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Collection contains bound manuscript diaries kept by Elgin W. Mellown (1904-1975), while superintendent of public schools in Sumter Co., Alabama during the 1940s-1960s, and other materials which shed light on conditions in Alabama schools during that period. The diaries are sometimes difficult to interpret: on occasion Mellown used an entry for organizing his thoughts on a subject, but most of the time entries consist of briefly jotted reminders and sometimes only appointments. Names are often rendered as abbreviations. Collection also contains audio tapes featuring interviews with school staff and citizens, both black and white. There are also slides related to Mellown's work.

The Outdoor Advertising Association of America Poster Designs are comprised of black and white poster designs (for billboard or other transit advertising), some printed on cards and some photographed and mounted in volumes, that document the advertising design holdings of several outdoor advertising companies from 1934 through the 1940s and possibly later. The majority of the designs in the collection are stock posters in preliminary sketch form with simple lines, but the collection also includes finished designs with brief information on exhibition and award status. Stock designs were created without actual brand names so more than one advertiser could use them by simply inserting their own brand name or product into the ad. The designs include work created or acquired by the Donaldson Lithographing Co., Foster and Kleiser, General Outdoor Advertising Co., and the AD-VER-TIS-ER, Inc.

The Outdoor Advertising Association of America Slide Library spans the years 1891 through the 2000s, with the bulk of the collection originating in the 1950s and later. The collection documents over a hundred years of outdoor advertising primarily in the United States, plus some international campaigns from several other continents. The Slide Library is a large collection, almost entirely comprised of slides of billboards, exhibiting a grand range of graphic artistry, advertising campaigns, and marketing strategies. A smaller group of images supports the ad collection with views of artwork, billboard construction and other related images. In addition to over 62,000 slides, there are a few early glass slides, as well as transparencies, a small number of paper files, and six audiocassettes accompanying slide presentations. Many images were submitted by outdoor advertising companies over a number of years to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) as entries in annual national competitions to determine the best poster designs. The OAAA currently sponsors the OBIE Awards, which were preceded by awards programs under various names and sponsorships starting in the early 1930s. The award is modeled after the ancient Egyptian obelisk, considered by many the earliest form of outdoor advertising. Indeed much of the collection can be seen as evidence of this awards program although only the Award Nominees Series contains slides labeled as such. Other slides probably were transferred to OAAA when companies cleaned out their back files, though the precise sources of many items are unknown. The slides were maintained at OAAA primarily as a large supply of creative examples for member companies. Researchers interested in the following subjects may find the Outdoor Advertising Association of America Slide Library especially helpful: the outdoor advertising medium itself, advertising awards, advertising design, billboard construction, and commercial art, as well as the many outdoor advertising companies, advertisers, and advertising campaigns represented.

The Victoria Ortiz Papers span the years 1923 to 1999, with the majority of the papers dating from 1960 to 1990. The main collection (2003-0204) comprises materials separated from the Bobbye S. Ortiz Papers and consists of one series; the accession number 2003-0204 was assigned to this grouping. Viki Ortiz's political and intellectual interests can be gleaned from the topics in the Victoria Ortiz Subject Files Series, which has been divided into seven subseries to facilitate its use. The first three subseries contain newspaper and magazine articles, organizational materials, photographs, pamphlets, speeches, and reports related to Cuba, Mexico, and Latin America. Scholars of U.S. anticommunism and student movements in the 1960s may find of interest materials related to Ortiz's 1963 trip to Cuba, taken with 58 other college students in defiance of U.S. policy. Each subseries is organized alphabetically by topic or title.

The Garrett Orr Papers document the artistic output and personal files of advertising executive Garrett Orr. Although the collection spans the years circa 1873 to 1994, the bulk of the materials fall within two main periods: the 1890s to 1914, comprising a photographic collection of old poster images; and 1930 to 1965, which approximates the span of Orr's professional life. The collection includes the original drawings, water colors and paintings produced by Orr as designs for the outdoor advertising campaigns of a wide variety of products such as Gillette razors, Ipana toothpaste (Bristol-Myers), Lucky Strikes and Viceroy cigarettes (Brown & Williamson), Mazola corn oil (Corn Products Refining Company), Seagram beverages, Verney fabrics, and White Rose tea. Also included are folders of photographs, slides and negatives of Orr's advertising work for approximately 550 companies (with index). In addition, a collection of almost 200 large-format negatives and photographs document images of 19th- and early 20th-century posters for plays, musicals, minstrel shows, circuses, and hotels. A large set of clippings files contain published examples of the work of over 100 graphic artists and illustrators contemporary with Orr, including Floyd Davis, Ronald McLeod, George Petty, Howard Scott, Ben Stahl, Jon Whitcomb, and J. Walter Wilkinson. The collection is organized into five series--the General Files Series; the Artists and Illustrators Series; the Product Files Series; the Other Photographic Materials Series; and the Sketches Series. Large-format items from the Artists and Illustrators Series and Sketches Series have been relocated to Oversize Materials.

The papers of Peter Gilow, former advertising executive of the J. Walter Thompson Company, span the years 1960 to 1978, with the bulk of the material dating from 1962 to 1977. The papers document the development of the J. Walter Thompson Company's Frankfurt Office (J. Walter Thompson GmbH). Specifically covered are the developments in and transformation of German advertising since the end of World War II in television, radio, and print, the emergence of a European Market, attempts to coordinate efforts among all JWT European offices, and the establishment of public service advertising and organizations that represent advertising agencies in Germany. The papers consist of correspondence, telexes, memoranda, notes, reports, charts, scripts, clippings, and printed materials. Clients of the company represented in the collection include Brinkmann, Burger King, DeBeers, Dunlop, Findus, Ford, Intercontinental Hotels Corp., Kraft, Kellogg, Lever-Sunlicht, Maggi, Nestle, Pan American Airways, Warner-Lambert, and others. Correspondents include clients and executives from other JWT offices such as David Campbell-Harris, Constance B. Ivie, Don Johnston, Denis Lanigan, Jens von Leutzendorff, René Müller, Dan Seymour, Alex Späth, Thomas Sutton, Neil Walker, and Edward G. Wilson. Other correspondents are affiliated with Benton and Bowles, Franz Burda, Deltakos Division, GWA, Harbridge House Europe, Hax-Arbeitskreis, Heumann Werbegesellschaft, Managers' Meeting, Marketing Club, and Young and Rubicam. Approximately half of the collection is in English and the remainder is in German. The German language predominates in the Correspondence Series, the Organizations Series, the Memoranda Series, and the Account Poll Series; however, the English language predominates in the Other JWT Offices Series, the Meetings Series, the Annual Management Series, and the Manager's Monthly Assessment Series.

The papers of Wilfried Henkel, former managing director (Geschäftsführer) at the J. Walter Thompson Company (JWT), Frankfurt office, span the years 1957 to 1987, with the bulk of the material dating from 1975 to 1984. The collection consists of articles and presentations (typed or offprints) accompanied by charts and graphs, typed and handwritten correspondence, external and internal memoranda, as well as press clippings and other printed material, and documents Henkel's activities during his tenure at the Frankfurt office, where he was considered the "chief ideologist." Throughout his time in Frankfurt, Henkel worked on individual accounts, but more importantly he was one of the early proponents of corporate advertising, especially in the form of corporate identity and corporate communications. In addition, he worked extensively on JWT's corporate strategy, the T-Plan (target plan).

The Paul-G. Siebel Papers contain correspondence, memoranda, speeches, and other documents spanning the years 1968 to 1975. The bulk of the material in the collection dates from Siebel's tenure as Geschäftsführer (General Manager) of J.Walter Thompson's Frankfurt Office from 1969 through 1975. The Siebel Papers mostly concern relations with the advertising industry. As media director of JWT Frankfurt (a position he held simultaneously with that of Geschäftsführer), Siebel corresponded with members of the industry as well as the media; as JWT Frankfurt's representative to organizations such as the GWA (Gesellschaft der Werbeagenturen [Association of Advertising Agencies]), he attended meetings within the industry and discussed a variety of advertising and political subjects. Other topics documented in the collection include media planning, account direction, production of advertisements, and business management JWT Frankfurt. The Organizations Series, relating to Siebel's participation in advertising groups, comprises one-half of the collection. Other series include the Non-Frankfurt JWT Offices; Correspondence; Memoranda/Haus-Mitteilungen; Clients; Media; Other JWT Frankfurt Departments; Euuropean Media Manager; and Organizations Series. The majority of items in the collection, approximately 80 percent, are in the German language, with the remainder in English.