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The Catalog Blog

Cool things from 20th-century American Catalogs

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Category: 1910s

High Technology in Education – 1918 style
Posted on September 3, 2018September 2, 2018

Victor Records, 1918
High Technology in Education – 1918 style

Schools can fall prone to gadget envy just like the rest of us. In 1918 this must have involved buying Victrola record players and finding ways to use 78rpm records in educational situations. Continue reading High Technology in Education – 1918 style

“Ives Toys make Happy Boys”
Posted on August 2, 2018August 1, 2018

Ives Toys, 1912
“Ives Toys make Happy Boys”

I had a train set as a boy, which mostly just went round and round once you snapped the track together. It needed considerable imagination and lying flat on the floor with your eyes as close to the tracks as possible to bring it to life…. Continue reading “Ives Toys make Happy Boys”

Just the Thing for Automobiling
Posted on June 30, 2018

Perry, Dame, & Co, 1915
Just the Thing for Automobiling

1915-era Outfits suitable for women who ventured outdoors in a motorcar. Looks like they would be hot in summer… Continue reading Just the Thing for Automobiling

A Jewel of a Watch
Posted on June 25, 2018

Albert Brothers Jewelry, 1916
A Jewel of a Watch

This Cincinnati wholesale jeweler’s catalog boasts many pages of rings and other jewelry, and a few stunning color pages like this one of Howard watches. Continue reading A Jewel of a Watch

Jewelry Suggestions for 1918
Posted on April 9, 2018April 9, 2018

Sears, 1918
Jewelry Suggestions for 1918

Sears Special Sale Bulletin, 1918: If you’re not in the market for a man's wristwatch, how about a diamond ring for a mere $10? Granted the gold is 14 carat, and the diamond is 1/8 carat — well, almost. Zoom in to read Sears’ remarkably-honest fine-print copy… Continue reading Jewelry Suggestions for 1918

“All you could wish for” in a 1914 camera
Posted on February 1, 2018January 31, 2018

Kodak, 1914
“All you could wish for” in a 1914 camera

Ease, convenience, quality, reliability – these are features any gadget aspires to. Eastman Kodak placed those attributes on the first page of their Premo camera catalog of 1914. They were valuable attributes in 1914; they are valuable attributes in the 21st century. What’s changed us how we measure these attributes…. Continue reading “All you could wish for” in a 1914 camera

“…just settled down for a long winter’s nap”
Posted on December 25, 2017December 25, 2017

Perry, Dame, & Co Fall & Winter, 1916
“…just settled down for a long winter’s nap”

“We do not handle anything but wearing apparel for Women, Misses, and Children, and on this account we think we are better equipped than any other Mail Order House we know of to furnish you with clothing best suited to your individual needs.” That includes winter pajamas. Continue reading “…just settled down for a long winter’s nap”

Closer to Victoria than Victoria’s Secret
Posted on November 27, 2017November 26, 2017

Montgomery Wards, 1915
Closer to Victoria than Victoria’s Secret

Sexy Montgomery Ward, 1915 style: The first page of five showing off women’s “Union Suits” that would keep Her warm during the cold winter months. It reveals more about the female shape than was usually seen in public. Continue reading Closer to Victoria than Victoria’s Secret

The roots of Multi Level Marketing
Posted on October 2, 2017October 22, 2017

Lee Manufacturing, 1912
The roots of Multi Level Marketing

Long before Avon, before Mary Kay, before Tupperware, before Herbalife, before a hundred other companies, there were multi-level marketing pioneers like Lee Manufacturing… Continue reading The roots of Multi Level Marketing

“An outfit for the person…who doesn’t believe in wireless”
Posted on August 24, 2017March 28, 2018

Electro Importing, 1917
“An outfit for the person…who doesn’t believe in wireless”

There’s nothing in this hundred-year-old illustration that anyone today would recognize as a radio, but that is in fact what you are looking at. As we see again and again in catalogs, early technology was often awkward an unrefined. And yet it was also magic… Continue reading “An outfit for the person…who doesn’t believe in wireless”

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We're celebrating all the abundance and excitement found in vintage 20th century American catalogs: the exotic, the fashionable, the surprising, the latest, the coolest, the cheapest, the oddest, the choices.

Not just Sears and Montgomery Wards, You could buy anything from a catalog in the 20th century: from a box of raisins to a house, from a computer to a car, from a billy club to an inflatable brassiere. The old-time printed catalogues which arrived in the mailbox showed the 20th-century American Consumer just how to consume.

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