Title: Wallace Meyer Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1905-1946

Creator:

• Meyer, Wallace, b. ca. 1890

Call Number: U.S. Mss 29AF

Quantity: 2.0 c.f. (5 archives boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Papers of an advertising executive who was president of the firm Reincke, Meyer, and Finn. The collection includes material on two important clients--the American Chain and Cable Co. and the Western Association of Railway Executives. There is also documentation on two early accounts--the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, on which Meyer worked for the J. Walter Thompson Co. in 1916, and Kimberly-Clark for which he served as account manager while with the Charles F.W. Nichols Co., 1920-1923. Included are correspondence and memoranda, proposals, reports on activities, and samples of advertising, some of which (including the first Kotex ads) have been annotated to demonstrate campaign development.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0029af

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Alfred Wallace Meyer, Chicago advertising executive, was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He was a reporter and city editor for the Oshkosh Northwestern from 1908-1912. In 1916 he received his A.B. degree from the University of Wisconsin, School of Journalism, and was employed in Chicago as a copywriter by the J. Walter Thompson advertising company. In 1917-1918 he served as advertising manager for the H. W. Gossard Company and from 1918-1919 was a member of the Signal Corps of the U. S. Army. Dropping his first name, he has been known in the advertising profession simply as Wallace Meyer for many years.

From 1919-1925 he was copywriter and account manager for the Charles F. W. Nichols Company, and in 1925 he joined the Chicago advertising firm of Reincke-Ellis-Younggreen and Finn. The firm's name was shortened to Reincke, Meyer and Finn in 1944, when Wallace Meyer became its president.

The Wallace Meyer Papers consist chiefly of material relating to three large and significant advertising accounts which were handled by Meyer: American Chain and Cable Company, Western Railroads, and Kotex. Included in the collection are proposals, recommendations, and plans of action; inter-office memoranda and correspondence; reports and summaries of publicity activities; and samples and proof pages of advertising. In each case the material presents a full picture of the development of each of the campaigns, from its inception to final form. For instance, while employed by the Charles F. W. Nichols agency, Wallace Meyer had the distinction of being the composer and designer of the first Kotex advertisements. He has carefully annotated the Kotex materials, which include the very first ads, in order to present a clear account of the development of advertising for that product.

The collection has been arranged according to suggestions Meyer included in a letter to Barbara Kaiser of the Historical Society staff, 21 September 1960.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Wallace Meyer, Chicago, Illinois, December 15, 1960.

	Series: Miscellaneous Materials
Box   1 Folder   1	Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad study, 1916, August. Scope and Content Note: A study, for promotional purposes, of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad prepared by A. W. Prussing and A. W. Meyer, when Meyer was starting his advertising career with J. Walter Thompson Co.
Box   1 Folder   2	Ned Jordan, 1946, May Scope and Content Note: Material concerning Ned (Edward S.) Jordan, author of the book on advertising, The Inside Story of Adam and Eve, including a letter from Wallace Meyer to Ned Jordan, a longhand reply from Jordan, and a copy of a letter from Joseph H. Finn to Jordan, all written in May, 1946.
Box   1 Folder   3	Booklet, “A Brief Accont of Advertising Agency Service as Offered by Reincke, Meyer and Finn, Inc.”
Box   1 Folder   4	Pamphlet, “Clients of Reincke, Meyer and Finn.”
	Series: American Chain and Cable Company, 1905-1946.	⇧
	Advertising recommendations, conference reports and inter-office memoranda,
Box   1 Folder   5	1925.
Box   1 Folder   6	1927-1928.
Box   1 Folder   7	1929-1930.
Box   1 Folder   8	1931-1932.
Box   1 Folder   9	1933.
Box   1 Folder   10	1934-1935.
Box   1 Folder   11	Market Analysis for Weed Chains in 10 Major Trading Areas and 41 Secondary Market Areas, n.d.
Box   2 Folder   1	Advertisements, 1931.
Box   2 Folder   2	Weed Chain advertisements, 1905-1946.
Box   2 Folder   3	Preformed Wire Rope advertising, 1933, 1934.
	Series: Western Railroads, 1935-1936.	⇧
Box   3 Folder   1	Letter and original Plan of Action soliciting Western Railroads' advertising, 1935.
Box   3 Folder   2	Docket of advertisements; radio, article and merchandising copy; Western Railroad Week copy; copy ideas, 1935.
Box   3 Folder   3	Conference reports, inter-office memoranda, 1935.
Box   3 Folder   4	Memoranda, newspaper copy, Railroad Week.
Box   4 Folder   1	Reports Scope and Content Note: Proof Book, 1935, containing report of the Executive Committee; complete report on the campaign by the advertising agency; financial summary of expenditure in campaign; how publicity releases were organized and distributed; detailed story of Railroad Week, exhibits of releases, etc.; distributions of advertising in newspapers, magazines, policy publications, farm papers and radio; complete list of newspapers with dates of insertions, exhibits of advertisements, folders, etc.
Box   3 Folder   5	Summary of newspaper publicity for Western Railroads and the Pullman Company, 1936.
Box   3 Folder   6	Report on advertising and publicity, Western Railroads and the Pullman Company, 1936.
Box   4 Folder   2	Proof book containing publicity releases, 1936.
	Series: Kotex, 1920-1923.	⇧
Box   4 Folder   3	Exhibit of Kotex advertisements, folders, etc.
Box   5 Folder   1	First Kotex advertising file, 1920, 1921 Scope and Content Note: Included are two broadsides containing the first Kotex advertisements and the negative of the first Kotex advertisement placed and delivered to the Ladies Home Journal but recalled by the agency because of the presence of men in the illustration.
Box   5 Folder   2	Work proofs of Kotex advertisements.