Drucker & Baltes Co., Billboard photograph collection, circa 1918-1934

The 904 glass plate and film negatives in this collection were taken by Drucker & Baltes for the General Outdoor Advertising Company, a billboard company that was formed in 1925 through the merger of the Fulton Group and Thomas Cusack Company. The photographs record the advertisers who bought billboard space at thirteen sites in Manhattan and two sites in the Bronx. The views focus on signs but also show surrounding buildings, elevated railroads, and street activity at such heavily traveled intersections as Broadway and Seventh Avenue (Times Square), Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, Sixth Avenue at 27th Street, Eight Avenue at 110th Street, 125th Street in Harlem, and Third Avenue at 166th Street in the Bronx. The same sites appear repeatedly, sometimes monthly, during the 1920s and into the Great Depression. The photographs reveal changes in both the neighborhoods and in the advertising for many products, among them Chesterfield cigarettes, Wrigley's chewing gum, and Pepsodent toothpaste.