Theshold Series, Bell telephone hour and commercial and public sponsored programs

Series 8, Chicago Office Print Advertisements, 1954-1989, is arranged alphabetically by the name of the client in ninety boxes and six oversize folders. Clients include Illinois Bell Telephone (1955-1989), Microswitch (1969-1989), Teletype (1975-1984), John Deere (1974-1989) and Caterpillar (1966-1972) are particularly well represented. Other clients of interest include Dr. Scholl's shoes (circa 1968-1972), the Girl Scouts (1976-1980), Sunbeam Personal Products Company (1973-1981), Bell and Howell (1974-1983) and Alberto Culver shampoos (1967-1971), Honeywell, Incorporated, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Associations, Kraft, Incorporated, Sears, Roebuck and Company, and YMCA.

Series 9, Los Angeles Office Materials, 1950s-1987, include printed advertisements created by this office and information relating to the employees.

Subseries 9.1, Print Advertisements, 1977-1987, printed advertisements arranged in one box alphabetically by client. There is a sparse sampling of clients from this particular Ayer branch office. The majority of the advertisements contained within this series are from Pizza Hut (1986-1987). Also included are Computer Automation (1977-1978), State of the Art, Incorporated (1982) and Toshiba (1986).

Subseries 9.2, Personnel Files, 1950s-1970s, includes cards of employees who worked in the Los Angeles office. Information on the cards includes name, address, telephone number, birthday, date hired, departure date and why (retired, terminated, resigned, etc) and position. Not all cards have all information. There is also a photograph of the employees on the cards.

Series 10, Foreign Print Advertisements, 1977-1991, undated, NW Ayer maintained partnerships with international companies such as Sloanas Ayer in Argentina, Connaghan & May Paton Ayer in Australia, Moussault Ayer in Belgium, NW Ayer, LTD. in Canada, GMC Ayer in France, Co-Partner Ayer in Germany, Wong Lam Wang in Hong Kong, MacHarman Ayer in New Zealand, Grupo de Diseno Ayer in Spain, Nedeby Ayer in Sweden, and Ayer Barker in United Kingdom. This group of material is a small sampling of advertisements created from these International offices. It is arranged alphabetically by client. There are quite a few automobile advertisements (i.e. Audi, Fiat, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen). In addition there are numerous advertisements for various personal items from MacLean's toothpaste to Quick athletic shoes to Labello lip balm, etc. Most of the advertisements have the creator's name printed on the advertisements.

Series 11, Cunningham & Walsh, Incorporated Materials, 1915-1987, undated contains 98 boxes 11 folders materials from the New York advertising agency acquired by NW Ayer in the 1960s. The company began with Newel-Emmett, an agency of nine men which broke up in 1949. Two of the men Fred Walsh and Jack Cunningham formed this agency in bearing their names in 1950. The agency created "let your fingers for the walking campaign for American Telephone & Telegraph, Mother Nature for Chiffon, and Mrs. Olson for Folgers's coffee and let the good times roll for Kawasaki motorcycle. In 1986, NW Ayer Incorporated purchased Cunningham & Walsh Incorporated.

Subseries 11.1, Print Advertisements, 1915-1987, are contained in ninety eight boxes of primarily print advertisements arranged alphabetically by client name. Clients that are particularly well represented are Graybar (electrical implements, circa1926-1937), Johns-Manulle (circa1915-1971), Smith and Corono typewriters (circa 1934-1960), Sunshine Biscuit Company (circa 1925-1961), Texaco Company (circa 1936-1961), Western Electric (circa 1920- 1971) and Yellow Pages (circa 1936-1971). Cunningham and Walsh also represented several travel and tourism industry clients, including Cook Travel Services (circa 1951-1962), Italian Line (circa 1953-1961), Narragansett and Croft (circa 1956-1960) and Northwest Airlines (circa 1946-1955). There are photographs of Texaco advertisements dating from 1913-1962. There is also a scrapbook of advertisements from the Western Electric Company dating from 1920-1922.

Subseries 11.2, Radio and Television Advertisements, 1963-1967, consist of materials created for Western Electric. Materials are arranged in chronological order.

Subseries 11.3, Company Related Materials, 1962-1986, undated include client lists, information relating to NW Ayer purchase and annual report 1962.

Series 12, Hixson & Jorgensen Materials, 1953-1971, a Los Angeles advertising company, merged with Ayer in 1969. This series is housed in one box. Within the box are four scrapbooks and folders with a hodgepodge of materials relating to advertising. Of most interest are the scrapbooks. Two scrapbooks deal with Hixson and Jorgensen's self promotion ad campaign "the right appeal gets action" (1953-1957). The other two scrapbooks contain news clippings about the company and its activities (1959-1971).

Series 13, Newell-Emmet, 1942-1957, founded in 1919 and governed in the 1940s by a partnership of nine men. The partnership broke up in 1949 when the men went their separate ways. The materials consist of print advertisements for one of client, Permutit Company, a water conditioning company. The materials are arranged in one box in chronological order.

Series 14, House Print Advertisements, 1870-1991, 16 boxes consists of advertisements or self-promotion advertisements to campaign for new clients. The series is arranged chronologically by date into fifteen boxes. Within the series are two scrapbooks containing self promotion ads from 1888-1919 and 1892-1895. Numerous house ads relate to Ayer's "Human Contact" campaign. In addition to the self promotion ads, Ayer ran advertisements expounding about particular concepts or themes for example, one month the concept would "understand" while another month would be "teamwork" and yet another would be on "imagination". Some of the self promotion ads target specific groups like Philadelphia businessmen. Other advertisements incorporate the fine arts.

Series 15, Scrapbooks, 1872-1959, relates to company events, records and news clippings about Ayer's history. The six boxes are arranged by chronological date. Two of the boxes focus solely on the death of founder F.W. Ayer (1923). Another box houses a scrapbook that showcases Ayer's annual Typography Exhibition (1931-1959). One box contains a scrapbook that specifically deals with correspondences relating to Ayer's advertising. Yet another box's contents are folders of loose pages from scrapbooks that have newspaper clippings, order forms, correspondences and other company records. In one box, a bound scrapbook houses a variety of materials relating to Ayer and advertising (i.e. newspaper clippings, competitor's advertisements, NW Ayer's advertisements, correspondences for advertisements, clippings regarding the "theory of advertising."

Series 16, Publications, 1849-2006, are housed in thirty four boxes and are arranged into three main categories.

Subseries 16.1, House Publications, 1876-1994, covers diverse topics; some proscriptive works about the Ayer method in advertising, some commemorating people, anniversaries or events in the life of the agency. Materials consist of scattered issues of the employee newsletter The Next Step 1920-1921. The materials are arranged in chronological order by date of publication. Ayer in the News, The Show Windows of an Advertising Agency, 1915, book form of advertisements published on the cover of Printer's Ink, highlighting Ayer's relations with advertisers. The Story of the States, 1916, Reprint in book form of a series of articles published in Printer's Ink for the purpose of adding some pertinent fact, progressive thought and prophetic vision to the Nationalism of Advertising highlights major businesses, manufacturer, natural resources and other qualities or attractions of each state. The Book of the Golden Celebration, 1919, includes welcome address and closing remarks by founder F. Wayland Ayer, The Next Step, 1920 employee newsletter with photographs, employee profiles, in-house jokes, etc., Advertising Advertising: A Series of Fifty-two Advertisements scheduled one time a week. Twenty-seven, thirty and forty inches, a day of the week optional with publisher, 1924

Subseries 16.2, Publications about NW Ayer, 1949-2006, includes a book first published in 1939. Includes articles, documenting events and is arranged chronologically by date of publication.

Subseries 16.3, General Publications about Advertising, 1922-1974, are arranged chronologically by date of publication and relate primarily to the history of advertising.

Subseries 16.4, Publications about Other Subjects, 1948-1964, include four books about the tobacco industry primarily the history of the American Tobacco Company and Lorillard Company from the Cunningham and Walsh library.

Series 17, Business Records, circa 1885-1990s

Subseries 17.1, Contracts, 1885-1908, undated, are arranged alphabetically and span from 1885-1908. The majority of the contracts are with newspaper and magazine publishers from around the country.

Subseries 17.2, General client information, 1911-1999, undated, including active and cancelled lists with dates, client gains, historical client list, (should move this to series 20) Ayer Plan User Guide Strategic Planning for Human Contact, undated

Subseries 17.3, Individual Client Account Information, 1950s-1990s, undated, contain information used by Ayer to create advertisements for some of its clients. American Telephone &Telegraph Corporate Case History, American Telephone &Telegraph Corporate advertisement memo, commissioned artists for DeBeers advertisements, DeBeers information relating to the creative process and photography credits, a case history for DeBeers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., The Diamond Engagement Ring, Managing Communication at all levels, DuPont publications, JC Penny Marketing Communication Plan Recommendation, Leaf, Incorporated, Saturn presentation, and USAREC oral presentation.

Subseries 17.4, Potential Clients, 1993, includes grouping has a questionnaire sent to Ayer by a potential client. Questionnaire response for Prudential Securities, 1993 Prudential Securities advertising account review, 1993.

Subseries 17.5, Financial Records, 1929-1938, includes balance sheet, 1929 May 1 Balance sheet and adjustments Consolidated statement of assets and liabilities, Expenses 191936-37 Business review and expenses, 1937 and 1938 Business review and expenses comparative statement, 1937 and 1938.

Series 18, Legal Records, circa 1911-1982, Ayer's legal records are arranged by twelve subject groupings within four boxes. The twelve groupings are advertising service agreements (circa 1918-1982), bylaws, copyright claims, correspondences, international correspondences, dissolution of trusts, stock information, agreements between partners, incorporation materials, reduction of capital, property information and miscellaneous materials. The bulk of the materials are the advertising service agreements. These agreements are between Ayer and their clients and state the services Ayer will offer and at what cost. The bylaws are Ayer's company bylaws from 1969 and 1972. The copyright claims are certificates stating Ayer's ownership over certain published materials (i.e. "Policy", Media Equalizer Model, and Don Newman's Washington Square Experiment). The correspondences relate to either the voting trust and receipts for agreement or the New York Corporation. The international correspondences are from either Ayer's Canadian office or London office. The dissolutions of trusts contains materials about the dividend trust of Wilfred F. Fry, the investment trust of Winfred W. Fry, the voting trust, and the New York corporation. The stock information has stock certificates and capital stock information. The agreements between partners (1911-1916) specify the terms between F.W. Ayer and his partners. The incorporation materials (circa 1929-1977) deal with Ayer advertising agency becoming incorporated in the state of Delaware. The reduction of capital grouping is a notification that shares of stock have been retired. The property information grouping contains property deeds and insurance policy (circa 1921-1939), a property appraisal (1934), and a bill of sale (1948). The miscellaneous grouping contains a house memo regarding a set of board meeting minutes and a registry of foreign companies in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1929-1954).

Subseries 18.1, Advertising Service Agreements, 1918-1982

Subseries 18.2, Bylaw Materials, 1969-1972

Subseries 18.3, Copyright Claims, 1962-1969

Subseries 18.4, Correspondence, 1928-1933

Subseries 18.5, International Office Correspondence, 1947-1948

Subseries 18.6, Dissolution of Trusts, 1934-1937

Subseries 18.7, Stock Information, 1934-1974

Subseries 18.8, Agreements between Partners, 1911-1916

Subseries 18.9, Incorporation Materials, 1929-1977

Subseries 18.10, Certificates of Reduction of Capital, 1937; 1975

Subseries 18.11, Property Information, 1921-1948

Subseries 18.12, Miscellaneous Materials, 1929-1977

Series 19, Personnel Records, circa 1889-2001, are arranged into eight groupings within eight boxes. The groupings are employee card files, photographs, Ayer alumni, biographies, speeches, recollections, oral histories, and miscellaneous. Typed manuscript of book A Copy Writer Speaks by George Cecil, NW Ayer, Incorporated copy head 1920s-1950s

Subseries 19.1, Employee card files, circa 1892-1915; 1929-1963, consists of index cards with the name, age, job title, date and wage increases, date of hire/fire, as well as remarks about the employee's service and/or reasons for seeking or leaving the job. Materials are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the employee within three boxes.

Subseries 19.2, Photographs, circa 1924-1984, undated, are housed in two boxes. The photographs grouped together by subjects i.e. personnel, company events, Ayer buildings, and miscellaneous. This grouping primarily consists of personnel photographs. Includes a glass plate negative dated 1924 of NW Ayer.

Subseries 19.3, Ayer Alumni, circa 1989-98, include employees who have left Ayer. There is a listing of Ayer "graduates" and their current job. Emeritus, Ayer's alumni newsletter 1989-1996, makes up the majority of materials in this grouping. The newsletter keeps the alumni up to date with the happenings of Ayer and what has become of former Ayer employees. Emeritus is a quarterly newsletter devoted to the activities, thoughts and feelings of Ayer alumni a body of people who consists of retirees and former employees.

Subseries 19.4, Biographical Information, circa 1889-1994, undated, prominent members of Ayer's operations had biographical sketches completed of them. This was true for the bio sketches of Robert Ervin, Louis T. Hagopian, and George A. Rink. There is a substantial file on Dorothy Dignam ("Mis Dig"), a leading woman in the advertising world from the 1930s to the 1950s. Also of interest is a video ("The Siano Man") compiled by Ayer employees to commemorate Jerry Siano's retirement from Ayer in 1994. The series is arranged alphabetically by last name.

Subseries 19.5, Speeches, circa 1919-1931; 1975, contains speeches made by Wilfred W. Fry and Neal W. O'Connor. Wilfred W. Fry had various speaking engagements connected with Ayer. Contained in this group is a sampling of his speeches from 1919 to 1931. Neal O'Connor's speech "Advertising: Who Says It's a Young People's Business" was given at the Central Region Convention for the American Association of Advertising Agencies in Chicago on November 6, 1975. The speeches are arranged alphabetically by the speaker's last name.

Subseries 19.6, Recollections, 1954-1984, undated, are arranged alphabetically by last name. These are recollections from Ayer employees about the company and its advertisements. Some recollections are specifically about certain types of advertisements, like farm equipment while others reflect on F. W. Ayer and the company.

Subseries 19.7, Oral History Interview Transcripts, 1983-1985; 1989-1991, include interviews with key NW Ayer personnel, conducted by Ayer alumnae Howard Davis, Brad Lynch and Don Sholl (Vice President creative) for the Oral History Program. The materials are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the interviewee.

Subseries 19.8, Oral History Interview Audio Tapes, 1985-1990, include interviews on audiotape the materials are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the interviewee.

Subseries 19.9, Internal Communications, 1993-1999, includes information sent to employees relating to retirements, management changes, awards won by the company, promotions, potential new accounts, free items, grand opening of Ayer Café, donation events, sponsorship programs, holiday schedules, discounts for employees from clients, Ayer joins MacManus Group.

Subseries 19.10, General Materials, 1940; 1970, includes agency directory entry including a list of the employees, 1970s, annual banquet program for the Curfew Club May 22, 1940 a group formed by the Philadelphia employee in 1938. It sponsored numerous sports, social and educational activities. Groups were formed in public speaking, music appreciation and a series of talks on Monday evenings title the modern woman. The front page was a series of talks for general interest. A list of officers, 1991, Twenty five year club membership, 1973 December 1, List of NW Ayer graduates, 1970, List of Officers, 1991 May 31, Obituary for Leo Lionni, 1999 October 17, List of photographers of advertisements, 2001

Series 20, Background and History Information, 1817-1999, undated includes a chronology, 1817-1990, quick reference timeline, 1848-1923, loose pages from a scrapbook containing examples of correspondence, envelopes, advertisements dating from 1875-1878; slogans coined by NW Ayer & Sons, Incorporated, 1899-1990, history of management, 1909-1923, articles and photographs about the building and art galleries, 1926-1976, publications about the Philadelphia building, 1929, pamphlet relating to memories of NW Ayer & Sons, Incorporated, 1930s-1950s, television history, 1940-1948, Article about the history of the company, 1950 January, pocket guide, 1982, AdWeek reports about standings for advertising agencies, information relating to Human Contact which is NW Ayer's Information relating to Human Contact, undated which is their philosophy on advertising.

Series 21, Materials Created by other Advertising Agencies, 1945-1978, undated, consists of print advertisements collected by Ayer from other major advertising companies. The companies include Doyle Dane Bernback, Incorporated, Leo Burnett Company, Grey Advertising Agency, D'Arcy Ad Agency, Scali, McCabe, Sloves, Incorporated and Erwin Wasey Company. The materials are arranged in alphabetical order by client and include products from Ralston Purina and Van Camp (Chicken of the Sea), Kellogg, American Export Lines and No Nonsense Fashions.

Series 22, 2010 Addendum of Print Advertisements, circa 1879s-1999, undated, includes material given to the Archives Center in 2010. It is organized into seventy one oversized boxes and contains proofsheets of print advertisements for select Ayer clients. These are arranged alphabetically by client name and include substantial quantities of materials from American Telephone &Telegraph (1945-1996), Bahamas Ministry of Tourism (1967-1987), Carrier (1971-1981), Citibank (1973-1991), DeBeers (1940s-1960s and1990s), Electric Companies Advertising Program [ECAP] (1942-1970s), General Motors (1989-1998), J.C. Penney (1983-1986), Newsweek (1966-1975), and Proctor and Gamble (1980s-1890s). There are also numerous other clients represented by smaller quantities of materials.

Subseries 22.1, Print Advertisements, 1930-1990, undated

Subseries 22.2, Print Advertisements on Glass Plate Negatives, 1879-1881, undated, include Cannon towels, Cheny Brothers silks, Cornish & Company organs and pianos, Enterprise Manufacturing Company, 1879 sad iron, an ad from Harper's Weekly 1881 for ladies clothing, Ostermoor & Company mattresses, Pear's soap, Porter's cough balsam, Steinway pianos.

Series 23, Microfilm of Print Advertisements, circa 1908-1985, consists of three boxes of printed advertisements for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Some of the same advertisements might also be found in series two, three and four.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into twenty-three series.

Series 1: Scrapbooks of Client Print Advertisements, circa 1870-1920

Series 2: Proofsheets, circa 1870-1930

Series 3: Proofsheets, circa 1920-1975

Series 4: 2001 Addendum, circa 1976-2001

Series 5: Billboards, circa 1952-1956

Series 6: Audiovisual Materials

Series 7: Radio and Television Materials, 1933-1993, undated

Series 8: Chicago Office Print Advertisements, 1954-1989

Series 9: Los Angeles Office Materials, 1950s-1987

Subseries 9.1: Printed Advertisements, 1977-1987

Subseries 9.2: Personnel Files, 1950s-1970s

Series 10: Foreign Print Advertisements, 1977-1991, undated

Series 11: Cunningham & Walsh Incorporated Materials, 1915-1987, undated

Subseries 11.1: Printed Advertisements, 1915-1987

Subseries 11.2: Radio and Television Advertisements, 1963-1967

Subseries 11.3: Company Related Materials, 1962-1986, undated

Series 12: Hixson & Jorgensen Materials, 1953-1971, undated

Series 13: Newell-Emmet, 1942-1957

Series 14: House Print Advertisements, 1870-1991

Series 15: Scrapbooks, 1872-1959

Series 16: Publications, 1849-2006

Subseries 16.1: House Publications, 1876-1994

Subseries 16.2: Publications about NW Ayer, 1949-1995

Subseries 16.3: General Publications about Advertising, 1922-2006

Subseries 16.4: Publications about other Subjects, 1948-1964

Series 17, Business Records, circa 1885-1990s

Subseries 17.1: Contracts, 1885-1908, undated

Subseries 17.2: General Client Information, 1911-1999, undated

Subseries 17.3: Individual Client Account Information, 1950s-1990s, undated

Subseries 17.4: Potential Clients, 1993

Subseries 17.5: Financial Records, 1929-1938

Series 18: Legal Records, circa 1911-1984

Subseries 18.1: Advertising Service Agreements, 1918-1982

Subseries 18.2: Bylaw Materials, 1969-1972

Subseries 18.3, Copyright Claims, 1962-1969

Subseries 18.4: Correspondence, 1928-1933

Subseries 18.5: International Office Correspondence, 1947-1948

Subseries 18.6: Dissolution of Trusts, 1934-1937

Subseries 18.7: Stock Information, 1934-1974

Subseries 18.8: Agreements between Partners, 1911-1916

Subseries 18.9: Incorporation Materials, 1929-1977

Subseries 18.10: Certificates of Reduction of Capital, 1937; 1975

Subseries 18.11: Property Information

Subseries 18.12: Miscellaneous Materials, 1929-1977

Series 19: Employee Materials, circa 1889-2001

Subseries 19.1: Employee Card files, circa 1892-1915; 1929-1963

Subseries 19.2: Photographs, circa 1924-1984, undated

Subseries 19.3: Alumni Publications, circa 1989-1998

Subseries 19.4: Biographical Information, circa 1889-1994

Subseries 19.5: Speeches, circa 1919-1931; 1975

Subseries 19.6: Recollections, 1954-1984, undated

Subseries 19.7: Oral History Interview Transcripts, 1983-1985; 1989-1991

Subseries 19.8: Oral History Audiotapes, 1985-1990

Subseries 19.9: Internal Communications, 1993-1999

Subseries 19.1: General Materials, 1940-2001

Series 20: History and Background Information about the Company, 1817-1999, undated

Series 21: Materials Created by other Advertising Agencies, 1945-1978, undated

Series 22: 2010 Addendum of Print Advertisements, circa 1879s-1990s, undated

Subseries 22.1: Print Advertisements, 1930-1990, undated

Subseries 22.2: Print Advertisements on Glass Plate Negatives, 1879-1881, undated

Series 23: Microfilm of Print Advertisements, circa 1908-1985

Biographical / Historical:

Founded in Philadelphia in 1869, NW Ayer & Son is one of the oldest and largest advertising agencies in America. For most of its history, it was the undisputed leader and innovator in the field of advertising. In 1876, NW Ayer & Son pioneered the "open contract", a revolutionary change in the method of billing for advertising which became the industry standard for the next hundred years. NW Ayer pioneered the use of fine art in advertising and established the industry's first art department. It was the first agency to use a full-time copywriter and the first to institute a copy department. The agency relocated to New York City in 1974. During its long history, the agency's clients included many "blue-chip" clients, including American Telephone & Telegraph, DeBeers Consolidated Diamond Mines, Ford Motor Company, Nabisco, R. J. Reynolds and United Airlines. However, in later years, the Ayer's inherent conservatism left the agency vulnerable to the creative revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, the advertising industry restructuring of the 1980s and the economic recession of the early 1990s. The agency was bought out by a Korean investor in 1993. In 1996, NW Ayer merged with another struggling top twenty United States advertising agency, Darcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles, under the umbrella of the McManus Group. Ayer continues to operate as a separate, full-service agency.

Through a series of buyouts and mergers, Ayer traces its lineage to the first advertising agency founded in the United States, a Philadelphia agency begun by Volney Palmer in 1841. Palmer began his career in advertising as a newspaper agent, acting as middleman between newspaper publishers and advertisers across the country. By 1849, Palmer had founded his own newspaper, V. B. Palmer's Register and Spirit of the Press, and had developed a complete system of advertising which included securing advertising space and placing ads in scores of commercial, political, religious, scientific and agricultural journals across the country. Palmer went one step further than the "space jobbers" of the day when he began offering "advertisements carefully drawn for those who have not the time to prepare an original copy." Always an enthusiastic promoter of advertising as an incentive to trade and American economic growth, Palmer promised advertisers that "every dollar paid for advertising in country newspapers will pay back twenty-fold" and encouraged skeptical consumers that "he who wishes to buy cheap should buy of those who advertise." When Palmer died in 1863, the agency was bought by his bookkeeper, John Joy, who joined with another Philadelphia advertising agency to form Joy, Coe & Sharpe. That agency was bought out again in 1868 and renamed Coe, Wetherill & Company. In 1877, Coe, Wetherill and Company was bought out by the newly formed NW Ayer & Son.

Francis Wayland Ayer was an ambitious young schoolteacher with an entrepreneurial streak. Having worked for a year soliciting advertisements on a commission basis for the publisher of the National Baptist weekly, Francis Ayer saw the potential to turn a profit as an advertising agent. In 1869, Ayer persuaded his father, Nathan Wheeler Ayer, to join him in business, and with an initial investment of only $250.00, NW Ayer & Son was born. Notwithstanding a smallpox epidemic in Philadelphia in 1871 and the general economic depression of the early 1870s, the agency flourished. The senior Ayer died in 1873, leaving his interest in the agency to his wife, but Francis W. Ayer bought her out, consolidating his interest in the company's management. In 1877, with Coe, Wetherill & Company (the successor to Palmer's 1841 agency) on the verge of bankruptcy and heavily indebted to Ayer for advertising it had placed in Ayer publications, Ayer assumed ownership of that agency. Thus did NW Ayer lay claim to being the oldest advertising agency in the country.

Both Nathan Wheeler and Francis Wayland Ayer began their careers as schoolteachers, and one of their legacies was a commitment to the cause of education: correspondence schools and institutions of higher learning were historically well-represented among Ayer clients. Just after World War I, the agency was heralded as "co-founder of more schools than any citizen of this country" for its conspicuous efforts to advertise private schools. Well into the 1960s, an "Education Department" at Ayer prepared advertisements for over three hundred private schools, camps and colleges, representing almost half the regional and national advertising done for such institutions. In fact, to its clients Ayer presented advertising itself as being akin to a system of education. In 1886, Ayer began promoting the virtues of the Ayer way advertising with the slogan, "Keeping Everlastingly at It Brings Success."

The agency's goals were simple: "to make advertising pay the advertiser, to spend the advertiser's money as though it were our own, to develop, magnify and dignify advertising as a business." Initially, Ayer's fortunes were tied to newspapers, and the agency began to make a name for itself as compiler and publisher of a widely used American Newspaper Annual. During the first years, Ayer's singular goal was "to get business, place it [in newspapers] and get money for it"; after several years as an independent space broker, however, Francis Ayer resolved "not to be an order taker any longer." This decision led NW Ayer and Son to a change in its mode of conducting business which would revolutionize the advertising industry: in 1876, Ayer pioneered the "open contract" with Diggee & Conard, Philadelphia raised growers and agricultural suppliers. Prior to the open contract, NW Ayer & Sons and most agencies operated as "space-jobbers," independent wholesalers of advertising space, in which the opportunities for graft and corrupt practices were virtually unlimited. In contrast, the open contract, wherein the advertiser paid a fixed commission based on the volume of advertising placed, aligned the advertising agent firmly on the side of the advertiser and gave advertisers access to the actual rates charged by newspapers and religious journals. The open contract with a fixed commission has been hailed by advertising pioneer Albert Lasker as one of the "three great landmarks in advertising history." (The other two were Lasker's own development of "reason-why" advertising copy and J. Walter Thompson's pioneering of sex appeal in an advertisement for Woodbury's soap.) Although the transition to the open contract did not happen overnight, by 1884, nearly three-quarters of Ayer's advertising billings were on an open contract basis. Since Ayer was, by the 1890s, the largest agency in America, the switch to direct payment by advertisers had a significant impact on the advertising industry, as other agencies were forced to respond to Ayer's higher standard. Just as important, the open contract helped to establish N W Ayer's long-standing reputation for "clean ethics and fair dealing" -- a reputation the agency has guarded jealously for over a century. The open contract also helped to establish Ayer as a full service advertising agency and to regularize the production of advertising in-house. From that point forward, Ayer routinely offered advice and service beyond the mere placement of advertisements. Ayer set another milestone for the industry in 1888, when Jarvis Wood was hired as the industry's first full-time copywriter. Wood was joined by a second full time copywriter four years later, and the Copy Department was formally established in 1900. The industry's first Art Department grew out of the Copy Department when Ayer hired its first commercial artist to assist with copy preparation in 1898; twelve years later Ayer became the first agency to offer the services of a full time art director, whose sole responsibility was the design and illustration of ads.

Ayer's leadership in the use of fine art in advertising has roots in this period, but achieved its highest expression under the guidance of legendary art director Charles Coiner. Coiner joined Ayer in 1924, after graduating from the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Despite early resistance from some clients, Coiner was adamant that "the use of outstanding palette and original art forms bring a greater return in readership, in impact and prestige for the advertiser." To this end, Coiner marshaled the talents of notable painters, illustrators and photographers, including N.C. Wyeth and Rockwell Kent (Steinway), Georgia O'Keefe (Dole), Leo Lionni (DuPont), Edward Steichen (Steinway, Cannon Mills), Charles Sheeler (Ford), and Irving Penn (DeBeers). Coiner believed that there was a practical side to the use of fine art in advertising, and his success (and Ayer's) lay in the marriage of research and copywriting with fine art, an arrangement Coiner termed "art for business sake." Coiner's efforts won both awards and attention for a series completed in the 1950s for the Container Corporation of America. Titled "Great Ideas of Western Man" the campaign featured abstract and modern paintings and sculpture by leading U.S. and foreign artists, linked with Western philosophical writings in an early example of advertising designed primarily to bolster corporate image. In 1994, Charles Coiner was posthumously named to the American Advertising Federation's Hall of Fame, the first full time art director ever chosen for that honor.

Coiner and fellow art director Paul Darrow also created legendary advertising with the "A Diamond Is Forever" campaign for DeBeers; ads featured the work of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and other modernist painters. The "A Diamond is Forever" tagline was written in 1949 by Frances Gerety, a woman copywriter at Ayer from 1943 to 1970. In 1999, Ad Age magazine cited "A Diamond is Forever" as the most memorable advertising slogan of the twentieth century.

Coiner also earned respect for his volunteer government service during World War II; he designed the armbands for civil defense volunteers and logos for the National Recovery Administration and Community Chest. As a founding member of the Advertising Council in 1945, Ayer has had a long-standing commitment to public service advertising. In the mid-1980s, Ayer became a leading force in the Reagan-era "War on Drugs". Lou Hagopian, Ayer's sixth CEO, brokered the establishment of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, a media coalition which generated as much as a million dollars a day in donated advertising space and time to prevent the use and abuse of illegal drugs. Famous names appear among NW Ayer's clientele from the very earliest days of the agency. Retailer John Wanamaker, Jay Cooke and Company, and Montgomery Ward's mail-order business were among the first Ayer clients. The agency has represented at least twenty automobile manufacturers, including Cadillac, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Plymouth, and Rolls-Royce. Other major, long-term clients through the years have included American Telephone & Telegraph, Canada Dry, Cannon Mills, Hills Bros. Coffee Company, Kellogg's, R. J. Reynolds, Steinway and Sons, United Airlines, and the United States Army. By the time of Ayer's hundredth anniversary in 1969, some of these companies had been Ayer clients for decades if not generations, and the longevity of those relationships was for many years a source of Ayer's strength.

But the advertising industry began to change in the late 1960s and 1970s, due in part to a "creative revolution." Small advertising agencies won attention with provocative copywriting and art direction that more closely resembled art than advertising. Advances in market research allowed clients to more narrowly tailor their advertising messages to distinct groups of consumers, and this led to a rise in targeted marketing which could more readily be doled out to specialized small agencies than to larger, established firms like NW Ayer & Son. The civil rights and anti-war movements also contributed to increasing public skepticism with the values of corporate America, and by extension, with some national advertising campaigns. Older, more conservative firms like Ayer were hard pressed to meet these new challenges.

About 1970, in an effort to meet these challenges and to establish a foothold on the West Coast, Ayer bought out two smaller agencies--Hixson & Jorgenson (Los Angeles) and Frederick E. Baker (Seattle). The agency relocated from Philadelphia to New York City in 1974 in an attempt both to consolidate operations (Ayer had operated a New York office since the 1920s) and to be closer to the historic center of the advertising industry. Riding the wave of mergers that characterized the advertising industry in the late 1980s and 1990s, Ayer continued to grow through the acquisition of Cunningham & Walsh in 1986 and Rink Wells in 19xx.

During this transitional period, Ayer received widespread acclaim for its work for the United States Army, which included the widely recognized slogan "Be All You Can Be". Ayer first acquired the Army recruitment account in 1967 and with help from its direct marketing arm, the agency was widely credited with helping the Army reach its recruitment goals despite an unpopular war and plummeting enlistments after the elimination of the draft in 1973. Ayer held the account for two decades, from the Vietnam War through the Cold War, but lost the account in 1986 amid government charges that an Ayer employee assigned to the account accepted kickbacks from a New York film production house. Despite Ayer's position as the country's 18th largest agency (with billings of $880 million in 1985), the loss of the agency's second largest account hit hard.

NW Ayer made up for the loss of the $100 million dollar a year Army account and made headlines for being on the winning end of the largest account switch in advertising history to date, when fast food giant Burger King moved its $200 million dollar advertising account from arch-rival J. Walter Thompson in 1987. Burger King must have had drive-thru service in mind, however, and Ayer made headlines again when it lost the account just eighteen months later in another record-breaking account switch. Another devastating blow to the agency was the loss of its lead position on the American Telegraph and Telephone account. Ayer pioneered telecommunications advertising in 1908, when the agency was selected to craft advertising for the Bell System's universal telephone service. Despite valiant efforts to keep an account the agency had held for most of the twentieth century, and for which they had written such memorable corporate slogans as American Telephone &Telegraph "The Voice with a Smile" and "Reach Out and Touch Someone", the agency lost the account in 1996.

After a wave of mergers and acquisitions in the late 1980s, the economic recession of the early 1990s hit Madison Avenue hard, and Ayer was particularly vulnerable. Despite the agency's long history and roster of "blue-chip" clients, Ayer was not known for cutting-edge creative work. Moreover, though the agency had offices overseas, Ayer had never built a strong multinational presence, and many of the smaller international offices were sold during the financial turmoil of the 1980s. This left a real void in the new climate of global marketplace consolidation. By about 1990, earnings were declining (although Ayer was still among the top twenty United States agencies in billings), and the agency was suffering from client defections, high management turnover, expensive real estate commitments and deferred executive compensation deals, all fallout of the high-flying 1980s. This was the atmosphere in 1993, when W.Y. Choi, a Korean investor who had already assembled a media and marketing empire in his homeland, began looking for an American partner to form an international advertising network. Jerry Siano, the former creative director who had recently been named Ayer's seventh CEO, was in no position to refuse Choi's offer of $35 million to buy the now floundering agency. The infusion of cash was no magic bullet, however. Choi took a wait-and-see approach, allowing his partner Richard Humphreys to make key decisions about Ayer's future, including the purging of senior executives and the installation of two new CEOs in as many years.

The agency's downward trend continued with the loss of another longtime client, the DeBeers diamond cartel in 1995. Adweek reported that Ayer's billings fell from $892 million in 1990 to less than $850 million in 1995. Several top executives defected abruptly, and the agency failed to attract major new accounts. Ayer was facing the loss not merely of revenue and personnel, but the loss of much of the respect it once commanded. Ayer remained among the twenty largest U.S. agencies, but an aura of uncertainty hung over the agency like a cloud. A new CEO was appointed, and Mary Lou Quinlan became the agency's first woman CEO in 1995. A year later, Ayer and another struggling top twenty agency, D'arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles, combined as part of the McManus Group of companies. In 1998, the McManus Group had worldwide billings of more than $6.5 billion.

Under the McManus Group, Ayer was able to expand its international operations and begin to rebuild a stronger global presence. Several important new clients were won in 1997 and 1998, including Avon, General Motors, Kitchenaid, several Procter & Gamble brands and, most notably, Continental Airlines worldwide accounts. Born in the nineteenth century, Ayer may be one of a very few advertising agencies to successfully weather the economic and cultural transitions of both the twentieth and twentieth first centuries. Ayer was eventually acquired by the Publicis Groupe based in Paris, France which closed down the N.W. Ayer offices in 2002.

Related Materials:

Materials in the Archives Center

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana (AC0060)

Hills Bros. Coffee Incorporated Records (AC0395)

Provenance:

The collection was donated by N W Ayer ABH International, April 15, 1975 and by Ayer & Partners, October 30, 1996.

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research use.

Physical Access: Researchers must use microfilm copy. Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves. Researchers must use reference copies of audiovisual materials. When no reference copy exists, the Archives Center staff will produce reference copies on an "as needed" basis, as resources allow.

Technical Access: Viewing the film portion of the collection without reference copies requires special appointment, please inquire; listening to audio discs requires special arrangement. Do not use original materials when available on reference video or audio tapes.

Rights:

Publication and production quality duplication is restricted due to complex copyright, publicity rights, and right to privacy issues. Potential users must receive written permission from appropriate rights holders prior to obtaining high quality copies. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Topic:

Advertising agencies  Search this

advertising  Search this

Genre/Form:

Business records -- 1840-2000

Interviews -- 1980-2000

Oral history -- 1980-1990

Print advertising

Proof sheets

Proofs (printed matter)

Scrapbooks -- 1840-1990

Trade literature

Tear sheets

Advertisements

Citation:

NW Ayer & Sons, incorporated Advertising Agency Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0059

See more items in:

N W Ayer Advertising Agency Records

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8920ed035-d211-4a58-9047-b31fa79464bd

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0059

Artist:

Jean Spencer, 1904 - ?  Search this

Sitter:

Archibald A. MacDonald, 1876 - 1937  Search this

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

Stretcher (Accurate): 76.5 x 64.5cm (30 1/8 x 25 3/8")

Type:

Painting

Date:

20th century

Topic:

Costume\Dress Accessory\Eyeglasses  Search this

Costume\Dress Accessory\Neckwear\Tie\Necktie  Search this

Archibald A. MacDonald: Male  Search this

Archibald A. MacDonald: Education and Scholarship\Educator  Search this

Archibald A. MacDonald: Education and Scholarship\Administrator  Search this

Portrait  Search this

Credit Line:

Owner: Siouxland Heritage Museums

Object number:

93.55.1

Restrictions & Rights:

Usage conditions apply

See more items in:

Catalog of American Portraits

Data Source:

Catalog of American Portraits

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4dfe6388d-c1b2-4ede-b4c5-70d9b6d944c7

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:npg_93.55.1

Published by:

MelPat Associates, American, 1965 - 1986  Search this

Created by:

C. Melvin Patrick, American, died 1985  Search this

Subject of:

Allon Schoener, American  Search this

Metropolitan Museum of Art, American, founded 1870  Search this

Thomas Hoving, American, 1931 - 2009  Search this

Candice Van Ellison, American  Search this

Shirley Anita Chisholm, American, 1924 - 2005  Search this

Constance Baker Motley, American, 1921 - 2005  Search this

Percy Ellis Sutton, American, 1920 - 2009  Search this

Willie Howard Mays Jr., American, born 1931  Search this

Muhammad Ali, American, 1942 - 2016  Search this

Adam Clayton Powell Jr., American, 1908 - 1972  Search this

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., American, 1929 - 1968  Search this

Milton Lee Olive III, American, 1946 - 1965  Search this

National Pan-Hellenic Council, American, founded 1930  Search this

Raymond St. Jacques, American, 1930 - 1990  Search this

National Newspaper Publishers Association, American, founded 1827  Search this

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, American, founded 1909  Search this

Freemasonry, American, founded 1730  Search this

National Urban League, American, founded 1910  Search this

Leontyne Price, American, born 1927  Search this

American Bridge Association, American, founded 1932  Search this

National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association, Inc., American, founded 1924  Search this

Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., founded 1922  Search this

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, American, founded 1913  Search this

New York Giants, American, founded 1925  Search this

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, American, founded 1914  Search this

National Medical Association, American, founded 1895  Search this

Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks of the World, American, founded 1898  Search this

National Dental Association, American, founded 1913  Search this

Shriners International, American, founded 1870  Search this

Daughters of Isis, American, founded 1910  Search this

National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc., American, founded 1935  Search this

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., American, founded 1906  Search this

Diahann Carroll, American, 1935 - 2019  Search this

Lambda Kappa Mu Sorority, Inc., American, founded 1937  Search this

National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc., American, founded 1935  Search this

Medium:

ink on paper

Dimensions:

H x W x D: 12 × 8 7/8 × 3/16 in. (30.5 × 22.5 × 0.5 cm)

Type:

magazines (periodicals)

Place made:

Harlem, New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America

Place depicted:

Martha's Vineyard, Oak Bluffs, Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States, North and Central America

Date:

1969

Topic:

African American  Search this

Advertising  Search this

Associations and institutions  Search this

Black Press  Search this

Business  Search this

Communities  Search this

Fraternal organizations  Search this

Fraternities  Search this

Funeral customs and rites  Search this

Government  Search this

HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities)  Search this

Journalism  Search this

Labor  Search this

Mass media  Search this

Men  Search this

Political organizations  Search this

Politics  Search this

Professional organizations  Search this

Religion  Search this

Sororities  Search this

U.S. History, 1969-2001  Search this

Urban life  Search this

Women  Search this

Women's organizations  Search this

Credit Line:

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Anne B. Patrick and the family of Hilda E. Stokely

Object number:

2012.167.4

Restrictions & Rights:

Public domain

See more items in:

National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection

Classification:

Documents and Published Materials-Published Works

Data Source:

National Museum of African American History and Culture

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd57d7409c7-82e8-42a2-99ab-23e8e29fd27f

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:nmaahc_2012.167.4

Correspondent:

Mead, Margaret, 1901-1978  Search this

Boas, Franz, 1858-1942  Search this

Wallis, Ruth Sawtell, 1895-1978  Search this

Wagley, Charles, 1913-1991  Search this

Lopez, Salvador  Search this

Little, Kenneth  Search this

Wilson, Maggie  Search this

Whitecloud, Thomas St. Germain  Search this

Henry, Jules, 1904-1969  Search this

Hellman, Ellen  Search this

Haugen, Einar  Search this

Gough, Kathleen  Search this

Lewis, Oscar  Search this

Kaberry, Phyllis Mary, 1910-  Search this

Imes, Elmer Samuel, 1883-1941  Search this

Strong, William Duncan, 1899-1962  Search this

Steyn, Anna F.  Search this

Spier, Leslie, 1893-1961  Search this

Stefansson, Vilhjalmur, 1879-1962  Search this

Solecki, Ralph S.  Search this

Sparta, Francisco  Search this

Rubin, Joan  Search this

Rubin, Vera  Search this

Rodnick, David  Search this

Rogers, Edward S.  Search this

Ritzenthaler, Robert E. (Robert Eugene), 1911-1980  Search this

Roberts, Robert W.  Search this

Ramo, Arthur  Search this

Richards, Audrey  Search this

Preston, Richard J.  Search this

Verger, Pierre  Search this

Vennum, Thomas  Search this

Topash, Mary  Search this

Topash, Joe  Search this

Teskey, Lynn  Search this

Taylor, Beryl  Search this

Tanner, Helen Hornbeck  Search this

Densmore, Frances, 1867-1957  Search this

Quain, Buell H. (Buell Halvor), 1912-1939  Search this

Dunning, William  Search this

Douglas, William A.  Search this

Eggan, Fred, 1906-1991  Search this

Edmondson, Munro S.  Search this

Black, Mary B.  Search this

Benedict, Ruth, 1887-1948  Search this

Domengeaux, James  Search this

Feldman, Albert G.  Search this

Feder, Norman  Search this

Gacs, Ute  Search this

Franklin, John Hope  Search this

Ewers, John C. (John Canfield), 1909-1997  Search this

Erickson, Vincent O.  Search this

Falk, Minna R.  Search this

Faitlovitch, V.  Search this

Alberto Torres, Heloisa  Search this

Buck, Pearl  Search this

Bruce, Harold E.  Search this

Borri, Rina  Search this

Boggs, Stephen Taylor  Search this

Arensberg, Conrad M. (Conrad Maynadier), 1910-1997  Search this

Baldus, Herbert  Search this

Barnouw, Victor  Search this

Bateson, Mary Catherine  Search this

Lurie, Nancy Oestreich  Search this

Malherbe, E. G. (Ernst Gideon), 1895-  Search this

Marks, Eli S.  Search this

Masha, Louise  Search this

Maslow, Will  Search this

Masquat, Joseph M.  Search this

Mayer, Kurt B.  Search this

McWilliams, Carey  Search this

Bunche, Ralph J.  Search this

Carneiro, Edison  Search this

Chilver, E. M.  Search this

Chilver, Richard  Search this

Clifton, James A.  Search this

Colson, Elizabeth F.  Search this

Daveron, Alexander  Search this

Lowenfeld, Margaret, 1890-1973  Search this

Officer, James E.  Search this

Odum, Howard W.  Search this

Park, Alice  Search this

Paredes, Anthony  Search this

Paton, Alan, 1903-1988  Search this

Park, George  Search this

Prado, Idabel do  Search this

Peschel, Keewaydinoquay M.  Search this

Merwe, Hendrik W. van der  Search this

Murphy, Robert Francis  Search this

Messing, Simon D.  Search this

Neumann, Anita  Search this

Nef, Evelyn Stefansson  Search this

Nocktonick, Louise  Search this

Neumann, Walter  Search this

Creator:

Landes, Ruth, 1908-1991  Search this

Names:

Columbia University Research in Contemporary Cultures  Search this

Committee on Fair Employment Practices  Search this

Fisk University  Search this

Johnson, Charles S.  Search this

Landes, Ruth, 1908-1991  Search this

Park, Robert E.  Search this

Extent:

26.5 Linear feet ((63 document boxes and 1 oversized box))

Culture:

Anishinaabe (Chippewa/Ojibwa)  Search this

Dakota (Eastern Sioux)  Search this

African  Search this

Acadians  Search this

Indians of North America -- Great Plains  Search this

Indians of North America -- Northeast  Search this

Jews -- American  Search this

Latinos -- California  Search this

Brazilians  Search this

Basques  Search this

American Indians  Search this

Afro-Brazilians  Search this

Africans  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Place:

Quebec -- Bilingualism

United Kingdom -- colored immigration

South Africa

Date:

1928-1992

Summary:

Most of Ruth Landes's papers relate directly or indirectly to Landes's American Indian research, her work in Brazil, and her study of bilingualism. There is also a considerable amount of material that relates to her experiences (sometimes fictionalized) at Fisk University. There is only small amount of material related to her other interests. Her collection also has material of and relating to the Brazilian folklorist and journalist Edison Carneiro. There is also noteworthy material concerning Herbert Baldus, Ruth Benedict, Elmer C. Imes, Charles S. Johnson, and Robert E. Park. There is a large amount of printed and processed materials in the collection, mainly in the form of newspaper clippings and a collection of scholarly papers.

Scope and Contents:

This collection is mainly comprised of the professional papers of Ruth Schlossberg Landes. Included are correspondence, journals, published and unpublished manuscripts of writings, research materials including field notes and reading notes, photographs, drawings, scholarly papers and publications by other scholars, and clippings from newspapers and periodicals.

Landes's field research on Candomblé in Brazil is well-represented in this collection, consisting of her field journals, writings, and photographs. Also present are Maggie Wilson's stories that were the basis for Landes's The Ojibwa Woman. Unfortunately, Landes was unable to locate her journals for her early research with the Ojibwa/Chippewa, Potawatomi, and Dakota. There are, however, field photographs of the Ojibwa/Chippewa and Potawatomi in the collection. There is also a great deal of her research on groups, especially minorities, in multilingual states with particular focus on the French of Quebec, Basques of Spain and the United States, Boers and Blacks of South Africa, the several socio-linguistic groups of Switzerland, and Acadians (Cajuns) of Louisiana. In the collection are several drafts of her unpublished manuscript on bilingualism, "Tongues that Defy the State." There is also a small amount of material about Black Jews of New York and considerable material about Landes's experience among African Americans when she taught briefly at Fisk University, including her unpublished manuscript "Now, at Athens," containing fictional and autobiographical accounts of her time at Fisk.

Reflections of other facets of Landes's professional activities are also included. Some materials concern her teaching activities, and there is also documentation of her work with the Fair Employment Practices Commission (a federal government agency during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt) and a similar private organization which immediately succeeded the FEPA; Gunnar Myrdal's research into the plight of African Americans ("The Negro in America"); the Research in Contemporary Cultures project at Columbia University; and the American Jewish Congress.

Among Landes's correspondents are Ruth Benedict, Franz Boas, Margaret Mead, Ralph Bunche, Herbert Baldus, Edison Carneiro, Sally Chilver, Frances Densmore, Sol Tax, Elmer S. Imes, Charles S. Johnson, Robert E. Park, and Hendrik W. van der Merwe.

Arrangement:

The collection is organized into 6 series: (1) Correspondence, 1931-1991; (2) Research Materials, circa 1930s-1990; (3) Writings, circa 1930s-1990; (4) Teaching Materials, 1935-1975, undated; (5) Biographical and Personal Files, 1928-1988; (6) Graphic Materials, 1933-1978, undated

Biographical Note:

Ruth Schlossberg Landes was born on October 8, 1908 in New York City. Her father was Joseph Schlossberg, an activist in the Yiddish labor socialist community and one of the founders of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. She studied sociology at New York University (B.A. 1928) and social work at the New York School of Social Work, Columbia University (M.S.W. 1929). While in graduate school, Landes studied Black Jews in Harlem for her master's thesis, a topic that developed her interests in anthropology.

After graduating in 1929, she worked as a social worker in Harlem and married Victor Landes, a medical student and son of family friends. Their marriage ended after two years when she enrolled in the doctoral program in anthropology at Columbia against her husband's wishes. She kept his surname due to the stigma of being a divorced woman.

At Columbia, Landes studied under Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict, her main advisor. Under the guidance of Benedict, Landes moved away from further study of African Americans to focus on Native American communities. Upon Benedict's suggestion, Landes studied the social organization of the Ojibwa in Manitou Rapids in Ontario from 1932 to 1936 for her Ph.D. fieldwork. Her dissertation, Ojibwa Sociology, was published in 1937. Landes also contributed "The Ojibwa of Canada" in Cooperation and Competition among Primitive Peoples (1937), a volume edited by Margaret Mead. In 1938, Landes published Ojibwa Women (1938), a book written in collaboration with Maggie Wilson, an Ojibwa interpreter and informant.

In addition to studying the Ojibwa in Ontario, Landes also conducted fieldwork with the Chippewa of Red Lake, Minnesota in 1933, working closely with shaman or midé Will Rogers. Her book, Ojibwa Religion and the Midéwiwin (1968) was based largely on her research with Rogers and Maggie Wilson. In 1935 and 1936, she undertook fieldwork with the Santee Dakota in Minnesota and the Potawatomi in Kansas. Like Ojibwa Religion and the Midéwiwin, her books on the Santee Dakota and Potawatomi were not published until several years later—The Mystic Lake Sioux: Sociology of the Mdewakantonwan Sioux was published in 1968 while The Prairie Potawatomi was published in 1970. In between her field research in the 1930s and the publication of The Prairie Potawatomi, Landes returned to Kansas to study the Potawatomi in the 1950s and 1960s.

Landes's plan to continue her studies with the Potawatomi in 1937 changed when Benedict invited her to join a team of researchers from Columbia University in Brazil. Landes was to conduct research on Afro-Brazilians in Bahia, Brazil, while Walter Lipkind, Buell Quain, and Charles Wagley studied indigenous people in the Amazons. To prepare for her research, Landes was at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee in 1937 and 1938 to consult with Robert Park and Donald Pierson and to use the university's library collections of African and African American materials. During that time, Landes also held a teaching position at Fisk and lived in the non-segregated women's residence on campus. Landes later wrote "Now, at Athens," an unpublished memoir containing fictional and true accounts of her experiences at Fisk.

From 1938 to 1939, Landes conducted fieldwork on the role of Afro-Brazilian women and homosexuals in the Candomblé religion in Bahia, Brazil. Unable to move freely by herself in Brazil as a single woman, Landes was accompanied by Edison Carneiro, a Bahian journalist and folklorist. With Carneiro as her companion, Landes was allowed access to rituals and people that would have been closed off to her otherwise. Due to her association with Carneiro, a member of the Brazilian Communist Party, Landes was suspected of being a communist and was forced to leave Bahia early. Publications from her research in Brazil include "A Cult Matriarchate and Male Homosexuality" (1940) and City of Women (1947). She returned to Brazil in 1966 to study the effects of urban development in Rio de Janeiro. In 1967, a Portuguese translation of City of Women was published, a project that Carneiro had commissioned as the first director of the Ministry of Education and Culture's Special National Agency for the Protection of Folklore.

Landes returned to New York in 1939, working briefly as a researcher for Gunnar Myrdal's study of African Americans. Unable to obtain a permanent position at a university, she worked in several other short term positions throughout most of her career. During World War II, Landes was a research director for the Office of the Coordinator for Inter-American Affairs (1941) and consultant for President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Fair Employment Practices Committee on African American and Mexican American cases (1941-44). In 1945, Landes directed a program created by Pearl S. Buck and a group of interdenominational clergy to analyze pending New York anti-discrimination legislation. She moved to California the following year to work for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Welfare Council on a study of race and youth gangs. After her contract ended, she moved back to New York and was hired as a contract researcher for the American Jewish Congress (1948-50). She also participated in Columbia University's Research in Contemporary Cultures (1949-51), studying Jewish families. She coauthored with Mark Zborowski, "Hypothesis concerning the Eastern European Jewish Family." From 1951 to 1952, Landes spent a year in London, funded by a Fulbright fellowship to study colored colonial immigrants and race relations in Great Britain.

After her fellowship ended, Landes returned to the United States and held short term appointments at several universities. She taught at the William Alanson White Psychiatric Institution in New York (1953-54), the New School for Social Research in New York (1953-55), University of Kansas (1957, 1964), University of Southern California (1957-62), Columbia University (1963), Los Angeles State College (1963), and Tulane University (1964). At Claremont Graduate School, Landes helped to develop and direct the Claremont Anthropology and Education Program (1959-62).

It was not until 1965 that Landes obtained a permanent faculty position at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario; she was recruited for the position by Richard Slobodin. Due to Ontario's age retirement law, Landes was forced to retire in 1973 at the age of 65. She continued to teach part-time until 1977, when she became professor emerita.

Landes passed away at the age of 82 on February 11, 1991.

Sources Consulted

Cole, Sally. 2003. Ruth Landes: A Life in Anthropology. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.

Chronology

1908 October 8 -- Born Ruth Schlossberg in New York City

1928 -- B.A. in sociology, New York University

1929 -- M.S.W., New York School of Social Work, Columbia University

1929-1931 -- Social worker in Harlem Married to Victor Landes

1929-1934 -- Studied Black Jews in Harlem

1931 -- Began graduate work in anthropology at Columbia University

1932-1936 -- Studied the Ojibwa in Ontario and Minnesota (in field periodically)

1933-1940 -- Research Fellow, Columbia University

1935 Summer-Fall -- Studied the Santee Sioux (Dakota) in Minnesota

1935-1936 -- Studied the Potawatomi in Kansas

1935 -- Ph.D., Columbia University

1937 -- Instructor, Brooklyn College

1937-1938 -- Instructor, Fisk University

1938-1939 -- Studied Afro-Brazilians and Candomblé in Brazil, especially at Bahia

1939 -- Researcher on Gunnar Myrdal's study, "The Negro in America"

1941 -- Research Director, Office of Inter American Affairs, Washington, D.C.

1941-1945 -- Representative for Negro and Mexican American Affairs, Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC), President Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration

1944 -- Interim Director, Committee Against Racial Discrimination, New York

1946-1947 -- Researcher, study of Mexican American youth, gangs, and families, Los Angeles Metropolitan Council

1948-1951 -- Researcher, American Jewish Congress, New York

1949-1951 -- Research consultant, study on Jewish families in New York for Research in Contemporary Cultures Project, Columbia University

1951-1952 -- Fulbright Scholar, to study colored colonial immigration into Great Britain

1953-1954 -- Lecturer, William Alanson White Psychiatric Institution, New York

1953-1955 -- Lecturer, New School for Social Research, New York

1956-1957 -- Married to Ignacio Lutero Lopez

1957 Summer -- Visiting Professor, University of Kansas

1957-1958 -- Visiting Professor, University of Southern California

1957-1965 -- Consultant, California agencies (Department of Social Work, Bureau of Mental Hygiene, Department of Education, Public Health Department) and San Francisco Police Department

1958-1959 -- Director, Geriatrics Program, Los Angeles City Health Department

1959-1962 -- Visiting Professor and Director of Anthropology and Education Program, Claremont Graduate School

1962 -- Extension Lecturer, University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Berkeley

1963 -- Extension Lecturer, Columbia University Extension Lecturer, Los Angeles State College

1963-1965 -- Consultant, International Business Machines (IBM)

1964 January-June -- Visiting Professor, Tulane University

1964 Summer -- Field work with Potawatomi in Kansas Professor, University of Kansas

1965-1975 -- Professor at McMaster University

1966 -- Studied urban development in Rio de Janeiro

1968-1975 -- Studied bilingualism and biculturalism in Spain, Switzerland, South Africa, United States, and Canada (in Spain and the United States concentrated on Basques)

1975 -- Became part-time faculty member at McMaster University

1977 -- Professor Emerita, McMaster University

1978 -- Award of Merit from the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay

1991 February 11 -- Died in Hamilton, Ontario

1991 -- Establishment of the Ruth Landes Memorial Research Fund at Research Institute for the Study of Man (RISM)

Related Materials:

Correspondence from Ruth Landes can be found in the William Duncan Strong Papers, the Leonard Bloomfield Papers, and MS 7369. The Ruth Bunzel Papers contains a copy of a grant application by Landes.

Provenance:

These papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Ruth Landes in 1991.

Restrictions:

The Ruth Landes papers are open for research. The nitrate negatives in this collection have been separated from the collection and stored offsite. Access to nitrate negatives is restricted due to preservation concerns.

Access to the Ruth Landes papers requires an appointment.

Rights:

Contact the repository for terms of use.

Topic:

African Americans  Search this

Language and languages -- Documentation  Search this

Midéwiwin  Search this

Bilingualism  Search this

Aging  Search this

Candomblé (Religion)  Search this

Citation:

Ruth Landes papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Sponsor:

The revision of this finding aid and digitization of portions of the collection were made possible through the financial support of the Ruth Landes Memorial Research Fund.

Identifier:

NAA.1991-04

See more items in:

Ruth Landes papers

Archival Repository:

National Anthropological Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nw37e032ce2-12b4-4c64-83be-ec51796c4bd6

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-naa-1991-04

Creator:

Bischoff, Elmer Nelson, 1916-1991  Search this

Subject:

Staempfli Gallery (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

University of California, Berkeley  Search this

Type:

Collages

Drawings

Watercolors

Interviews

Citation:

Elmer Bischoff papers, 1914-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Art -- Study and teaching  Search this

Theme:

Sketches & Sketchbooks  Search this

New Deal  Search this

Lives of artists  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)6686

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)208811

AAA_collcode_biscelme

Theme:

Sketches & Sketchbooks

New Deal

Lives of artists

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_208811

Creator:

Hatch, John Davis, 1907-1996  Search this

Subject:

Peale, Rembrandt  Search this

Browne, Henry Kirke  Search this

Bluemner, Oscar  Search this

Clark, Ezra  Search this

Callahan, Kenneth  Search this

Cropsey, Jasper Francis  Search this

Cranch, John  Search this

Darley, Felix Octavius Carr  Search this

Davies, Arthur B. (Arthur Bowen)  Search this

Granger, C. H.  Search this

Guy, Seymour J.  Search this

Harvey, George W.  Search this

Hatch, Olivia Stokes  Search this

Henry, Edward Lamson  Search this

Inman, Henry  Search this

McNeill, Lloyd  Search this

Scott, Julian  Search this

Trumbull, John  Search this

Vanderlyn, John  Search this

University of Oregon  Search this

St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)  Search this

Type:

Essays

Reviews (documents)

Photographs

Diaries

Sketchbooks

Notes

Lectures

Sketches

Citation:

John Davis Hatch papers, 1790-1995. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Painting, American  Search this

Drawing, American  Search this

Art, American  Search this

Artists -- United States  Search this

Art -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Art, American -- Study and teaching  Search this

Theme:

Sketches & Sketchbooks  Search this

Research and writing about art  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)7681

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)209844

AAA_collcode_hatcjohn

Theme:

Sketches & Sketchbooks

Research and writing about art

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_209844

Creator:

Lippard, Lucy R.  Search this

Subject:

Chicago, Judy  Search this

Andre, Carl  Search this

Stevens, May  Search this

Pearson, Henry  Search this

Darboven, Hanne  Search this

Henes, Donna  Search this

Hammond, Harmony  Search this

LeWitt, Sol  Search this

Edelson, Mary Beth  Search this

Judd, Donald  Search this

Johnson, Ray  Search this

Art Workers Coalition  Search this

Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Alliance for Cultural Democracy  Search this

Studio International (Firm)  Search this

University of Colorado  Search this

Political Art Documentation/Distribution (Organization)  Search this

Printed Matter, Inc.  Search this

Addison Gallery of American Art  Search this

Women's Caucus for Art  Search this

Type:

Sound recordings

Interviews

Photographs

Citation:

Lucy R. Lippard papers, 1930s-2010, bulk 1960-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Art -- Study and teaching  Search this

Artists -- Political activity  Search this

Art criticism  Search this

Feminism and art  Search this

Women authors  Search this

Women art critics  Search this

Art, Modern -- 20th century  Search this

Conceptual art  Search this

Minimal art  Search this

Women museum curators  Search this

Women educators  Search this

Theme:

Women  Search this

Research and writing about art  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)7895

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)210062

AAA_collcode_lipplucy

Theme:

Women

Research and writing about art

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_210062

Creator:

Genauer, Emily, 1910-2002  Search this

Subject:

Davis, Stuart  Search this

Wright, Frank Lloyd  Search this

Tamayo, Rufino  Search this

Carnegie, Dorothy  Search this

Chagall, Marc  Search this

Dalí, Salvador  Search this

Graham, Martha  Search this

Guggenheim, Harry Frank, 1890-1971  Search this

Still, Clyfford  Search this

Pereira, I. Rice (Irene Rice)  Search this

Aronson, David  Search this

Bishop, Isabel  Search this

Type:

Interviews

Essays

Lectures

Transcriptions

Speeches

Photographs

Citation:

Emily Genauer papers, circa 1920-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Women art critics  Search this

Theme:

Women  Search this

Research and writing about art  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)8202

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)210373

AAA_collcode_genaemil

Theme:

Women

Research and writing about art

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_210373

Creator:

Tam, Reuben, 1916-1991  Search this

Subject:

Andrews, Dorothy  Search this

Nesjar, Carl  Search this

Kienbusch, William  Search this

Solomon, Hyde  Search this

Alan Gallery (Charles Alan)  Search this

Coe Kerr Gallery  Search this

Brooklyn Museum of Art  Search this

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation  Search this

Downtown Gallery (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture  Search this

Type:

Sketchbooks

Sound recordings

Poems

Diaries

Scrapbooks

Watercolors

Drawings

Citation:

Reuben Tam papers, 1931-2006. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Educators -- Hawaii  Search this

Educators -- Maine  Search this

Educators -- New York (State)  Search this

Asian American artists  Search this

Theme:

Asian American  Search this

Sketches & Sketchbooks  Search this

Lives of artists  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)8481

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)210657

AAA_collcode_tamreub

Theme:

Asian American

Sketches & Sketchbooks

Lives of artists

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_210657

Creator:

Schucker, Charles L., 1908-1998  Search this

Subject:

Louis, Morris  Search this

Louzonis, Valerie Velasquez  Search this

Katonah Museum of Art  Search this

Pratt Institute  Search this

Yaddo (Artist's colony)  Search this

Federal Art Project (Ill.)  Search this

Type:

Sketchbooks

Photographs

Drawings

Video recordings

Citation:

Charles Schucker Papers, 1934-2001. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Theme:

Lives of artists  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)8579

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)210758

AAA_collcode_schuchar

Theme:

Lives of artists

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_210758

Creator:

Pollock, Charles C. (Charles Cecil), 1902-1988  Search this

Subject:

Pollock, Jackson  Search this

Type:

Photographs

Sketches

Cartoons (humorous images)

Citation:

Charles Pollock papers, 1875-1994. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Muralists -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Painters -- France -- Paris  Search this

Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Expatriate painters -- France -- Paris  Search this

Theme:

Sketches & Sketchbooks  Search this

Lives of artists  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)8942

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)211128

AAA_collcode_pollchar

Theme:

Sketches & Sketchbooks

Lives of artists

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_211128

Creator:

Preusser, Robert O. (Robert Ormerod), 1919-1992  Search this

Subject:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology  Search this

Citation:

Robert O. Preusser papers, 1930-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Design -- Study and teaching -- Massachusetts  Search this

Theme:

Architecture & Design  Search this

Lives of artists  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)8950

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)211137

AAA_collcode_preurobe

Theme:

Architecture & Design

Lives of artists

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_211137

Creator:

Zogbaum, Elisabeth Ross, 1912-2005  Search this

Subject:

Kline, Franz  Search this

Type:

Drawings

Scrapbooks

Sound recordings

Interviews

Citation:

Elisabeth Zogbaum papers regarding Franz Kline, 1892-circa 2005, bulk 1930-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Abstract expressionism  Search this

Theme:

Women  Search this

Lives of artists  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)9155

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)211349

AAA_collcode_klinfran

Theme:

Women

Lives of artists

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_211349

Creator:

Loran, Erle, 1905-1999  Search this

Subject:

Bearden, Romare  Search this

Cézanne, Paul  Search this

Dasburg, Andrew  Search this

Greenberg, Clement  Search this

Haley, John  Search this

Hartley, Marsden  Search this

Hatfield, Dalzell  Search this

Hofmann, Hans  Search this

Levinson, Harry  Search this

Still, Clyfford  Search this

Schaefer, Bertha  Search this

Sabean, Samuel  Search this

Wilke, Ulfert  Search this

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco  Search this

University of California, Berkeley  Search this

Friends of Ethnic Art  Search this

San Francisco Art Institute  Search this

Type:

Watercolors

Sketches

Photographs

Writings

Citation:

Erle Loran papers, 1912-1999. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Art, Abstract  Search this

Art -- Collectors and collecting -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area  Search this

Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- California -- Berkeley  Search this

Art, Modern -- 20th century  Search this

Theme:

Lives of artists  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)9167

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)211362

AAA_collcode_loraerle

Theme:

Lives of artists

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_211362

Creator:

Wood, Beatrice, 1893-1998  Search this

Subject:

Nin, Anaïs  Search this

Rosencrantz, Esther  Search this

Roché, Henri Pierre  Search this

Arensberg, Walter  Search this

Arensberg, Louise S. (Louise Stevenson)  Search this

Duchamp, Marcel  Search this

Hoag, Stephen Asa  Search this

Hapgood, Elizabeth Reynolds  Search this

John Waller, Fine Ceramics (Firm : Los Angeles, Calif.)  Search this

Zachary Waller Gallery (Los Angeles, Calif.)  Search this

Garth Clark Gallery (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Type:

Drafts (documents)

Interviews

Photographs

Illustrated letters

Notes

Watercolors

Diaries

Transcripts

Lithographs

Short stories

Illustrations

Designs

Drawings

Bookplates

Citation:

Beatrice Wood papers, 1894-1998, bulk 1930-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Art -- Philosophy  Search this

Authors -- California  Search this

Glazes -- Formulae  Search this

Women artists  Search this

Art -- Economic aspects  Search this

Actresses -- United States  Search this

Ceramicists -- California  Search this

Art, Modern -- 20th century -- California  Search this

Women ceramicists  Search this

Theme:

Diaries  Search this

Women  Search this

Lives of artists  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)9363

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)211559

AAA_collcode_woodbeat

Theme:

Diaries

Women

Lives of artists

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_211559

Creator:

Paradise, Philip Herschel, 1905-1997  Search this

Type:

Interviews

Moving images

Citation:

Phil Paradise papers, 1922-1994. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Theme:

Lives of artists  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)10254

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)213384

AAA_collcode_paraphil

Theme:

Lives of artists

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_213384

Creator:

Blume, Peter, 1906-1992  Search this

Subject:

Askew, R. Kirk (Ralph Kirk)  Search this

Cowley, Malcolm  Search this

De Vries, Peter  Search this

Hirsch, Joseph  Search this

Boursa, Harry  Search this

O'Keeffe, Georgia  Search this

Barr, Alfred H., Jr.  Search this

Trapp, Frank  Search this

Blume, Grace  Search this

Blankenhorn, Heber  Search this

Burke, Kenneth  Search this

Soyer, Raphael  Search this

Eisenstaedt, Alfred  Search this

Miller, Arthur  Search this

Godsoe, Robert  Search this

Getlein, Frank  Search this

Kelly, Michael A.  Search this

American Artists' Congress  Search this

Boston College  Search this

Connecticut Council of the Arts  Search this

American Academy of Arts and Letters  Search this

Type:

Travel diaries

Sound recordings

Interviews

Drawings

Photographs

Prints

Transcriptions

Lectures

Scrapbooks

Sketches

Citation:

Peter Blume papers, 1870-2001. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Theme:

Lives of artists  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)6407

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)215379

AAA_collcode_blumpete

Theme:

Lives of artists

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_215379

Creator:

Kraus, Henry, 1905-1995  Search this

Kraus, Dorothy  Search this

Citation:

Henry and Dorothy Kraus papers, [ca. 1930-1990]. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Art, Medieval -- History -- Sources  Search this

Architecture, Medieval -- History -- Sources  Search this

Labor movement -- United States,  Search this

Theme:

Architecture & Design  Search this

Research and writing about art  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)6614

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)215923

AAA_collcode_krauhenr

Theme:

Architecture & Design

Research and writing about art

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_215923

Creator:

Goossen, E. C.  Search this

Subject:

Kelly, Ellsworth  Search this

Frankenthaler, Helen  Search this

Ohlson, Douglas Dean  Search this

Johanson, Patricia  Search this

Hunter College  Search this

Bennington College  Search this

Type:

Interviews

Sound recordings

Citation:

E.C. (Eugene) Goossen papers, circa 1935-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Theme:

Research and writing about art  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)6106

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)216306

AAA_collcode_goose

Theme:

Research and writing about art

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_216306