Old Mad Men - and Women

Last week in honor of the National Day of Listening I got my friend Bob talking about his experiences in New York City in the late 1940's. He spent three years as the Public Information Officer for the First Army headquartered in New York.

I looked through the Library of Congress and found some old photos of the "Federal Advertising Agency," which may or may not have been involved with his work (I need to ask him). The Federal Advertising Agency, Inc. was not a government agency. I learned that from the oral history of Laura Elizabeth Seiler, a pioneer suffragist who was also a pioneer in advertising -- she retired (for the first time) in 1948 as a Vice-President of the Federal Advertising Agency, Inc.



I found this Time magazine blurb from 1927 that mentions it. The Federal Advertising Agency is also mentioned in this article from the Journal of Applied Psychology (1945). Also mentioned in Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920-1940.