Scope and Content Note
The Bella C. Landauer Collection of Business and Advertising Ephemera contains material spanning the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Collection contains an amazing array of advertising ephemera in a variety of formats: posters, trade cards, cigar labels, product labels, printed advertisements, and sheet music, among others. The collection was originally organized by Landauer, as described above, in a variety of ways, most usually by format or by product being advertised.
Landauer's own lists of items by subject can be found in the Bella C. Landauer Reference and Writings Collection (PR 149).
Throughout Series I and II, all ephemera is organized by the product for which it is advertising. This makes searching for specific businesses and industries easy, but searching for examples of specific printers or lithographers more difficult. Researchers are encouraged to contact the Print Room reference staff at printroom@nyhistory.org for assistance.
Arrangement
The collection is organized into 8 series:
Series:
- Series I. Scrapbooks
- Series II. Ephemera Files (small, medium, large)
- Series III. Sheet Music
- Series IV. Weichsel Tobacco Collection
- Series V. Photographs and Fine Art Works
- Series VI. Playing Cards
- Series VII: Speakeasy Cards
- Series VIII: World War II Army-Navy "E" Awards Ephemera