Historic Business Research

Norton and Peel Photograph Collection 
Collection includes photographs, photograph albums and office files of C.J. Hibbard and the photography firm Norton & Peel who later bought Hibbard’s studio. Hibbard’s images include many street scenes and building photographs from Minneapolis. The majority of the collection has a commercial focus with images of business exteriors, interiors, or products mainly in Minneapolis and St. Paul but suburban and outstate Minnesota images are included. There are also images of landscapes, home exteriors, accident scenes for insurance, and family events.  Much, but not all, of the collection has been digitized.  
MNHS call number: Digital Finding Aid

Marshall R. Hatfield Photograph Collection, 1987-1990.
Includes views of cities, small towns and rural areas around Minnesota. Several homes, hotels, restaurants, stores, and other businesses are featured with both exterior and interior views. Three accompanying journals provides a frame-by-frame explanation of the images on each contact sheet.
MNHS call number: Digital Finding Aid

 

Red Owl Store Photograph Collection, ca. 1956-1963​
The collection includes both commercial prints depicting grocery displays and various snapshots of employees and shoppers at the Red Owl Store in the Southdale Shopping Center in Edina, Minnesota. Products and brands featured are Wheaties, Coca-Cola, several Red Owl canned and bagged goods, Fairmont, Post, Pillsbury, Kraft, as well as produce and non-food items. The images were compiled by Leonard Engstrom who managed the Red Owl Store at the time the photographs were taken.
MNHS call number:  I.404 (Selected Selected images from this collection are available online) 

 

Preston Implement Company Film Collection, 1955-1967

Films are advertisements and demonstrations of agricultural equipment, including but not limited to Minneapolis-Moline tractors, Farmhand Company Beet Harvester, and Bobcats.
MNHS call number: Digital Finding Aid

Using the library catalog or online finding aid searches*:

1. Visit the MNHS Online Catalog or Finding Aids Search page on your internet browser
    
2. Search for a term like "advertising," "marketing," or "public relations" (use the quotation marks for 2 word phrases) 
    
3. When you find a collection that looks interesting, click on the title to go to the individual item view. 
   ​(In the Catalog, look for the Finding Aids line.  If there is a web link, click it to view a detailed inventory.  If there is not a link, the finding aid is available on paper here at the library.)
    
4.  For large online finding aids, use the Ctrl+F function (Command+F on a Mac) to quickly and easily search within the document 

*Note: only about 20% of MNHS collections have online finding aids

Other places to find advertisements:

• Newspapers
• City Directories
• Telephone Books
• Magazines and Trade Journals
• Catalogs and Price Lists

Mac Martin Advertising Agency Client Scrapbooks and Films, 1905-1982
Advertising proofs, brochures, booklets, catalogs, photographs, and films documenting work done by this Minneapolis advertising agency for more than 130 different companies, headquartered mainly in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. Flour, coffee, canned vegetables, farm machinery, building products, financial services, tourism, real estate, household products, and political campaigns are featured in the advertising materials.
MNHS call number: Digital Finding Aid

McGarvey Coffee Company Advertising Materials, ca. 1927-1990
Includes photographs, advertisements, newsletters, articles and newspaper clippings related to advertising for McGarvey Coffee Company of Minneapolis. The bulk of the material are photographs which feature views of the McGarvey Coffee, Inc. buildings and offices, employees, product packaging, roasters and equipment, and advertisements.
MNHS call number: Digital Finding Aid

Examples of Photograph Collections

Searching for Advertising

Examples of Advertising

Search for images and artifacts at MNHS using our Collections Online system. Then filter the results using the options in the system's left-hand column.   

You may want to try specific terms like a business name, the type of business, or the name of a building.  Since many businesses are shown in more general street scenes, you may also want to look under a location like an address or a town name.

You may also want to try more general terms, like: 

• Business
• Manufacturing
• Store
• Factory

Other photograph collections can be found in manuscript collections (see Business Records for more information), government records collections, or cataloged separately as albums or collections. 

Gale Family Library
Minnesota Historical Society Library

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