“This Sneeze Was for Science,” a new exhibit in the Rubenstein Library, mines the Consumer Reports collection to entertain and educate viewers on the work of Consumer Reports and the role of photography in communicating information.
Consumer Reports is a nonprofit organization that tests and investigates various products to inform consumers about their safety and effectiveness. In 2019, Duke’s John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising and Marketing History acquired Consumer Reports’ archives, a collection of artifacts, documents, footage and photographs documenting Consumer Reports’ history. The archive is vast, encompassing a total of 2,800 linear feet, and includes a 130 linear-foot collection of photos known as the Iconographic Collection, from which the exhibit’s photos were drawn.
According to Steven Kramer, the Consumer Reports exhibit assistant and digitization coordinator, he has been working part-time on the exhibit for about a year as part of his broader work with the consumer reports collection. In assembling the exhibit, Kramer wanted to create a “billboard for the collection” that drew in new visitors while also being interesting and educational in its own right…