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This Montgomery Wards electronics catalog from 1948 assembles the vital components of a rudimentary home theater system. Just how rudimentary? Continue reading Introducing the Home Theater
By the time the 1970s rolled around, trading stamps offered ever-broader ranges of merchandise redeemable if you just acquired enough trading stamps while shopping at your local retailers: glassware…or a clock radio…or a car! Continue reading Yours for only 1067 books of trading stamps
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
Butler Brothers General Wholesale Catalog, 1935, Supplier of items for your general store. This page intrigues me because of none of the things pictured exist any more, either specifically or generally… Continue reading Four Things that Don’t Exist Any More
From the pre-computer, pre word-processing days of 1961, this budget-priced portable typewriter was specifically for students or “adults just learning to type.” Continue reading Not Yet a Laptop
In 1997 the action in mail order was found in specialty retailers, of which there’s hardly a better example than Williams-Sonoma. Founded in 1956, Charles Williams discovered that it’s not about what we need in the kitchen, but what we want… Continue reading Chocolate Cigars and Caviar Spoons
John B Smyth was a Chicago wholesaler of nearly everything you would need to stock a turn-of-the-20th-century general store. They offered tinned foods, teas, cigars, chocolates, soaps, dried fruits, housewares, shoe polish – even “Rump Butt Beef”…. Continue reading Meat by Mail
Mid-century modern is not as common in mid-century catalogs as you might expect. This 1952 Glidden catalog is designed to help the housewife with solid ideas on how how to paint her home in Niagara Green ceilings and Diamond-colored walls… Continue reading Mid-Century Modern design creeps into your paint
So what were we reading exactly one hundred years ago? Skimming through the ads, you can’t help but notice the urgent headlines promoting books about the Great War — what we now call World War One…. Continue reading What We Were Reading 100 Years Ago…
One hundred and fifteen years ago, it was understood by one and all that finer homes deserved having a reed organ in their parlor. If you wanted music, you had to play it yourself… Continue reading Every home deserves an organ
