"Animated Advertising" features more than 200 unique advertising objects from 200 years that demonstrate how animated and dimensional paper devices are used to promote products, art, entertainment, and ideas. Curated by Grolier Club member Ellen G. K. Rubin from her extensive pop-up and movable book and ephemera collection, the exhibition displays the creativity of advertisers in the areas of food, fashion, tobacco, pharmaceuticals, travel, music, and politics to catch the eye, hold the attention, and inform patrons and clientele about the items that they are marketing.

Exhibition highlights include a pop-up baseball card signed by Yogi Berra, a pop-up “vanity table” package containing make-up, a postcard of a new Wanamaker store that inflates, an annual report for Eskimo Pie in the form of an ice cream popsicle, the first automobile ad, prototypes for prospective advertisements, and a video showing many of the objects in motion. An accompanying color catalogue of the exhibition explores the history of advertising, from the effects of the Industrial Revolution on business, to the birth of ad agencies, social advances, and the application of new printing techniques to advertisements.

The full exhibition is also available to view online.

Image Credits: Kellogg’s Krumbles. Battle Creek, MI: Kellogg’s, 1912. Photo courtesy of Nicole Neenan. Poster design by Jerry Kelly.