Back in the early days of the Cold War, surviving a nuclear holocaust didn’t seem out of the question at all. As this January 1951 advertisement of the Mutual of Omaha—“The largest exclusive health and accident company in the world”—proclaims, “Whatever your attitude toward use of the atomic bomb you must live with the fact that ...

The Foote Bros. Gear and Machine Corporation of Chicago, Illinois started business in the 1920s but really took off during World War II when the company moved into a larger factory to produce, among other things, gears for Pratt and Whitney engines used in military planes and in blimps that flew over US Naval convoys. As ...

“Can US Air Power Prevent a War?” The answer, according to this May 1974 United Aircraft Corporation advertisement, “lies in how consistently America pursues a sound peacetime Air Power policy.”...

This July 1944 advertisement of Jenkins Valves—“For every industrial, engineering, marine and plumbing-heating service”— bears a striking resemblance to a photograph we featured recently of workers at the US Steel Company in the late 1940s. The ad boasts that, “When victory comes, it will be won by fighting men—men superbly trained and armed to the teeth ...