Advertising is evidence of commerce, technology, design, consumption, labor, place, and everyday life.
Institutional foundations
- Smithsonian National Museum of American History: advertising and business-ephemera collections, including the S. Watson Dunn Advertising Ephemera Collection and Warshaw Collection of Business Americana.
- American Sign Museum, Cincinnati: more than a century of American sign history, plus photographs, artworks, tools, equipment, ephemera, and sign-industry records.
- Ohio History Connection and Ohio Memory: state and local collections, postcards, advertising cards, posters, photographs, business records, and community archives.
- Corporate archives and histories: useful for company founding, products, logos, facilities, and documented campaigns, but not independent appraisals.
- Period sources: newspapers, magazines, catalogs, city directories, trade journals, trademark records, packaging, and dated photographs.
- eBay: current marketplace categories used for affiliate routing and supply observation, not as authority for authenticity or value.
Ohio sources emphasized
Ohio pages use company histories, city and county records, local libraries, museums, directories, newspapers, maps, and physical dealer or printer evidence. The site avoids assigning Ohio provenance merely because a seller is located in the state.
Editorial standard
VintageAdvertising.co does not issue a formal appraisal, certificate, conservation treatment, or guarantee of authenticity. Format, dimensions, manufacture, product, campaign, place, condition, and reliable sources should agree before a strong claim is made.