Johns-Manville and Asbestos Industry Advertisements for Ships, Runways and Everyday Uses (1963–1976)

A 27-page set of advertisements, many marked by hand with years from 1963 to 1976. Most are Johns-Manville marine ads for Marinite bulkhead panels, Marine Veneer and Microlite insulation, placed in U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings and marine catalogs ("Fire-safe Johns-Manville Marinite serves aboard U.S. Naval vessels," "Marinite-23 can put the Navy at ease," and "Never again," which recalls the S.S. Morro Castle fire of 1934). Others advertise J-M's Asbaltic runway overlays and Hot Mix Membrane with reply cards (1976), "Asbestos in the Arctic" from Asbestos magazine, a run of "Asbestos" ads by J-M and by the Asbestos Information Association/North America for brake linings, theater curtains, trains, water pipe and hospitals, and French and English ads by Asbestos Corporation Limited.

What it shows

The 1970s ads share a closing line: "Without asbestos, life for all of us would be a lot more hazardous." They ran in Business Week, Forbes, Newsweek, Time and U.S. News & World Report while the industry's health record was under public attack. One J-M ad, "We're betting $77 million on the future of Asbestos," describes the company's Quebec mine expansion and an advertising program, because "the truth about asbestos must be told." One ad in the set is also in the Library on its own: Asbestos. It provides insurance against operating in the dark.