As an update to last year’s newsletter, Dr. Pamela Laird’s book, Advertising Progress: American Business and the Rise of Consumer Marketing (1998) is now available online as a digital edition.  Johns Hopkins University Press, in partnership with Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries, received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities to create digital editions of more than 200 significant but currently out-of-print scholarly books published by the press.

Because Laird’s book was selected, the book is now accessible, for free, through MUSE Open. MUSE Open is a publishing initiative of Project MUSE. Project MUSE’s mission seeks to “promote the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars worldwide.” Of important interest to highlight is that the original color plates Laird includes in her book are available in color for the online edition. There are eight in all, in addition to the black and white images throughout the book. Further, there are no restrictions to accessing the book online. Online editions such as Laird’s book are great resources for scholars and academics alike.

You can access the online edition of Advertising Progress: American Business and the Rise of Consumer Marketing here.