Pipe ads in old magazines

[xrundog]

I know some you fellows are interested in the history of pipes and tobaccos. I'm interested in researching to history of some of the old American pipe making companies and their various brands. Not much is known about them except that which is gleaned from the occasional ad that pops up online.

I think magazine ads might be a good way to do this. But late 19th and early 20th century magazines can be pricey. Particularly if one wants to investigate several eras.

So my question is: Which magazines would be likely to have a lot of pipe ads?
I'm thinking: Popular Mechanics, Field and Stream, The Saturday Evening Post.
Any thoughts or opinions are welcome.

 

[edgreen]

Life and Look would have some of those ads, plus some really awesome photography that shows how prevalent pipes were during that time.

 

[briarhillgeoff]

Esquire and Playboy's from the 60/70's. Life Magazine as well?

 

[xrundog]

I'm mainly interested in the 1890s through the 1920s.

 

[huntertrw]

xrundog:
With regard to the "hook and bullet" press, try "National Sportsman" magazine which I know was published during the 1920s (and probably well before), and which carried tobacco advertisements.
Another would be "Forest and Stream" magazine which began publication in 1873 and ran through 1930.

 

[georged]

Kevin went on such a hunt back when this site began:
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/looking-for-retro-pipe-ads

 

[derfatdutchman]

Check out Google books, they have Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Field & Steam, Life on line. Some of them have issues going back to the early 1900's.

 

[xrundog]

There's not much to find online. More pipe tobacco than just pipes. I don't think I've ever seen a CPF or NPW ad. I've seen a number of WDC ads. But not what I would call a lot. Anybody ever seen a KB&B other than Yello-Bole or Kaywoodie? Nobody has bothered to track down and scan the really old stuff.

My plan is to do some sampling and see what I find. Once I figure out where the most pipe ads appear to be I'll narrow my focus.

 

[tuold]

Oddly, while taking up xrundog's challenge to find pipe advertising from the 20s I found an article in Advertising & Selling, Volume 30, Issues 1-27 from June 1920 talking about the same issue. The author writes about how there is a lot of tobacco advertising, implying that men go to great lengths and care to choose their tobacco, but not so much in choosing a pipe. So not so many ads for pipes. There are some representative pipe ads in the article with suggestions on how to make pipes items of style and desire. It seems a common, everyday pipe was called a "Jimmy Pipe".
So maybe there just weren't that many pipe ads back in those times(?).
I'm also looking at an old WDC ad from a 1919 issue of Popular Science. In an adjacent article an author predicts the future use of sun light gathering cells that could be used power automobiles. He said it would far in the future!
Aside from all that fascinating stuff, you all might find it interesting to look through old Sears catalogs for pipes. Most of them have at least two or three pages of them.

 

[xrundog]

Check out Google books, they have Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Field & Steam, Life on line. Some of them have issues going back to the early 1900's.

Thanks for that. I looked at a Popular Mechanics from 1910. No pipes. But I have a feeling there is gold in there somewhere. I just need to find it.

 

[xrundog]

Found some WDC ads in Google Books. But I can't figure out how to copy or save the page. Anyone have any tips?

 

[edgreen]

This is going to be a fun journey

 

[seacaptain]

There's tons of individual magazine ad pages on ebay. Many within the date range you're looking for.

 

[misterlowercase]

I agree that google books is excellent,

especially for American makes.
Many of the older publications with full preview available have a snip feature (scissors in the upper left allows you to crop as needed) where you can cut out the desired article,

like this, from The American Magazine, 1919:

Many books don't yet have a preview available and it can be frustrating,

but,

also give good prompts for a worthy book to search out, this edition seems promising:

4000 years of service: the story of the wholesale tobacco industry and its pioneers
One of the best things about contemporary magazine articles or ads is that it lets us put a somewhat precise date on things,

like this Wellington article from 1911 saying that those pipes are a new thing, from the American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record, Volumes 58-59...

...but the small text issue is something I haven't been able to resolve and it doesn't make for clear reading:

In some cases you would be able to do a screen capture and save it that way,

something I recently learned how to do and it's very useful, although a bit time consuming.
Tracing all of this stuff and trying to collate it all into a cohesive bundle is a noble goal and one that I admire and very much enjoy reading or looking at --- there's such a void with all the important history and I would hope that with all our internet might we could resolve that dark issue once and for all and put together specific timelines arcs which illustrate the evolution of whatever company is being discussed.
Reborn Pipes is always a great source,

much stuff found nowhere else...

http://rebornpipes.com/2014/03/05/an-old-kaufman-brothers-bondy-cpf-catalogue/
Also worth browsing would be the google news archive,

although it's intensive searching and can try your patience,

finding something worthwhile is always a thrill...
...easy search for Kaywoodie,

mostly drugstore ads,

surprisingly few results,

no "hard news" that I could find,

but proper search terms are the key here,

the more specific the better...
...but again, stuff like this ad dating the Relief Grain finish to 1945 is a pretty good indicator of a timeline, but additional sources would need to be checked because advertising is often inaccurate, and one needs to weigh such evidence amongst the other existing evidence...

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19450918&id=ObUWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KyMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1868,1510490&hl=en
...still,

some things are just a neat novelty and a treat to see,

nothing of real import, but very interesting nonetheless..
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1913&dat=19421204&id=kfNGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=p_MMAAAAIBAJ&pg=5293,5043092&hl=en
My best luck has been from saving digital images to an archive,

over time they build up and everything comes together.
However, I am at a point of wanting more and I've been actively buying old Punch magazines along with other oddball British publications, because that is where my interest lies, and it can be quite rewarding to have the paper itself, to feel the age, to read the contemporary news and equate it all in, to luck out on an issue with multiple ads of targeted interest, but there's also a lot of nothing from shooting in the dark on chance a certain issue may contain something and then it don't, and it all adds up financially over time, and it's almost an impossible task to gather a concentrated mass all together because there's just so much stuff...
...which is why a good library is invaluable.

Unfortunately I'm not living anywhere close to an urban center with a great library, although I do intend to make it to the University of Alabama tobacco collection some day --- the NY public library has a treasure trove, but then there's also a huge time investment and a great deal of patience, and more often than not what is discovered are small pieces that need to be sewn together from a big puzzle of missing pieces, and even then, some aspects will simply remain incomplete.
:idea:

 

[briarguys]

Great thread

 

[misterlowercase]

There's quite a good number of the older American tobacco journals at googlebooks, found in multiple issue bundles, and they hold a wealth of information.
It's easiest to scan for good images, but an actual reading may be of great benefit, although I find the format difficult and taxing for concentrated indepth close reading, some of the print is so small, even when zoom'd in, and the scan quality of some pages are pretty horrible.
But,

it is a tremendous resource.
:!:

:idea:

8O

​

You can also choose a transcript "selection text" and it'll put it in plain text for you - especially helpful with the smaller print and makes it easy if you're compiling information, but it's OCR so some stuff comes out garbled...
This:

comes out as this:

We have received from Cope & Co the tobacco manufacturers Liverpool England a copy of Smokers Text Book It is an little pamphlet gotten up full of essays poems parodies etc all of good and many of them new to all true smokers of land and clime by the editor J Hamer FRSL It also one very good engraving of Smoker and a number of wood It is the first of a series to be as Cope's Smoke Room Booklets should prove very popular

Beautiful greytones in this 1919 ad!

A nifty Christmas ad:

Another Redmanol:

And another:

Another:

And this one is absolutely beautiful,

worthy of framing I'd say!
(I'd like it even more if the guys pipe was protruding into the newspaper where it could be seen)

So, if I did indeed wanna seek out an actual print copy of this ad, I'd know exactly at least one place where I'd find it: Outdoor Recreation: The Magazine that Brings the Outdoors in, Volume 62, 1920.
An interesting Redmanol article...

Yes,

Uncle Sam smokes a pipe!

 

[xrundog]

Thanks MLC. We seem to have arrived at many of the same conclusions. I will be perusing google books. I agree that the print copies are too expensive to buy random copies of magazines across a given time frame.

 

[huntertrw]

"With regard to the "hook and bullet" press, try "National Sportsman" magazine which I know was published during the 1920s (and probably well before), and which carried tobacco advertisements.
"Another would be "Forest and Stream" magazine which began publication in 1873 and ran through 1930."
xrundog:
Allow me to apologize for misreading the title of this thread, as I referenced only tobacco advertisements. I believe that you will find that the two magazines cited also carried advertisements for pipe-makers.

 

[xrundog]

My feeling at this early stage is that pipe makers were doing more advertising going into the 20s. I've been sampling 1910 and 1915 and often finding tobacco ads but just a couple WDC pipe ads so far.

 

[misterlowercase]

I agree that the print copies are too expensive to buy random copies of magazines across a given time frame.

Indeed.
It can all add up frighteningly quick.
I've been concentrating on old Punch mags because they're easy to find and often sold in lots, so it's worth it to get a big bundle --- other stuff like Country Life, The Graphic, or whatever, tend to be more hard to find and overpriced when finally found --- the regional mags are exceedingly difficult to obtain, and old Irish newspapers from the 20's-30's are damn near impossible to locate.
For the actual print versions,

antique stores or junk shops are your best bet, where you can take the time to peruse through each issue and only buy what you know is needful to you...
...the search can drive you mad,

don't let it.
just go with the flow

and things will pop up if you're vigilant with the looking.
I recently bought this mag only because of the full page back cover 4 Square ad,

was it worth it?
I'd say so.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/the-geographical-magazine-MAY-1945-TENTH-ANNIVERSARY-NUMBER-1935-1945-/271927570844?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=mdoA1VNQ8sQWE%252Fe4HFjuMLCBqGw%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc
Archival efforts are always worth it in my book,

with an archivist being even more noble than a librarian,

the endless searching, the preservation, the collation and compilation,

trying to add sequential structure to a patchwork quilt.
It's both exhilarating and frustrating at the same time.
But the final reward is worth the effort,

and the contribution of open knowledge is a benefit for all,

only enhancing our obsessive love

and amplifying the field!
::