Communication Artifacts are created as expressions of human thought. They include advertisements, art, ceremonial and documentary artifacts, exchange media, and personal symbols. Advertising artifacts are objects that were created to call attention to products, services, or events. Art objects are those created to express ideas, values, or attitudes through images, symbols, and abstractions. Ceremonial artifacts are created for carrying on governmental, fraternal, religious, or other organized activities. Documentary artifacts are meant to convey a point of view or a set of ideas, often the aim of enlightening or swaying the attitude of people. Exchange media include objects such as coins, currency, postage stamps, or bus tokens.
Examples of Communication Artifacts in the Mayborn Museum collection include:
- The E. Butterick & Co. Catalogue for Winter 1890-'91, which advertised that “any of the patterns illustrated in this catalogue also hundreds of others, comprising every kind of garment work by ladies, misses, girls, boys, little children and infants can be obtained of Mary A. Files, Texas Street, Shreveport, Louisiana,”
- An oil painting of two ships at sea done by Ms. Ella Burleson when she was a student at Baylor University in 1886,
- A Bible, originally found in the basement of a Waco home, which has written on the cover page “Josh Osborn on April 22, 1832 purchased it with reward tickets at Sunday School. Joseph Osborn and Jerusha Osborn."
- A commemorative medal from the Texas Cotton Exhibition held in Waco in 1894
- The personal seal of William Carey Crane, President of Baylor University from 1864 to 1885.