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Bert Hansen collection of advertising fans

Call Number

PR 438

Date

circa early 20th century-circa 2003, inclusive

Creator

Hansen, Bert, 1944-

Extent

1.26 Linear feet in 3 document boxes

Language of Materials

The bulk of the documents in the collection are in English, wth a few in French and one in Spanish.

Abstract

The collection holds 114 advertising fans collected by historian and gay activist Bert Hansen. Represented in the collection are funeral homes (many of which are owned by African-Americans), drugstores, drug products, coal supply, retail stores, churches, printing services, and others. The fans are mostly undated but seem to range from the first half of the 20th century to the early 2000s. Most fans include religious, scenic, photographic, or other imagery. The later fans include public service messages and advocacy, as well as advertising.

Biographical / Historical

Bert Hansen (1944-) is Professor Emeritus of History at Baruch College of the City University of New York, where he taught from 1991-2015. His principal areas of research and writing have been in science, medicine and public health. Since the 1970s, Hansen has been an activist for gay rights and, in the 1980s, engaged with the AIDS movement. During the course of his professional research and activism, he has collected a range of documents, scientific instruments, prints, objects, and other material that he has donated to various institutions, including Yale, the New York Academy of Medicine, and others, including New-York Historical Society.

(The above note was derived from Bert Hansen's website. A fuller note and links to his writings, etc. can be found there: https://www.berthansen.com/ )

Arrangement

The collection is in the original order as presented to N-YHS by the collector, which generally was grouped by the estimated age of the fan (i.e., "antique," "vintage," "modern"). Each fan is designated with an item number (e.g., BH.001); these numbers were assigned by the collector.

Scope and Contents

The collection holds 114 advertising fans collected by historian and gay activist Bert Hansen. About 30 of the fans advertise funeral homes, many of which make clear their African-American ownership or connection to the Black community. About 30 fans advertise drugstores, drug products, or certain medical services, such as dental work and chiropractors. Other businesses represented are milling, coal supply, car dealers, retail stores (e.g., home furnishings, dry goods), churches, and others. Some fans seem to be samples that advertise the services of the fan's printer. Fans characterized by the collector as "modern," that is, dating from approximately the 1990s to the early 2000s, also include public service messages (e.g., railway crossing safety, environmental/clean water), advocacy (e.g., Gay Men's Health Crisis/AIDS), and Broadway theater publicity, among others.

Most of the fans include imagery, such as drawings or photographs. Images often depict scenes that are religious (usually Christian), serene country/rural, romantic/sentimental Americana, drawings of products, and others. Some are more text-heavy about products, especially those related to drugstores or later public service messages. Geographically, the bulk of the fans are from the United States, but no particular state or region predominates.

The bulk of the fans are undated. The terms "antique," "vintage," and "modern" are used in the container list. These were provided by the collector. It appears that "antique" refers to fans estimated to date from the first half of the 20th century, "vintage" refers to those estimated to date from the 1950s to 1970s, and "modern" to those estimated to date from the 1980s to early 2000s.

All fans in the collection are listed in the container list. The donor provided an Excel spreadsheet with the collection that includes the collector's detailed descriptions of the items and commentary on many of them. A copy of these descriptions is included in each of the three boxes holding the collection. The descriptions used in this finding aid's container list were derived from elements of the collector's Excel spreadsheet, along with the processing archivist's observations of the objects. The container list descriptions provide a basic physical description of the fan (as provided by the collector) and imagery, reference to the product or business/organization advertised, and, if indicated on the fan, the printer/manufacturer. The few dates in the container list are those explicitly recorded on the fan or those that could be readily determined from context.

Access Restrictions

For more information on making arrangements to consult the collection, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Use Restrictions

Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff. Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.

Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions

Preferred Citation

The collection should be cited as: Bert Hansen collection of advertising fans, PR 438, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, New-York Historical Society.

Location of Materials

For more information on making arrangements to consult the collection, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of the collector, Bert Hansen, in November 2021.

Related Materials

N-YHS's Ephemera Collection (PR 264) holds about 500 advertising postcards that were also collected and, in 2000, donated by Bert Hansen.

Collection processed by

Ali Barr and Larry Weimer

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:48:20 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Finding aid written in English

Processing Information

The collection was processed in March-April 2022 by volunteer Alison Barr and archivist Larry Weimer.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024