The Mark: Graphic Design and Consumer Culture Since 1800

April 1 - May 11, 2024

Through a close look at historical prints and objects, this exhibit traces the evolution of graphic design, telling a story of how trademarks became meaningful symbols of trust and reputation in American consumer culture. In advertisements, package designs, and creative logos, advertising professionals learned to use eye-catching visuals and salient cultural references to speak to the public through print media. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, they refined these strategies, helping to create America’s modern consumer society. This exhibit coincides with the publication of Jennifer Black’s book, Branding Trust: Advertising & Trademarks in Nineteenth-Century America (University of Pennsylvania Press, Dec. 2023)

Author and Misericordia History Professor Jennifer M. Black gave a gallery talk about her book that inspired the exhibit.

In the early nineteenth century, the American commercial marketplace was a chaotic, unregulated environment in which knock-offs and outright frauds thrived. Appearances could be deceiving, and entrepreneurs often relied on their personal reputations to close deals and make sales. Rapid industrialization and expanding trade routes opened new markets with enormous potential, but how could distant merchants convince potential customers, whom they had never met, that they could be trusted? Through wide-ranging visual and textual evidence, including a robust selection of early advertisements, Branding Trust tells the story of how advertising evolved to meet these challenges, tracing the themes of character and class as they intertwined with and influenced graphic design, trademark law, and ideas about ethical business practice in the United States.