Vintage catalogs offer a window into the dreams and desires of Americans in the past. Benjamin Franklin is thought to have produced the first catalog in colonial America. His 1744 publication listed 600 academic
books available for purchase. Over 100 years later, luxury jewelry retailer
Tiffany & Co. published the first mail-order catalog in the United States, known as the "Blue Book."
But catalogs didn't become big business until the turn of the century. In the late 1860s, a young man named Aaron Montgomery Ward worked as a traveling salesman for Chicago-based dry-goods companies such as Field Palmer & Leiter, which would evolve into the Marshall Field & Co. department stores. On his many trips through the rural South and Midwest, Ward heard the complaints of farmers and small-town dwellers about their local general stores. The selection was generally limited but the biggest problem was that the products were often overpriced—the middle men who delivered goods to a store charged a steep markup, while store proprietors sold cash-poor farmer expensive things using high-interest credit, determining each item's price based on the customer's credit-worthiness.
Ward had the revolutionary idea of establishing a mail-order general-goods business that would eliminate the middle men and offer products to rural consumers at lower, set prices. Ward launched Montgomery Ward & Company in 1872, publishing a single sheet he wrote himself describing 163 items. His concept was a hit with shoppers, who picked up their goods at their nearest railroad depot. They soon dubbed Ward's ever-expanding catalog the "Wish Book." Naturally, it was loathed by the owners of rural stores.
More than a decade later, a railroad station agent named Richard Warren Sears ended up purchasing a discarded shipment of
watches, which led him to start a mail-order business in 1888 selling watches through a catalog. The following year, Alvah C. Roebuck joined the business, and in 1893, they...
Vintage catalogs offer a window into the dreams and desires of Americans in the past. Benjamin Franklin is thought to have produced the first catalog in colonial America. His 1744 publication listed 600 academic
books available for purchase. Over 100 years later, luxury jewelry retailer
Tiffany & Co. published the first mail-order catalog in the United States, known as the "Blue Book."
But catalogs didn't become big business until the turn of the century. In the late 1860s, a young man named Aaron Montgomery Ward worked as a traveling salesman for Chicago-based dry-goods companies such as Field Palmer & Leiter, which would evolve into the Marshall Field & Co. department stores. On his many trips through the rural South and Midwest, Ward heard the complaints of farmers and small-town dwellers about their local general stores. The selection was generally limited but the biggest problem was that the products were often overpriced—the middle men who delivered goods to a store charged a steep markup, while store proprietors sold cash-poor farmer expensive things using high-interest credit, determining each item's price based on the customer's credit-worthiness.
Ward had the revolutionary idea of establishing a mail-order general-goods business that would eliminate the middle men and offer products to rural consumers at lower, set prices. Ward launched Montgomery Ward & Company in 1872, publishing a single sheet he wrote himself describing 163 items. His concept was a hit with shoppers, who picked up their goods at their nearest railroad depot. They soon dubbed Ward's ever-expanding catalog the "Wish Book." Naturally, it was loathed by the owners of rural stores.
More than a decade later, a railroad station agent named Richard Warren Sears ended up purchasing a discarded shipment of
watches, which led him to start a mail-order business in 1888 selling watches through a catalog. The following year, Alvah C. Roebuck joined the business, and in 1893, they renamed the company Sears, Roebuck & Company, and began to expand its offerings. In 1894, the Sears catalog was 322 pages of products including
sewing machines,
bicycles, and
cars. Two years later, it also offered groceries,
stoves, and
dolls. People in the industry started to refer to the Sears catalog as "The Consumers' Bible."
In 1902, the United States Postal Service established Rural Free Delivery, which meant that Americans in the country could now get their catalog goods sent directly to their homes. Eventually, both Montgomery Ward and Sears established walk-in department stores as well. But the catalogs held a sway for people in rural communities, who could create whole fantasies from the pages herein. Between 1908 and 1940, a family could even purchase ready-to-build kit homes. Starting in 1933, Sears published a special
Christmas catalog known as the "Sears Wishbook," which focused on
toys and gifts.
The success of Ward and Sears inspired all sorts of specialized businesses to offer their products through mail-order catalogs during the 20th century. These catalogs focused on
tractors,
tools and hardware, industrial supplies, cars,
motorcycles,
lighting, or bicycles. You could also buy livestock, seeds, windmills,
musical instruments, toys,
cameras,
pottery, clothing,
lingerie,
furniture,
horse saddles,
locks, and guns via mail order. Many collectors like to own the catalogs that originally advertised key items in their collections.
Even more specialized catalogs sold parts and goods to industries, like the
railroad companies or competitive automobile racers. DeMouln & Bros., now known for its marching band uniforms, used to offer costumes, regalia, and pranks to
fraternal orders. Another catalog that was meant for select eyes was 1901's Gambols with Ghosts: Mind Reading, Spiritualistic Effects, Mental and Psychical Phenomena and Horoscopy. This publication, circulated by Ralph E. Sylvestre, offered
spooky séance illusions to fraudulent Spiritualist mediums.
Other vintage catalogs were intended to be used in-store, to let customers pick the color or fabric for a custom-made product.
Sewing pattern books by companies like McCall's and Butterick helped sewers locate the patterns they wanted in numbered drawers within a store.
