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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
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”
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
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
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
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
“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”
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
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
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”
