March 23rd is National Agriculture Day, and has been since 1973, when the date was established along

March 23rd is National Agriculture Day, and has been since 1973, when the date was established alongside its sponsor, the Agriculture Council of America. But prior to National Ag Day, we had ‘Tommy Looks at Farming’, a ca. 1962 comic produced by the B.F. Goodrich Company to inform young people about “the vital role of agriculture in our health, economy, and security” and, of course, the importance of B.F. Goodrich Company products to that system.

This comic is Pam 2017.0810 in Hagley Library’s Published Collections, and is included in a collection of other promotional comic books in our Digital Archive. The items in this digital collection offer a selection of the promotional comic books held in our collection.

These works were generally, though not always, produced by corporations and other business entities for the purposes of advertising a product, managing a company’s public image, or providing consumer education. A number of these works were also produced with the goal of influencing public opinion regarding socioeconomic political issues such as organized labor and government regulation of businesses. Click here to view the digital collection online now.