| | Abstract: | Wattenmaker Advertising evolved from a business enterprise founded by Jacob Wattenmaker (1894-1968), a Cleveland, Ohio, area businessman and philanthropist. Wattenmaker began his career as owner of a wholesale dry goods store in Cleveland in the 1920s. He then became merchandising manager of Bailey Co., a clothing store. In 1932 he founded his own chain of dress shops and was later named managing director of the Cleveland Fur Institute and Executive Secretary of the Cleveland Fashion Institute. He was a lecturer in merchandising, commerce, and public relations at several area schools, including Fenn College, Cleveland College, and John Carroll University. Subsequently, Wattenmaker opened a public relations and merchandising counseling office which evolved into Wattenmaker Advertising, Inc. after World War II. Wattenmaker Advertising specialized in food and real estate campaigns. Some of its larger campaigns were for the Northern Ohio Food Terminal, the Dry Cleaners Guild, and Zinner's, a flower shop. In 1965, Wattenmaker Advertising won the first Cleveland Advertising Club's Horace C. Treharne Medal for its campaign for the Sandusky Distributing Co. Following Jacob Wattenmaker's death in 1968, control of the company was given to his son, James. The collection consists of advertisements, press releases, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, and scrapbooks. | |
