Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-04-09
18TH BIRTHDAY.
N. W. Aver & Son Started in One
Room with $3.50.
Great Advertising Firm Has Since
Transacted Business of $35,oO0,00C.

The firm of n w Aver & Son Of Phila-
delphia, the largest advertising agency in
the United States. celebrated. recently
the thirty-hfth anniversary of a business
whose success and growth can he meas
ured only by the progress OF advertising
itself i'll this country.
resource and power of modern adver-
Using were unknown, n. W. Aver and
his son. f. W. Aver, entered the field
with the idea of making it a business and
conducting that business along Phiiadel-
They started, father and son. in n room
only twenty feet square, on SAMSON
Street, near Seventh near the present
capital was $50. and. as Mr.. +. w. Aver.
the present head of the firm, lauShinGly
said yesterday: Father was the head. /
was the office boy, and We We're equal
With this capital the firm proceeded to
develop the newspaper advertising. and in
the first year d. L business of $4,000.
In the thirtyfoul ears since they have
furnished to the WSpa g Of the United
States total OF ncr" IN $35OO0,O00 of
advertising. Today dealing with
1900 publications a. payments to
these average $4,000 ...- =, or, roughly
speaking, S.60o.000 a . .tr.
This enormous business O. rpriSe
started with the settled CO, .iction that
Philadelphia was the city III which it
could be made Il success, and that Pnila-
d"lphia business methods would make
it Il success. In the little room on San
som Street, father and son adopted the
now well-known Philadelphia motto,
Keeping everlastingly at it brings sue
cess On the walls of the two entire
floors of the Mariner d Merchant Build
ing at Third and Chestnut Streets, and
the two floors of press and work rooms in
the rear. that motto is today engraved
for the 2@.9 employees of the big fum to
read.
In 1873 n. w. Aver passed to his rest
son. f. W. Aver. who then took into his
partnership an employee named George
O. Wallace. who died in 1881 Before
WalIace's death another employee Henry
n. Mckinney. had been taken into the
firm in 1879 and finally Albert q. Brad
ford and Jarvis a. Wood were made part
through the business, These last three
partners, together with +. w. Aver, con-
duct the business today.
In 1876 increasing trade brought the firm
Eighth and Chestnut Streets, where it
rented one floor. This was before the
Times moved in. Duri"g twenty-five
years n w. Aver 4 Son gradually spread
Then they moved to their present quar-
tiers at Third and Chestnut. on the site,
by the way, of the first 2 j."rtiSing
agency in America, which was - Jlshed
by Noney +. Palmer. i'll 1911.
Speaking of the immense growth OF adj
vertising, +. w. Aver. the veteran MEM
Der of the firm, said yesterday
There was hardly such n thing as ad-
vertising until after the Civil War. Then
the country began to feel its muscle and
to stretch out into new lines. "" have
seen a great evolution in Journalism.
More and more the advertiser is de-
pending upon advertising to tell the pco-
pie that he cannot meet personally OF the
goods he has to sell.
DO / think advertising will increase?
Yes We began in the days when staples
were not advertised, when business men
thought it all right for makers of patent
medicines to advertise because they wcrc
sugar, bread, biscuit ana the like on
which profits were clos. it was thought
there was no margi. or advertising.
THAT was the idea we started to dis
prove and We have by no means OK
hausted the list of staples that Will be
exploited Let me tell you somthlng-
the immense advertising of Gnec.ia Bis
cult was done by setting aside traction
of a cent on each package.
Yes the old idea that certain things
will not stand advertising is passed. Men
are advertising today who told Us nv
years ago that advertising would do them
no good. Others who now say the same
thing will themselves be advertising In
another five years.
why" concluded Mr.. Aver. with a
smile, there were some who told us when
we started that this business could not
be run successfully from Philadelphia
Think of that
That the theory has long since been
exploded is well witnessed by the enor-
NOUS success of n. w. Aver & Son, which
has made the name of Philadelphia and
a Philadelphia firm known from one end
of the United States to the other.