Advertising by Decade
Use physical production, product history, typography, media, and dated context to research advertising periods.
Advertising Before 1880
Letterpress notices, broadsides, early illustrated billheads, patent-medicine material, labels, and merchant ephemera.
Open guide →1880s Advertising
Chromolithographed trade cards, die cuts, elaborate labels, patent medicines, local merchant overprints, and Victorian imagery.
Open guide →1890s Advertising
Poster art, magazines, bicycles, department stores, expositions, branded packaging, and national campaigns.
Open guide →1900–1909 Advertising
Progressive-era products, catalogs, postcards, transportation, electric goods, food packaging, and print illustration.
Open guide →1910s Advertising
Automobiles, war-era campaigns, home products, magazines, catalogs, and changing print technologies.
Open guide →1920s Advertising
Art Deco, radio, automobiles, cigarettes, travel, cosmetics, department stores, and consumer-credit messaging.
Open guide →1930s Advertising
Depression-era value appeals, streamline design, radio sponsorship, travel, food, and illustrated consumer campaigns.
Open guide →1940s Advertising
Wartime production, rationing, patriotic campaigns, postwar transition, aviation, appliances, and home-front imagery.
Open guide →1950s Advertising
Television, suburban life, automobiles, appliances, diners, packaged food, mid-century illustration, and store displays.
Open guide →1960s Advertising
Modernist layouts, photography, youth culture, space-age products, fashion, automobiles, and television campaigns.
Open guide →1970s Advertising
Bold typography, lifestyle photography, environmental themes, electronics, energy concerns, and regional retail.
Open guide →1980s–1990s Advertising
Cable television, computers, sneakers, fast food, video games, glossy magazines, direct mail, and promotional merchandise.
Open guide →