The Art of Selling Cereal

Mothers have been putting bowls of Cream of Wheat on the breakfast table since 1902. To ensure the proliferation of that hearty breakfast food, the company employed artists to help sell the product.

The Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard will open a spring exhibition Sunday with “Nabisco Brands Collection of Illustration Art.”

During the first half of this century, the Cream of Wheat Co. and Nabisco enlisted American illustrators to launch advertising campaigns for their products in magazines. The illustrators, including Frederick Stanley and John G. Scott, were asked to create images of Americana marked with their personal style.

On exhibit through May 20 are 40 original works from a forgotten collection of 1,600, rediscovered in 1980 after being put in storage for many years.

Also on display will be “Voyaging Through Ancient Greece,” an exhibition of 17th- and 18th-Century engraved maps of Greece and the Mediterranean by French and Dutch publishers.

Several of the hand-colored illustrations trace the voyages of Greek mythological heroes.

The gallery is at 424 S. C St., Oxnard, and is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free. For information, call 984-4649.