AMC
These clippings were taken directly from the era, and they provide a strikingly accurate representation of what the characters would eventually become.
The mood boards can currently be seen in full at the "Mad Men" exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image, which runs until June 14.
Here are a few of the mood boards:
Don Draper (Jon Hamm) would fit in well with most of the men who worked on Madison Avenue at the time.
Museum of the Moving Image
Museum of the Moving Image
It looks like glasses were supposed to be a big part of Peggy Olson's (Elisabeth Moss) look, despite the fact she never wears a single pair during the show's run.
Museum of the Moving Image
The Draper House in Ossining was designed to look like a typical post-World War II suburban home.
Museum of the Moving Image
Museum of the Moving Image
Though "Mad Men" kicks off in 1960, the kitchen in the home the Drapers occupy during the show's first three seasons is "decorated in a colonial style that was common in the 1950s."
According to the Museum, creator Matthew Weiner "felt it was important - and more natural - to create a visual world that suggested a continuity with the past." In the "imagined backstory," the kitchen was remodeled in 1957.
Even their bathroom was ripped right out of that time period.
Ian Phillips/Business Insider
Ian Phillips/Business Insider
Megan moves to LA in the late 1960s around the time of Manson. A popular theory arose two years ago that Megan Draper is Sharon Tate, and would meet a similar, tragic fate. While "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner himself disproved the theory, Manson and Tate no doubt had influence on the show's later seasons.
The mood boards, and many other pieces of "Mad Men" history, are currently at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York through June 14.