Wednesday, July 29, 2009

RC Maxwell Advertising

The R.C. Maxwell Company is the oldest existing outdoor advertising company in America. These black and white photographs are of billboards and signs created by them in the eastern part of the U.S. during the 1920's.

Surf Avenue Terminal, Coney Island, New York - 1921. Advertising: Adams Chewing Gum.

Street Scene, Newark, New Jersey - 1921. Advertising: Coca Cola, Cannon's Furniture, Krueger's Beer.

4225 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA - 1921. Advertising: Piedmont Cigarettes, Gulf Gasoline, Atlantic Gasoline.

1st and Ocean, Asbury Park, New Jersey - 1922. Advertising: Budweiser.

State and Broad Streets, Trenton, New Jersey - 1922. Advertising: Coca Cola, Fouratt's Music Store, Chesterfield Cigarettes, Harry Harold Hatter.

These photographs are part of the Advertising Ephemera Collection at the Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library.

5 comments:

Major Pepperidge said...

These are great, and make me think: 100 years from now, will photos of our busy streets, with billboards and shops that we consider so ugly, appear charming to people?

Keith said...

These are amazing to see. I like Major's comments. I wonder the same thing. Will future generations like what they see of our billboards, etc. or will they detest them.

jamcool said...

Odd that there would be beer ads during prohibition (1919-1933)

Or could they be ads for near beer

Chuck Munson said...

I discovered this entry while googling Chester (RC) trying to find out more information/tid bits about Chester and his wife Drusilla, who was my grandmother's cousin. I remember "Aunt Dudie" very well as she lived until 2001, but Chester not as well. One of Chester's biggest early successes was the illuminated sign(s) that his company did for Steel Pier in Atlantic City. There are photos of that available online through the Duke University Library where his papers and documents are housed. He was certainly an innovator in advertising and I suppose it could be argued that his company, for better or worse, was a definite contributor to the rise of the consumer society.

Chuck Munson said...

I was hasty - I meant to say that Chester was RC's son and realized after submitting that that is NOT what I wrote! Chester was older than Dudie, but not that much older! Sorry for the error.