For the past three years, our Archives & Special Collections staff have worked with William H. Hannon Library student workers to collaboratively create summer exhibits for the “From Their Perspective” series. This year, the theme of the summer exhibit was modern advertising postcards from the 1990s and early 2000s. The exhibit highlighted student selections from our LMU postcards collection presenting a wide range of topics, such as apparel, entertainment, charities, and social issues.
Library student employee Christiana Davis recently worked with Special Collections Metadata Librarian, Rachel Wen-Paloutzian, to select postcards and write display caption for the summer exhibit. After viewing and exploring postcards of various topics, Davis chose postcards representing alcohol advertisements.
“Whatever caught my eye, I immediately picked out of the pile,” Davis said of her selection process. “I made sure that each one selected varied from the others and was unique in its own way. I hope that people will understand that marketing and alcohol [companies] don’t always have the best meaning or intent for consumers- especially adolescent youth.” Davis also considered selecting postcards of clothing and technology, but ultimately decided upon alcohol advertisements because “I feel that the marketing that surrounds drinking can sometimes affect the wrong people.”
Of the experience working with archival materials and participating in the summer exhibit, Davis noted, “I did enjoy the experience very much! It was something new, and different. I appreciated it.”