Announcement of New Collection on American Memory

[Danna Bell-Russel]

Good Afternoon,

This announcement is being sent to a number of lists; please accept our
apologies for any duplicate announcements.

Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy,
1921-1929, an online compilation made possible with the generous support

of Laurance S. and Mary French Rockefeller, assembles a broad array of
Library of Congress source materials documenting the prosperity of the
Coolidge years, the nation's transition to a mass consumer economy, and
the role of government in this transition.

The collection materials draw attention on the one hand to business
concerns, such as advertising, marketing, merchandising, and
industrialization, and on the other to popular notions about responsible

consumerism, thriftiness, and efficiency in the home. The collection
also focuses on President Coolidge’s idea of government, and on
Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover's standardization initiatives.
Other materials document groups that could not participate fully in the
emergent consumer economy, notably farmers and immigrants.  Collection
materials suggest connections among some of the key technological
developments, government structures,
social organizations, and cultural assumptions that worked together to
reinforce the mass consumer economy.

Among items of special interest are research studies and manuscript
materials that document the spending habits of African Americans, the
activities of African American businesses, and the northward migration
in search of better opportunities.  Other notable materials include
information on consumer activism; studies of urban and rural women as
consumers; selections from the papers of Edward L Bernays, a founding
father of public relations; and the diaries of White House physician
Joel T. Boone, giving his private view of the Coolidge family.

The collection is in a variety of formats and includes nearly 200
selections from twelve collections of personal papers and two
collections of institutional papers from the Manuscript Division of the
Library of Congress; 74 books, pamphlets, and legislative documents from

the General Collections, along with selections from 34 consumer and
trade journals; over 60 speeches by Coolidge, 8 of which are published
here for the first time; 181 photographs from the National Photo Company

Collection held by the Prints and Photographs Division; and 5 short
films and 7 audio selections of Coolidge speeches from the Motion
Picture, Broadcasting, and
Recorded Sound Division.

The collection is accompanied by an alphabetically arranged guide
providing information about prominent individuals, organizations,
concepts, and publications of the Coolidge era replete with hyperlink
pointers to collection materials.

Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer
Economy1921-1929 can be found at the following URL:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/coolhtml/coolhome.html

Please send any questions about this collection to NDLPCOLL at loc.gov.