Archival Process

Hunting

I am always on the lookout for new magazines and print media that may contain ads. I am typically looking for prints before year 2000, but if it is interesting I may acquire it. Usually on an outing I’ll acquire many items in bulk.

Sorting

Adds that are less than 30 years old go into a time capsule for the year. They will be opened and added to the property rooms for archiving. All items older than 30 years are added to the vault.

Adding to The Vault

Once the items are safely recovered, then they are individually added to The Vault. During this process I at least add the Publications and Periodicals to the Compendium. But the archiving of the ads comes later.

Archiving the Ads

Once a Periodical is in the vault, I will consider at some point archiving all of the ads within it. The archiving process takes many hours per periodical. It will take more than a lifetime to archive all of the ads from all of the periodicals every produced. I will typically select a periodical I find interesting or feel like will add something unique to The Compendium.

The archival process has many steps

Creating the Advertisement
Creating and linking any Brands and Merchandise
Identifying the best and worst in the periodical. There are a handful of categories I am looking for:

Best overall ad
Best color ad
Best black & white ad
Best double page ad
Best half page ad
Best 1/4 page or less ad
Best copy
Worst ad

Creating Pop-Ups

When I have a collection of interesting ads across publications or periodicals, I will highlight them and create Pop-up Galleries to showcase these interesting associations.

A catalog and collection of vintage, quirky, gay, fashion, tech, gaming and retro advertisements from famous and not so famous magazines.

Ad Collections

Soda Ads

Alcohol Ads

Car Ads

Gay Ads

Tech Ads

Cigarette Ads

Travel Ads

Fashion Ads

Cosmetic Ads

Pharmaceutical Ads

Food Ads

Appliance Ads

All Vintage Print Ads

By Decade

1930s Ads

1940s Ads

1950s Ads

1960s Ads

1970s Ads

1980s Ads

Publications

Life Magazine Ads

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