Search

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.

The African Americans in Film collection includes ephemeral materials, especially posters and pressbooks, promoting and advertising motion pictures featuring Black actors, directors, and production companies.

Collection comprises a 16-page 8 1/2 x 11 inch photograph album belonging to an unidentified member of the 45th Engineer General Service Regiment, a segregated unit of African American soldiers stationed in Ledo, India beginning in 1942. Their charge was to build a portion of the Stilwell Road, a major supply route from India to China. Mounted on loose pages, the 44 black-and-white snapshots include posed and candid images of individuals and groups of African American soldiers, at work and at rest. Soldiers identified in the captions include Charley Woodard, Clarence Benson, Charles J. Greene, and Cain Walker. There are also photographs of buildings on the base, including Battalion Chapel, headquarters (labeled "The Gateway to Hell"), Harmony Church, and a large Stilwell Road sign, along with various shots of military equipment, a "Coolie Camp," the "laundry man," and the Taj Mahal. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.

Collection comprises a large photograph album likely created by an African American soldier serving in Vietnam. There are 268 uncaptioned black-and-white and several color photographs ranging in size from 2 3/4 x 3 1/2 to 3 1/2 x 5 inches, along with 15 souvenir postcards. Images primarily feature informal shots of African American and white servicemen in camp and off base, though few show the races mingling. There is also a series of well-executed portraits of individual soldiers, white and black. The photographer took many images of U.S. Army camps and air bases, army personnel and vehicles, street scenes from Saigon and smaller villages, and took numerous snapshots of local citizens, chiefly women and children. There are a handful of shots showing bombing raids and cleared or destroyed jungle areas. Overall, the images offer a wealth of details about the Vietnam War from a variety of viewpoints. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.

Collection of assorted posters in Arabic commemorating revolutionary and political movements in Yemen, Oman, Palestine, Syria, and the Middle East.

The Arabic Film Posters collection comprises more than forty color movie posters published between 1957 and 2008 in Egypt. The posters publicize popular film productions by major Egyptian film directors that were shown in Arab countries. Film genres represented are drama, comedy, adventure, historical fiction and war. The information in each entry is transcribed from the poster, and may include actors, producer, title in Arabic and in English, date released or date of poster publication, and country of origin. Title transcriptions and English translations supplied by library staff. A few of the posters are undated and some have not been positively identified. Smaller posters are housed in an oversize box and the larger sizes in two oversize folders; the smaller posters are currently undescribed but are open to access.

Charles L. Abernethy, Sr. (1872-1955) was a Democratic Congressman representing eastern North Carolina from 1922-1935. His professional papers consist chiefly of correspondence and records from his law practice and legal cases, with smaller amounts of writings and speeches, financial papers, printed materials, diaries, and some personal papers, including early deeds. There is also a large group of photographs, photo albums, and clippings scrapbooks chiefly documenting Abernethy's political career. One album from 1907 contains postcards of Beaufort, N.C.; another contains photographs of a three-month Congressional trip to Alaska, 1923, and includes images of President and Mrs. Harding and a diary transcript of the trip. Other items include some papers of his son, Charles Laban Abernethy, Jr., also a lawyer, and a volume of his poetry.

Exhibit posters and other publicity materials associated with the Archive of Documentary Arts programming at Duke University.

Advertising clubs are trade organizations that connect people in the advertising, media, and marketing sectors to other professionals and resources. Collection consists of event programs, letters, buying guides, periodicals, and member lists from different advertising clubs in the United States. Materials in the collection document contemporary advertising resources and practices, as well as club membership and activities. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.

In the mid nineteenth century, publishers printed the lyrics to popular songs, without their tunes, on small sheets called song sheets, handbills, or broadsides. These sheets were often illustrated with a woodcut scene or portrait and sold at gathering places where people sang together. Duke's collection of American song sheets includes 1,982 of these ephemeral productions, from "The Star Spangled Banner" to "Pop Goes the Weasel," forming a rich source for research on American society and culture. The American South and the Civil War era are especially well documented, including well over one hundred Confederate broadsides. The collection also includes carrier's addresses, non-musical poetry, and other ephemeral verse. Publishers represented in the collection include: J. Andrews, A. W. Auner, Bell and Company, James D. Gray, Johnson and Company, Charles Magnus, H. de Marsan, T. M. Scroggy, St. Clair Smith, John T. Thorne, H. J. Wehman, J. Wrigley, and others.