Julian P. Kanter Political Commercial Archive

The Julian P. Kanter Political Commercial Archive has been designated an official project by Save America's Treasures.

[2] From his time working in television, Kanter observed that most political ads were thrown away after their election cycles had ended because the candidates' campaigns often didn't ask for them back.

In 1985, the University of Oklahoma and the Smithsonian Institution competed to purchase Kanter's archive, which at this point contained over 25,000 commercials.

[2] Though money was part of his decision, other reasons that Kanter cited were that he liked the idea of a multi-disciplinary facility working in political communication.

Another reason was that the University of Oklahoma offered to make him curator of the archive and made him an adjunct professor of political communication; contributing to education was something he'd always wanted.