Descriptive Summary
| Title: | Billboard Photograph Collection |
|---|---|
| Dates [inclusive]: | ca 1918-1934 |
| Abstract: | The photographs appear to have been taken to record which advertisers bought billboard
space at 13 sites in Manhattan and two sites in the Bronx, New York City. The views
focus on signs but also show surrounding buildings, elevated railroads, and street
activity at such heavily traveled intersections as Broadway and Seventh Avenue (Times
Square), Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, Sixth Avenue at 27th Street, Eight Avenue at
110th Street, 125th Street in Harlem, and Third Avenue at 166th Street in the Bronx.
The same sites appear repeatedly, sometimes monthly, during the 1920s and into the
Great Depression. The photographs reveal changes in both the neighborhoods and in
the advertising for many products, among them Chesterfield cigarettes, Wrigley's chewing
gum, and Pepsodent toothpaste.
The Billboard Photograph Collection is digitized and available in the Shelby White and Leon Levy Digital Library. |
| Quantity: | 6 Linear feet (17 boxes) |
| Call Phrase: | PR 5 |