The Architect of Modern Advertising The landscape of American commerce shifts in the late 19th century. In 1864, a young man named James Walter Thompson enters the offices of Carlton & Smith. He begins as a bookkeeper, a man of ledgers and precise entries. The transition from recording numbers to soliciting sales happens with a steady, relentless momentum. By 1877, the agency is no longer just a place of employment; it is his own. He renames it the James Walter Thompson Company, and the name begins to carry weight across the expanding American market. Thompson does not merely sell products;…