This chronology offers a list of selected dates related to the "How Much is Enough?" website.
1742
Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine prints the first American magazine ads.
1835
Phineas T. Barnum (1810-1891) sets the tone for American advertising when he convinces people to pay to see Joice Heth, a woman he claims is the former slave of George Washington and is 161 years old.
1742
Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine prints the first American magazine ads.
1835
Phineas T. Barnum (1810-1891) sets the tone for American advertising when he convinces people to pay to see Joice Heth, a woman he claims is the former slave of George Washington and is 161 years old.
1841
Volney Palmer opens the first American advertising agency in Philadelphia.
1859
Macy's expands from a dry-goods store to a department store.
1861
There are twenty advertising agencies in New York City.
1869
The Noble Order of the Knights of Labor is founded in Philadelphia.
The Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics, the first bureau of labor statistics in the world, is established.
1870
Jacob Riis (1849-1914) emigrates from Denmark to the United States.
1870s
Charles E. Hires begins advertising Hires Root Beer in the Philadelphia Ledger, expanding over the next two decades into national magazines.
1872
Montgomery Ward begins mail-order business with the issue of its first catalog.
1875
1,138 brand names and trademarks are registered with the US Patent Office.
1883
Cyrus H.K. Curtis launches Ladies' Home Journal and Life with his spouse, Louisa Knapp Curtis, as editor.
1884
United States Bureau of Labor Statistics is founded.
1885
American Economic Association is founded.
1886
The American Federation of Labor is established in Columbus, Ohio.
Sears, Roebuck & Company begins mail-order business.
1887
Jacob Riis begins documenting poverty through photography.
1888
Congress establishes the Department of Labor.
1889
Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr found Hull House in Chicago, Illinois.
1890
Approximately 23,000 children work in factories in thirteen southern states.
1890
Jacob Riis publishes How the Other Half Lives, chronicling of the lives of New York City's poor.
1891
Pope Leo XIII releases encyclical Rerum Novarum detailing the Catholic Church's position on the condition of labor.
Nathan Fowler, in Advertising Age, recommends that because women make most of the purchasing decisions of their households, manufacturers would profit by directing their advertising messages to them.
1892
New York Tribune publishes "American Millionaires," a list of 4,047 millionaires in the United States.
1894
Laborers in the mining, clothing, and transportation industries strike across the United States.
1895
Hull House Maps and Papers is published.
1898
Father John A. Ryan is ordained and will soon begin teaching at The Catholic University of America.
1900
The population of the U.S., at 76 million, is now almost double that of 1870.
1901
United States Steel is incorporated through the merger of ten companies. It is the world's largest industrial corporation.
1901
Coca-Cola's advertising budget is 1 million dollars.
1902
The Anthracite Coal Strike begins and lasts 5 months. The United Mine Workers' demands include union representation, wage increases of 20 %, and eight-hour workdays.
New York World Almanac lists 3,561 millionaires
The state of Maryland passes a workers' compensation law, the nation's first
The American Anthropological Association is founded
Ladies Home Journal introduces a new column on women's clothing
Thorstein Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions is published. In the book he explains an extravagant and misguided consumerism of the among the upper classes as "conspicuous consumption."
1903
The Department of Commerce and Labor is created by Congress.
1904
Robert Hunter's study Poverty is published. Hunter put the nation's poverty rate at about 12%, a number that recent social scientists now believe was too low. Current estimates of poverty in 1900 put the percentage at closer to 40%.
The "Campbell's Kids" are created to sell Campbell's Soups.
Sapolio soap becomes a popular name brand and an early example of the growing influence of advertising campaigns on public consumption.
1905
The Industrial Workers of the World is established in Chicago.
American Sociological Association is founded.
Madame C. J. Walker (Sarah Breedlove) successfully markets a hair straightener to black women, making Walker a prominent businesswoman in the black community.
1906
The First Annual Advertising Show opens in New York City, initiating the "age of advertising."
1909
The "Uprising of Thirty Thousand," a garment workers' strike, erupts in New York City. It is the first female-dominated mass action, and after fourteen weeks the workers win. The victory establishes the International Ladies Garment Workers Union as a powerful force in the labor movement.
1910
John Wanamaker opens Wanamaker's, a twelve-story department store in Philadelphia, the most monumental commercial structure in the world at the time.
$600 million is spent on advertising by big business, representing 4% of the national income.
1910s
Modern market research begins. As a result, ads are increasingly targeted to specific audiences.
1911
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire kills 145 workers in Manhattan. The factory's owners are indicted for manslaughter due to unsafe working conditions.
1913
The National Conference of Charities and Correction elects Fr. John A. Ryan to the executive committee of its national board. That same year, he launches a campaign in support of a minimum wage law.
1914
Henry Ford announces he will pay his employees a minimum of five dollars a day and inaugurate three eight-hour shifts.
1915
The first transcontinental telephone line opens for service from New York City to San Francisco.
1916
Domestic and international trade hit all time highs. Domestic commerce generates $45 billion, and exports top $8 billion.
1917
To support recruiting efforts and promote sales of war bonds and stamps during World War I, thousands of advertisers feature war themes in their campaigns while the media contribute space. By 1919, contributions total $2.5 billion.
1918
Father John A. Ryan raises the minimum annual living wage from $600 (in 1905) to $1386.
1914-1918
World War I.
1919
Since the passage of the child labor provision in the federal tax code in April, child labor is reduced by 40 %, particularly in the coal mining and canning industries.
1920
Drug, toilet, and household preparations output for domestic consumption is $765 million, up from only $40 million in 1879.
1923
Father John A. Ryan initiates the Catholic Conference on Industrial Problems.
1929
The stock market crash helps usher in the Great Depression. Advertising spending plummets as unemployment rises. From its high of $3.5 billion, ad spending sinks to $1.5 billion by 1933.
1936
Life magazine publishes its first edition. It later becomes the first magazine to carry $100 million annually in advertising.
1938
Radio surpasses magazines as a source of advertising revenue
1941
With 7,500 TV sets in New York City, NBC's WNBT begins telecasting July 1. The first TV ad spots feature a ticking Bulova watch.
1942
The War Advertising Council is organized to help prepare voluntary advertising campaigns for wartime efforts. The council garners $350 million in free public service messages. After the war it is renamed the Advertising Council.
1941-1945
World War II.
1940s
Madison Avenue begins targeting messages and products to the "teenager," as a specific consumer group.
