Vintage Albuquerque Print Ads: 1960-1970
J. Padilla
4/23/20261 min read
MidMod Home Tour guests got the first glimpse of my new hallway art display: a passion project shaped by many hours spent combing digital newspaper archives and lightly restoring these ads from 1960 to 1970.
It was hard to narrow it down to fit my wall space for nine frames (I’m sneaking in a few extras into here). The designs, typefaces, images, and long-gone businesses all seemed to carry a trace of another Albuquerque. One that felt more elegant, polished, hopeful, and perhaps a little more ceremonious.
Stepping back into those pages felt like visiting a city before my time, yet still deeply familiar. It was a period of growth and change, when downtown still held its ground, even as shopping options spread or relocated to Nob Hill and then the large Winrock and Coronado shopping centers.
In an age of instant shopping, there was something deeply nostalgic about revisiting the old ritual of browsing storefronts, waiting for grand openings, and discovering the city one ad at a time.
