Forget 'Mad Men', here's what the women of Madison Avenue really looked like in the 1960s

Peggy Olson is depicted as the sole female copywriter to wander the halls of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce in the "Mad Men" series' depiction of advertising in the 1960s, but women had actually been working in the industry for decades.

Click here to see the real 'Mad Women'>

JWT (then J. Walter Thompson) published a booklet in 1963 titled "Advertising: A Career For Women," to lure college women to Madison Avenue-and not just for its secretarial pool.

JWT kindly agreed to let us excerpt the booklet (as well as its male-oriented booklet, "Advertising: A Career For Exceptional Men," and gave us access to its photo archive. The images and the text form a stunning historic record of the real women of the "Mad Men" era. The final series of "Mad Men" premieres on AMC on April 5.

Laura Stampler originally compiled this post.