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The collection documents short-term, time-sensitive and event-specific aspects of marketing and sales promotion. Advertising campaigns ordinarily seek to promote sales, increase market share, and strive to maintain the enduring integrity of a brand name. Ephemeral marketing products work within a more limited frame that terminates at the end of an event or with the issue of a superseding edition: a dated catalog of products; new book announcements; festival programs; an advertisement for an auction or sales event; limited-time premiums such as silverware or collector cards included with a purchase. The collection includes articles; broadsides; brochures; business and trade cards; catalogs; circulars; clippings; direct-to-consumer mailings; event programs; manuals; maps; memoranda to sales agents; premium offers; price lists; religious literature; sales bulletins and announcements; souvenirs; travel and tourism literature; and other materials. Topical areas include: Agricultural and industrial machinery; banking and finance; building materials; business, correspondence, and other schools; clothing and footwear; death care (cemeteries, funeral supplies, gravestones, etc.); fairs and festivals; food; furniture; hair care; hardware; household appliances and furnishings; insurance; livestock; musical instruments; real estate; sewing goods; sporting goods; textiles; toiletries; transportation (airlines, automobiles, buggies and carriages, railroads, steam and cruise ships). Throughout the collection, images and artwork depict caricatures of Asians, Black and Indigenous people, women, occupations, and social classes that reflect racist, sexist, and classist attitudes and prejudices of the periods represented in the collection. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.

Founded in 1864, the J. Walter Thompson Company (JWT) is one of the oldest and largest enduring advertising agencies in the United States. The JWT 35mm Microfilm Proofs collection spans the years 1906-1960 and consists primarily of images of print advertisements and proofs taken from proof books and portfolios of domestic and foreign JWT offices. Clients include Ballantine's, B.F. Goodrich, Butterick, Corning, Crowell Publishing, Davey Tree Surgeons, General Cigar, General Motors, Guinness, Horlicks, J.B. Williams, Jergens, Johns-Manville, Nash, Northam Warren, Pennsylvania RR, RCA, Sharp & Dohme, Shell, Standard Brands, Sun Maid, Swift, Sylvania, United Airlines, Ward Baking, and Welch's Grape Juice. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.

English professor, Duke University, folklorist of Durham, N.C., and founder in 1913 of the North Carolina Folklore Society. Collection centers around Frank Clyde Brown's lifelong exploration and collecting of North Carolina and Appalachian folklore, which resulted in this vast archival collection of original folklore materials and editorial records for the seven-volume Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore (published 1952-1964). Collection is comprised of field recordings on wax cylinders and phonodiscs; tens of thousands of field notes, transcriptions of original songs, stories, and traditional expressions; musical scores; and numerous journal articles, student theses, books, and lists. Also included are the papers of Charles Bond, a Duke graduate student who studied and expanded the collection in 1970. The vast majority of the folklore sources originated in North Carolina, but there are some materials from other regions. Subjects include: African American traditions; ballads and songs (music as well as lyrics); European roots of North American folklore; folk music; folk poetry; games and parties; oral traditions and storytelling; sayings, names, and superstitions; social conditions in the Southern States; work songs; and North American folklore in general. In addition, one can find rich resources on the study and teaching of folklore, and attitudes during the 1920s to 1950s about Southern customs and communities.

Martin Shubik (1926-2018) was the Seymour H. Knox Professor Emeritus of Mathematical Institutional Economics at Yale University. This collection primarily documents his professional life through his correspondence, writings, research, and professional and faculty activities. It forms part of the Economists' Papers Archive.

Founded in 1864, the J. Walter Thompson Company (JWT) was one of the oldest and largest advertising agencies in the United States. It was headquartered in New York. In 2023 the agency was absorbed into marketing and communications firm VML. The collection includes newspaper and magazine print advertisements for companies and consumer products that competed with those of JWT clients. Product categories include airlines; alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages; bus and cruise lines; cosmetics; food; hair preparations; health products and drugs; household appliances and furnishings; radios and televisions; railroads; shaving preparations and toiletries; and tobacco products. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.

Seventeen United States and British government-produced films on 15 reels, dealing with World War II and dating 1943 to 1946, primarily including films made explicitly to sell war bonds, as well as documentaries, training films, and anti-Japanese and anti-German propaganda.

Founded in 1864, the J. Walter Thompson Company (JWT) is one of the oldest and largest enduring advertising agencies in the United States. It is headquartered in New York. Collection includes lists of cancelled checks, petty cash vouchers and invoices, summaries of advertising production expenses and labor costs and other financial data. Main JWT offices represented include New York, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.

Consumer Reports is a product testing and consumer advocacy nonprofit organization based in Yonkers, N.Y., founded in 1936. Paul Kern served as Legal Counsel and a member of the Board of Directors of Consumers Union in the 1940s-1950s. The Paul Kern papers include clippings, correspondence, legal documents, pamphlets and other printed materials that primarily document Kern's work as legal counsel for Consumers Union. Issues addressed include copyright infringement and fair use of Consumers Union intellectual property; Post Office censorship relating to Consumers Union's publication on contraception and sexual health; labor relations and union negotiations; libel complaints over reviews published in Consumer Reports magazine; management and employee pension programs; and property issues relating to the Mount Vernon offices of Consumers Union. Correspondents include John J. Carson (Federal Trade Commission) and Frank Walker, Postmaster General. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.

Founded in 1864, the J. Walter Thompson Company (JWT) is one of the oldest and largest enduring advertising agencies in the United States. The JWT San Francisco office was opened in 1923. The JWT San Francisco Office Records span the years 1959-1999, and includes advertising proofs, commercial artwork, print schedules, marketing plans, manuals, company history materials, correspondence, Creative Library catalogs and audiovisual materials (audio cassettes, VHS video cassettes and videotapes). Also included are the papers of Harry A. Lee, a JWT executive involved in the development of JWT's Pacific Rim business during the 1960s. Companies represented in the collection include California Raisin Advisory Board, Dean Witter, Ferry-Morse Seed Company, Labatt's, Morris Plan, and Schlage. JWT offices touched on in the collection include New York, Manila (Philippines) and Tokyo (Japan). Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.

Douglas M. Knight, born in 1921, served as president of Duke University from 1963 to 1969. Knight was educated at Yale and served as president of Lawrence University prior to becoming president of Duke. After leaving Duke in 1969, he worked as an industry executive at several firms. Records include correspondence, memoranda, proposals, surveys, reports, writings and speeches, minutes, audio-visual media, honorary citations, clippings, and printed matter. Major subjects include the administration of Duke University, the planning of a new art museum, university development, Duke's Fifth Decade Campaign and fundraising, the Duke Board of Trustees, Knight's inauguration, the School of Engineering, the School of Law, the School of Forestry, the Graduate School of Business, student protest, African-American students at Duke, the takeover of the Allen Building by members of the Afro-American Society, and student rights. Major correspondents include R. Taylor Cole, E.R. Latty, Lath Meriam, Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans, R. Philip Hanes, Nancy Hanks, R. Patrick Ransom, George V. Allen, Charles B. Wade, Henry Rauch, Edwin L. Jones, Wright Tisdale, Les Brown, Ellen Huckabee Gobbel, Mark Pinsky, Graddon Rowlands, and Floyd B. McKissick.