Vintage Orvis Fishing Tackle

Charles Orvis was not the first American to open a tackle shop in the United States, but his little store in Manchester, Vermont, had an outsize impact on fishing, particularly on fly fishing. Founded in 1856, Orvis’ little shop sold goods to locals as well as anyone who would order through his catalog—he was the first mail-order retailer in the country. Further, his 1874 invention of a ventilated, upright, narrow-spool fly reel became the standard that is still largely followed to this day. Then, in 1892, when his daughter, Mary Orvis Marbury, published Favorite Flies and Their Histories, the Orvis company codified the look and behavior of flies, too. By the following year, Marbury was invited to show off her family’s flies at the Chicago World’s Fair. Half a century later, the company made its mark on split-cane fly rods, too, when it patented a bamboo rod that was waterproof and did not warp.