Resources
Postcards & Posters
Prudential advertising poster used extensively at the British Empire Exhibition of 1924. Jigsaw puzzles, playing cards, bookmarks and other promotional novelties were distributed at the Prudential's stand to draw attention to the Company's products.
This programme from the Prudential Annual Dinner features a silhouette of Prudence. In Renaissance art, Prudence was often depicted with a lion in order to illustrate the courage required to live in the present. Prudence combines the three qualities of memoria (preserving the past), intelligentia (understanding the present) and providentia (looking forward to the future).
Prudential calendar dated 1903. Prudence – one of the four Cardinal Virtues – is depicted with her trademark convex mirror, serpent and arrow. The mirror symbolises self-examination and a resulting humility. The serpent, an emblem of wisdom, is twined around an arrow, representing purpose or direction: together these suggest wisdom-in-action or prudence.
The Ambassador of Thrift: Prudential advertising poster dated 1946. Prudential's industrial business emphasised personal visits and soon became known as 'home service'.
Prudential staff in Clive Buildings, Calcutta, 1930s.
Prudential began life business in India in 1923.
Commemorative Annual Dinner programme from 1919. The cover depicts Prudential's former Head Office at Holborn Bars, designed by the famous Victorian architect Sir Alfred Waterhouse. The building opened in 1879 and featured the latest innovations such as electricity, telephones and a pneumatic tube messaging system.
A Prudential calendar depicting Holborn Bars and regional offices designed by the architect Sir Alfred Waterhouse. Between 1879 and 1904 twenty-one regional offices were built in cities such as Liverpool, Glasgow, Cardiff, Nottingham and Plymouth. All featured the same trademark gothic style and gave the Company a distinctive corporate identity.
"My Old Section": Prudential agents photographed in 1902. The first Prudential agents were appointed in 1848, the year in which the Company was founded. By 1900 the Prudential employed 10,000 agents, and between them they had sold insurance products to one third of the British population.
The first Prudential advertising poster created in 1852 and displayed in railway stations throughout Britain. The poster depicts Ludgate Hill, Prudential's headquarters between 1851 and 1863.

