World War II & Advertising: Non-agency Records

During World War II, several of the E.F. Craven Company employees served in the armed forces. Duval Craven corresponded frequently with them, and copies of his letters and their replies can be found among the correspondence from the war years. Correspondence of particular interest is located in boxes 20-22. Department Store Window Photographs, 1942-1944. This collection comprises twenty-six photographs of store window displays in several department stores. The majority combine clothing and shoe merchandise displays with patriotic themes and support of the war bond drives. Lillian Dimmick Scrapbook, 1942-1947. This one item collection is a scrapbook created by Lillian Dimmick and features clippings, recipes, letters, and telegrams documenting her winnings in recipe and music trivia contests. Some war-time recipes feature meat substitutes and other rationed food saving techniques.

The R.C. Maxwell Company, headquartered in New Jersey, contains photographs of billboards dating from the 1900s through the 1990s. There is a range of photographs taken during World War II, of both general and war-themed billboards. As documented in the guide linked above, there are scrapbooks documenting R.C. Maxwell's work in World War I, and one book documenting World War II.

This is a collection of thousands of cookbooks produced by various companies to advertise their products. Many of the cookbooks provide social commentary on women's roles and emerging technologies as well as detailed information about company histories and product development. Organized by date, a number of cookbooks from the 1940s reference rationing in their recipes and may have a patriotic appearance. Please contact the reference archivist for more information on accessing this collection.

In this collection, the Access Files Series can be used to browse the collection and narrow a search for an individual advertisement before moving on to the Image Files Series. The collection contains undated "Axis Ape" cartoons (Box 2 in Public Service) and other World War II advertisements. Other war-era ads may be found under other topics and company names, as noted in the collection guide.