Curtis Publishing Company
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Crocker, Judith A.
label: Collection Creator
content: Faust, Herbert M. (salesman, manager)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Herbert M. Faust Papers
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1918-1943
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0397, Series 1
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This series consists of records of Mr. Faust's years with Curtis Publishing, include interesting information about advertising in the late 1920s. Of special interest are two marketing studies, from 1920 and 1922, of Sabetha, Kansas, which was selected as being representative of the typical rural American town.  The studies consist of a descriptive narrative, charts, maps, photographs, and a profile of the town's businesses and economic life.

 
Also of interest is a 1929 publication, commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Saturday Evening Post.  In addition to providing some historical information and explaining how the magazine is printed and distributed, this special publication documents the magazine's circulation and advertising revenue for 1928.  It compares the total amount of advertising in the Saturday Evening Post with all other U.S. publications; lists the 100 leading companies in the nation that advertised and provides statistics on where they advertised, how much they spent on advertising, and what kind of advertising they did.  In addition, it shows the total amount of advertising carried in the Saturday Evening Post compared to other publications, organized by category of firm that advertised (e.g., automotive, cameras, furniture, refrigeration, etc.).

In addition to career related items and a few personal mementoes, this series includes three issues of separate Curtis Publishing employee magazines (Curtis Folks, September 1923; The Curtis Go Getter, December 1937; and The Curtisman, November 1944).  Also included is a December 7, 1929 issue of the magazine advertised as "The Greatest Saturday Evening Post Ever Issued;" evidently, it was printed with new, 45 ton presses that allowed it to be run off in three weeks (whereas one old style flat bed press would have taken 75 years!).