• Compare past and present methods of advertising
• Utilize the Virtual City-St. Louis website
• Analyze Primary Sources
• Identify the effect advertising has on society
• Create an advertisement showing the important aspects of St. Louis economy in the 1850s

Show Me Standards CA5, SS6, SS7; 1.4, 1.8, 2.1

Process: In a study of Pre-Civil War America

• Brainstorm the ways information was exchanged in the past.
• Visit the Mercantile Exchange building in the 1850s model of the virtual St. Louis site to find the collection of business advertisements. Have students choose one ad to analyze. Possible questions:
• What is shown in the picture on your ad?
• What size is the picture? Why do you think it was made that way?
• List the important information given in your ad.
• Why would this information have been included?
• Who is the audience for this ad?
• What does the ad tell you about St. Louis in the 1850s?
• Have students work with a partner to compare their ads. Compare the answers to the questions and make graphic organizers showing similarities and differences between the two ads. What details are specific to each ad? What information is common to both?
• Present the graphic organizers to the class and discuss findings.
• Visit the 1850s model again. This time allow students to travel through the city. Instruct students to choose an interesting building.
• Students should describe the building and give any identifying information.
• Students will then create an ad for the building using the information found and the example from the Mercantile Exchange collection as an example. The ad must show the importance of the business to St. Louis.
• Conclude with presentations and discussion on the effect of advertising in the past as well as today.

Click here for student instructions (page 1)
Click here for student instructions (page 2)

• Suggested Resource: Discovering the American Past, 4th Edition Volume II, William Bruce Wheeler, Susan Decker Houghton Mifflin 1998