All-American Ads 1900-1919

by Jim Heimann, Steven Heller (Introduction)

Provides a pictorial tour of advertisements from the early twentieth century, including categories such as automobiles, travel, interiors, entertainment, fashion, alcohol, business, consumer products, and food and beverages.

Genres: Art

638 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2005

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Having a bulging shelf full of the other All American Ads books, I jumped at the chance when Taschen recently had this volume on discount. You would think that advertising in these early 20th century years would be visually stuffy and filled with conservative Victorian values, but I was actually disarmed by how subtle and lovely many of these ads were. Since printing methods weren’t yet advanced enough to take advantage of photography, most ads of the era depended heavily on illustration to the point where the entire ad, text and all, were rendered on the artist’s canvas. And what gorgeous illustrations they are! Apparently having little more than a sumptuous rendering of a happy customer was enough of a 'hard sell' back then. Some of the best pages here are campaigns by familiar brands like Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, Cream of Wheat and Old Dutch Cleanser. I also enjoyed spotting the work of well-known illustrators such as J.C. Leyendecker and Coles Phillips, whose 'fade away ladies' were as much an icon of their era as the Gibson Girl (1890s) or the Vargas pinup (1940s) were for theirs. Pretty nifty visual resource." - Scrubbles.net review, February 7, 2010.

[Mansour S منصور السدحان · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing collection of ads from the U.S for all sorts of things. One can sense the times by reading in between the lines. But the book can be “selective” about certain subjects or brands of what to include! And also one have to be wary that some of the products showcased here were only available for “the rich and famous” and wasn’t as common as one might assume coming from today’s world.
I found myself reminding myself that what I see is not a “Romantic” style or romantic take for an ad. Like when there is an illustration of vintage couple next to a vintage car or a very very vintage airplane! It’s what things looked like in the 1900s!

Now should I logically start with the 1920s book or jump to the 1990s for nostalgia? Or maybe 1980s. I don’t know!
I think once I’m done with all of the collection (1900-to-1990s) Coldplay’s Clocks will play in my mind! With images through the decades!

[Themistocles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic, like the whole series...

[Jessica Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome reference book - a great addition to any pop culture collection!