A 1912 print advertisement featuring the Arrow Collar Man. Bettmann/Corbis. Reproduced by permission.

Appearing in hundreds of print advertisements between 1905 and 1930, the Arrow Collar Man presented an iconic image—the ideal representation of a handsome, athletic, self-confident male. Even President Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) described him as a superb portrait of the "common man." The Arrow Collar Man was used to sell more than four hundred varieties of detachable collars. In the early decades of the twentieth century, most men's shirts still had detachable collars, often made of celluloid. (Celluloid was the first synthetic plastic [see entry under 1900s—Commerce in volume 1]. Made from cellulose and camphor, other plastics replaced celluloid because it was highly flammable.) The Arrow Collar achieved widespread brand recognition to become an advertising icon; if a man wore an Arrow Collar, he must be like that handsome, athletic, self-confident Arrow Collar Man...