March Madness: Early American Advertising Conference

Spearheaded by an address by Peter Benes, director of the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, about woodcut newspaper advertisements, the nine additional panelists  will explore the social, cultural, and economic effects of advertising on 19th-century society. Presenters will discuss the sewing machine industry and sign-making trade, professional penmanship, educational reforms, suburbia, and representations of Native Americans through advertisements, broadsides, periodical illustrations, store signage, and political cartoons. The conference panels will serve as a forum to better understand, within the context of visual culture, the marketing and consumption of goods and services, as well as the promotion and perception of environmental and cultural ideals, and social stereotypes, before the development of Madison Avenue. To learn more about the program, including registration, please visit the conference website.

This Sheet Contains Samples of Real Penmanship from Gaskell’s Complete Compendium of Elegant Writing ([Manchester, N.H.?], ca. 1878?). Engraved broadside.