Chloe Edwards, of the Government Records Section, brings us this post in an ongoing series about Mississippi Advertising Commission posters. Many thanks to Ms. Edwards for sharing these fun artifacts.
Tag: Statewide
Chloe Edwards, of the Government Records Section, brings us this post in an ongoing series about Mississippi Advertising Commission posters. Many thanks to Ms. Edwards for sharing these fun artifacts.
Chloe Edwards, of the Government Records Section, brings us this post in an ongoing series about Mississippi Advertising Commission posters. Many thanks to Ms. Edwards for sharing these fun artifacts.
Government records staff at MDAH were aware that Series 552 of the Mississippi Advertising Commission Records contained many oversized items. Because the series had been minimally processed, it remained unexamined until the processing backlog had shrunk. It was then that they found this set of posters, in excellent condition despite being over seventy-five years old.
Series 552 also contains a set of feature stories produced by the Advertising Commission on different aspects of the state, including forestry, cotton, show horses, the Natchez pilgrimage, and winter legumes, which ran every other week from July 1938 to September 1939; an industrial promotion kit intended for use by local civic clubs or chambers of commerce promoting bond issues to finance industrial development in their town, which includes a set of posters plus cartoons and a feature story to be run in the local newspaper; and a set of copper printing plates used to produce the Commission’s “Historical Mississippi” brochure, although the brochure cover plate depicts a different design than that depicted on the brochure in this series.
Chloe Edwards, of the Government Records Section, brings us this post in an ongoing series about Mississippi Advertising Commission posters. Many thanks to Ms. Edwards for sharing these fun artifacts.
In 1936, the Mississippi legislature established the Advertising Commission as part of the Balance Agriculture with Industry (BAWI) program, championed by Governor Hugh White. The Commission promoted the BAWI and the state by encouraging Mississippians to pass bond issues to finance construction of industrial facilities. It also promoted Mississippi as an attractive destination for outside investment in industry and tourism. The Commission remained active until 1940, when its enabling legislation was repealed.
The posters strike two notes. The first highlights benefits of the program, including jobs, cash wages, and increased prosperity, and the hard work necessary to make the program successful. The second theme promotes Mississippi to outsiders. Conscious of the state’s reputation as poor and limited, a set of state maps advertises its schools, agricultural riches, history, literature, and recreational opportunities. The posters appear to have been intended for publication as full page newspaper ads.
Find census data, surveys of the Natchez Trace and Mississippi River, and more in these interesting maps from the MDAH collection. Click the title to view the map and “link to the catalog” to view its catalog record.
U.S. Census, 1930. Call number: MA/2002.0097 (b) Link to the catalog.
Mississippi minor civil divisions, 1930. Call number: MA/2002.0099 (b) Link to the catalog. (Shows counties, county seats, and county supervisor beats.)
Map of the state of Mississippi showing the educational institutions, industries, products, places of historic interest and highroads of travel and commerce, c.1936. Call number: MA/2002.0113 (b) Link to the catalog.
General Plan Natchez Trace Parkway, 1937. Call number: MA/2002.0115 (b) Link to the catalog.
Preliminary Natchez Trace Parkway Survey, 1940. Call number: MA/2002.0135 (b) Link to the catalog.
Big Sunflower, Little Sunflower, and Quiver rivers, and Deer Creek, Steele Bayou, and Bogue Phalia, Mississippi recommended improvements, 1944. Call number: MA/2002.0246 (b) Link to the catalog.
Map of Greater Cleveland, Mississippi, 1972. Call number: MA/2002.0251 (b) Link to the catalog.
DeSoto National Forest Chickasawhay Division, Mississippi, St. Stephens meridian, 1964. Call number: MA/2002.0182 (b) Link to the catalog. (pictured above)
Survey of the approaches to Fort Hindman, Arkansas Post, captured by the U.S. Mississippi Squadron, January 11th 1863 showing the position of the gunboats during the attack, (1962). Call number: MA/92.0148 (c) Link to the catalog.
Western territories [1876]. Call number: MA/92.0151 (c) Link to the catalog.