Gallery and Further Exploration

The Smithsonian Institution stewards other collections related to the subject of the history of cosmetics and personal care products. In this section, you can browse a gallery of images documenting some of those collections, as well as find links to the collections.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture has artifacts related to African American cosmetics and beauty culture. You can find out more here:

http://nmaahc.si.edu/

Here are a few further images of some of those artifacts:

The Archives Center at the National Museum of American History has several archival collections related to the history of cosmetics and personal care products. These collections are especially strong in regard to documenting advertising materials that were created to promote products. The Archives Center provided many of the advertising images used throughout this Object Group. Archives Center collections of particular relevance to the study of American beauty and hygiene products are:

• Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
• Revlon Advertising Collection, 1936-1986, Archives Center, National Museum of American History. Gift of Martin Stevens
• African-American Cosmetic and Food Label Collection, 1934-1946, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
• The Sandra and Gary Baden Collection of Celebrity Endorsements in Advertising, 1897-1979, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
• Breck Girls Collection, ca. 1936-1995, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
• Ivory Soap Collection, 1883-1990, Archives Center, National Museum of American History. Gift of Procter & Gamble
• N W Ayer Advertising Agency Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
• Cover Girl Advertising Oral History & Documentation Project, 1959-1990, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

For more, see: http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives or http://sova.si.edu/