The Dayton Company, founded in 1902 in Minneapolis, Minn., was the predecessor firm to the Target Corporation, one of the largest retail chains in the United States. The Dayton Company Advertising Scrapbooks collection spans the years 1904 through 1968 and consist of 509 bound scrapbooks of newspaper advertisements, fliers and circulars for the Dayton department store chain in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn. and Rochester, N.Y., as well for several of Dayton's competitors, affiliates and subsidiary department and discount stores, including B. Dalton Bookseller, the J.B. Hudson and L.S. Donaldson stores.

The Dayton Company Advertising Scrapbooks collection spans the years 1904 through 1968 and consist of 509 bound scrapbooks of newspaper advertisements, fliers and circulars for the Dayton department store chain (the predecessor entity of the Target discount chain) in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn. and Rochester, N.Y., as well for several of Dayton's competitors, affiliates and subsidiary department and discount stores, including B. Dalton Bookseller, the J.B. Hudson and L.S. Donaldson stores.

The collection is organized into the categories of Affiliate and Subsidiary Stores advertising and Dayton Company advertising, therein alphabetically by store name, within which the volumes are arranged in roughly chronological order.