Born in New York City in 1895, Irving Browning began his professional life as a silent film actor and comedian, but he was most prolific as a photographer and, later, a cinematographer and filmmaker. Browning opened his commercial photo studio in the early 1920s, enlisting his younger brother Sam as an employee. Clients of the Irving Browning Studio…

This post was written by Jill Reichenbach, Reference Librarian, Department of Prints, Photographs and Architectural Collections. At this time of year, many people fantasize about going on a relaxing vacation somewhere exotic, or at least warm. And while some lucky people actually do get to go on vacation, still more might receive a postcard from…

This post was written by Karen Hammer, a CUNY graduate fellow at the New-York Historical Society who helped to process the James G. Harbord Papers. As a CUNY graduate fellow at the New-York Historical Society, I’ve been helping to process the James G. Harbord Papers. Lieutenant General James Guthrie Harbord (1866-1947) retired in 1922 from a…

This post was written by Luis Rodriguez, Collections Management Specialist. In 1964 the advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach created a provocative and effective ad for Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidential campaign. It juxtaposed a young girl counting the petals on a daisy with the launch and detonation of a nuclear weapon, thus attacking the more hawkish…

This post was written by Kate Burch, Library Page. Radium, a naturally occurring element first isolated by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898, fascinated the world with its radioactive and luminescent properties. With no understanding of the ill effects of radiation poisoning, radium became a fashionable trend, a medical cure-all, and an industrial wonder. Newspapers…

This post was written by cataloger Catherine Falzone. The Patricia D. Klingenstein Library of the New-York Historical Society has a number of almanacs that were printed as advertisements by patent medicine companies.  Most people in the nineteenth century bought an almanac every year and considered them trustworthy sources of information.  Unscrupulous patent medicine manufacturers capitalized…

Peace on earth and good will to men may be in short supply, but there is no time like Christmas to appreciate that nowadays advertising is everywhere.  Billboards, newspapers, magazines, television, the Internet, cell phones . . . advertisers will try any means available to get consumers to buy their products.  So it’s hardly surprising…