montgomery ward catalog 1880montgomery ward catalog 1880

It can refer either to the defunct mail order and department store retailer, which operated between 1872 and 2000, or to the current catalog and online retailer also known as Wards. So why was plank framing developed? . Just think what life was like in rural America before and after the mail-order catalog. As folks of the Baby Boom generation will recall, the company had one last run left in them, as they rebuilt their infrastructure, opened fancy new department stores in the countrys rapidly sprouting suburban shopping malls, and produced upwards of 45 million catalogs a year: a big spring and fall issue, and a bunch of specialized issues: Automotive, Christmas, Farm & Garden, Photographic, Sporting Goods, Toys, and even Power Tools, among others (most were still produced by Wards longtime Chicago printing partner, R. R. Donnelley). By following the easy-to-read instructions, farmers could build their barns on their own. 1980 Montgomery Ward Christmas Book 496 pages. Aaron Ward proved a low-key, highly effective copywriterthe greatest who had ever appealed to farmers, author Cecil C. Hoge wrote in his 1988 book, The First Hundred Years are the Toughest: What We Can Learn About the Century of Competition Between Sears and Wards. Were all familiar with old butter churns where the person pushed a pole up and down. None of them is solved by it . and how limitless its inventory could become. City of Chicago, ward 8 204. A force of 300 to 500 young ladies do nothing but open the mail and enter the orders. Sales Catalog, Fall & Winter, 1894 / page 500, Montgomery Ward & Co. The difficulties one sees ahead should only encourage him to put his head a little higher in the air and walk more firmly and courageously, Thorne told Colliers magazine. on February 23, 2016. Coles County 198. The Field Museum, originally proposed for the center of Grant Park, was eventually built just south of the park near the Illinois Central Depot, and the use of landfill helped spring the larger museum campus around it.]. In 1889, the same year Ward and Thorne finally opted to incorporate the business, the firm topped the $2 million sales mark for the first time and commissioned a new eight-story headquarters on a prime plot along Michigan Avenue. 1869) was treasurer; and idea-man Robert J. Thorne (b. Tea gowns, bleached damask, and yards of flannel and pillow-case lace, stereoscopes, books of gospel hymns and ballroom gems, the New Improved Singer Sewing Machine, side saddles, anti-freezing well pumps, Windsor Stoves, milk skimmers, straight-edged razors, high . In 1883, the company's catalog, which became popularly known as the "Wish Book", had grown to 240 pages and 10,000 items. A farmer would make his choice of barn plans from a catalog like Sears The Book of Barns or Modern Farm Buildings. It was the first extensive mail order catalog for the masses. Sales Catalog, Fall & Winter, 1894 / index, Montgomery Ward & Co. Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. What made Wards catalog the first of its type was its accessibility. But it isnt easy for thousands of employees at Wards national headquarters to find new jobs. By 1904 his mailing list included 3 million customers. Its less recognizable, as the addition of four floors to the lower portion of the building, followed by the removal of the top pyramid portion, proved a considerable facelift. . These links connect to lists of material received in later shipments. The Factor's Almanac, by James Talcott, Inc. Ironically, despite fighting FDRs New Deal tooth and nail, Averys company was among the big beneficiaries of the program, as profits returned in 1935 and 36, and Ward leaped from just 25% of Sears volume back up to 82%. Kit house manufacturers sold houses in many different plans and styles, from simple bungalows to imposing Colonials, and supplied at a fixed price . . By the end of the century, Searss more reckless approach had nonetheless moved them neck and neck with Ward, with the two firms now jockeying for orders and bragging rights. I find it almost irresistible to fight what I think is an injustice. I think there is not another man in Chicago who would have spent the money I have spent in this fight with certainty that even gratitude would be denied as interest, Ward said in 1909, noting that he fought for the poor people of Chicago, not the millionaires. (1880) - Feedback left . Sears left Ward in the dust, with triple the sales numbers, and in 1954, the elderly Avery was finally ousted by rival shareholders, replaced as president and chairman by lawyer John Barr. Consolidation and merger of corporations. Thanks toQuestionProfor providing usfree survey templatesfor running multiple types of surveys. How were substantial barns to be built to hold great loads of hay and grain, without the huge trees to produce the solid timbers for strength? Rack "Spices" L-51 VGC Holder (#334739709291) See all feedback. The Thorne brothers were retained as directors, but the direction of the business in the 1920s would soon be determined by all-new leadership. $31.00. From a small shipping room in Chicago Ward published the world's first general merchandise mail-order catalog, a single 8 x 12 inch price list showing 163 products for sale with ordering instructions. His name was Art Quentin back in the 1940s if not earlier. Born in Chatham, New Jersey in 1844, Ward was the working class son of a cobbler. A press photo of the incident, with Avery showing a sort of pompous indignationarms folded as the two soldiers extracted him from his own officelanded in every major newspaper in America, and stoked weeks of heated debate among businessmen and the wider public. He had a gift of extraordinary clarity. Montgomery Ward & Co., founded in 1872, was the world's first mail-order goods business. Your email address will not be published. and D.S.E.A. Stephen Gass, President considers this to be a very fine international auction and it includes an exceptional collection of American, European and Russian artwork The auction includes paintings, drawings and many . It wasnt until he landed an easier gig selling shoes, however, that Ward found his lifes calling as a skilled and intuitive dealer of goods. Click any thumbnail below to open full size image in a new browser tab. May, who was ethnically Jewish but non-religious, decided he would cast his Christmas reindeer as an underdog like himselfa loser, yet triumphant in the end. Sitting in his office in the Montgomery Ward administration building at 758 N. Larrabee Street, May pondered his reindeer character (who was very nearly named Reginald)and how it might find its way to joining Santas famous team of sleigh pullers. The building still stands today and is a city landmark that has been redeveloped into a mixed-use complex with residences, eateries, and corporate offices for several companies. Incorporated: 1889. Attachments Currently no attachments available. Here is a park frontage on the lake, comparing favorably with the Bay of Naples, which city officials would crowd with buildings, transforming the breathing spot for the poor into a showground for the educated rich. He observed that rural customers often wanted 'city' goods but their only access to them was through rural retailers who had little competition and offered no guarantee of quality. Did You Know 5 out of 5 stars (2,148) $ 134.99. Today, it is the ninth largest US privately held retailer in the country. . Check out our wide selection of colorful bedspreads, handy bathroom space savers and high-tech electronics. Considering Ward a threat, they sometimes publicly burned his catalog. In a rare instance or two, he was also open to some more progressive ideas when it came to his employees. Perhaps I may yet see the public appreciate my efforts. Wilson, A Forecast of Better Times and Eleven ays to Hasten Them, by Frank Seidman, Forecasting from Synoptic Weather Charts, by Richard Weightman, Forging Ahead Through Research, by Liberty Bank of Buffalo, General Conference of Executives, by Montgomery Ward and Company, Hand Book Information for Foreign Buyers, by Montgomery Ward and Company, The History and Progress of Montgomery Ward and Company, by Montgomery Ward and Company, How to Make Draperies, by Montgomery Ward, How to Make Slipcovers, by Montgomery Ward, The Human Side of an Industrial Corporation, by Montgomery Ward and Company, Hummer Manufacturing Company, by Montgomery Ward, In Appreciation of Jeannette King, by Montgomery Ward, Industrial Prices and Their Relative Inflexibility, by United States Department of Agriculture, Industrial Surveys, by University of Kansas, Information for Guidance of Employees, by Montgomery Ward, Interesting Facts About the Mail Order Business, by Montgomery Ward and Company, The McCann Index of General Buying Power, by H.K. This takes in everybody from the President to the office boy. It was founded in Chicago in August 1872 by Aaron Montgomery Ward as a mail-order business. I read somewhere that Montgomery Ward advertised Stetsons in their catalogs, but I don't know the time period - obviously they weren't carrying them in 1920, and in . These are a few contributions toward a better looking Chicago found in the new office and retail store building of Montgomery Ward & Co. . His boss requested that it be an animal-centric story, along the lines of Ferdinand the Bull, which had been published to great success a few years earlier. Month/Year. Contact Gray at the email or phone number below. To Averys credit, he also knew how to recruit talent, cut costs, and trim fatincluding the closure of more than 100 underperforming retail stores. Gray writes from Mount Vernon, Ohio. Perhaps I may yet see the public appreciate my efforts. Collection contains Montgomery Ward catalogs and 194 35 mm microfilm copies (1874-1985); competitors' catalogs including Aldens (1954-1981), J.C. Penney (1963-1982), Sears (1954-1982) and Spiegel (1962-1983); correspondence (1889-1985) including approximately 20,000 letters between the general public and Ward regarding the National War Labor Board and the 1944 government seizures; scrapbooks of newspaper and magazine articles on Ward and competitors (1971-1987) including extensive national press coverage of the 1944 seizures; handwritten musical scores by Nathan Lang Van Cleave for the 1940s radio programs "The Man Behind the Gun" and "This Is Our Enemy"; news releases; organization charts; speeches; photographs; title abstracts for Chicago real estate; advertisements; legal documents; manuals; and financial files. 1875) was the young vice president (the two other brothers, George and James Thorne, were also board members). Part of this smug perspective also meant that Ward executives never saw any of its emerging copycat competitors as a real threatincluding Chicagos own Sears, Roebuck & Co., which aimed at the same clientele with more of a willingness to cut corners, sell cheaper, and make bigger promises. Two years later, in 1941, Robert married a Montgomery Ward secretary and aspiring artist named Virginia Newton, and the couple had five more children. The closing of Wards ends 128 years, not only of service to customers but of service through civic affairs., the hundreds of tutors Wards and its employees supplied to Cabrini-Green residents for more than 30 years, or the tens of thousands of coats that Wards supplied to the less fortunate. . What happened next truly feels like a grand gesture from a bygone time. But Sewell Averys flash of synthetic martyrdom will rest immortal in the files.. Congress of Industrial Organizations (Albany), National War Labor Board: U.R.W. . ; Cairo, Ill.; the Pacific Northwest; and Norwood, Ohio. . Eclipsed only by its longtime crosstown nemesis Sears, Roebuck & Co., the firm of Montgomery Ward & Co. was one of the uber-giants of 20th century American retaila pioneer of mail-order merchandising that built up an equivalent brick-and-mortar empire, only to gradually collapse under its own unsustainable weight. Laminated construction was easier for the average farmer to handle, and many discovered they could build their own barns. John made arrangements to have it moved across the road to his property for shelter and feeding in their expanded grass-fed beef operation. Tweet 1980 Montgomery Ward Fall Winter Catalog Catalogs & Wishbooks christmas.musetechnical.com and D.S.E.A. In 1883, the company's catalog, which became popularly known as the "Wish Book", had grown to 240 pages and 10,000 items. Copyright 2023. ], The Montgomery Ward & Co. plan of retailing all kinds of goods around the world has extended the name of Chicago into every civilized land. Sales Catalog, Fall & Winter, 1894 / page 556, Montgomery Ward & Co. Wards catalog would quickly prove to be a success, with the catalog growing to 32 pages by 1874 and to 152, with 3,000 items, in 1876. Events such as the Civil War reduced the amount of manual labor available. Robert Thorne, who took over the presidency after his brother Williams untimely death in 1917, liked to project an image of ethical superiority, but his own track record wasnt sparkling. Photographed in 2019 by Charles Hathaway], Besides the oft-mentioned contributions of Aaron Wards protection of the lakefront or Robert Mays creation of Rudolph, Vite also mentioned the hundreds of tutors Wards and its employees supplied to Cabrini-Green residents for more than 30 years, or the tens of thousands of coats that Wards supplied to the less fortunate. And thus, laminated plank construction was conceived. Congress of Industrial Organizations (Denver), National War Labor Board: U.R.W. . . Required fields are marked *. In January of 1920, despite an extremely profitable 1919 Christmas season, Robert Thorne seemed to anticipate complications in the new decade. In addition, Montgomery Wards charitable foundation provided millions of dollars over the years to Chicago-area charities. That same year, no expense was spared in completing Wards new Administration Building in Chicago at 758 N. Larrabee Street, which was built by the companys own in-house architectural engineer, W. H. McCaully. Kit houses, also known as mill-cut houses, pre-cut houses, ready-cut houses, mail order homes, or catalog homes, were a type of prefabricated housing that was popular in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere in the first half of the 20th century. Earlier in the 1930s, Avery also oversaw the hiring of Anne Swainson as the director of the companys new Bureau of Design. The little Christmas story was conceived, written and illustrated by members of the retail sales department of Montgomery-Ward in Chicago for a Christmas gift to customers in Ward stores. You dont have to believe me when I say that I am not dominated by financial considerations. But as this 1894-1895 catalog proudly states, Montgomery Ward & Company were the "Originators of the Mail Order Business. As no coincidence perhaps, Aaron Ward himself had become deeply invested in using his considerable influence to change what that view out across Michigan Avenue would look likenot just for Ward customers, but anyone visiting Chicago in the future. This new generation, coming up in the days of Teddy Roosevelt and his Square Deal, launched a campaign to further distinguish Ward & Co. from what they saw as its sleazy, underhanded competition over at Searsthe company that was now regularly winning the mail order wars. Do you have any documentation of his work? April 13, 2021 Construction on the mail order house complex began in 1907, with an estimated cost of $2.5 million (approximately $75 million today). . The barn parts were produced by mills in Mansfield, La. A bright red nose that would shine through fog like a flood light.. Among the catalog giant's astounding range of offerings were house kits, which the company began marking in 1908. The two then presented their outline for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to their boss, and the project was a-go (despite some concerns about a red nose suggesting the deer had a drinking problem). By 1904, a promotional poster described the $5 million facility as a Busy Bee Hive of mercantile efficiency, with more than 3,000 employees now serving 2 million customers annually. There were no songs about Rudolph yet, nor any animated TV specials. Customers were able to order everything on the catalog from clothing and farming equipment to entire homes. Mackenzie Montana Mining CollectionEst. It was launched in 1872 with a single-sheet catalog offering 163 items! For many centuries, things remained unchanged in the building trades. . The Farm Market Today and Tomorrow, by Business Week, Fiftieth Anniversary Dinner, by Montgomery Ward and Company, Five Years of Industrial Peace, by C.E. 1888)a Swedish immigrant whod made her name with a leading design firm in New Yorkwas recruited by Wards new sales manager Walter Hoving (whom Avery had poached from Macys). OffbeatAvenue. The bulk of mail order house, retail store and warehouse jobs are therefore closed [to them]., In this picture half the great social and political issues of Americas last ten years lie riven and exposed, their ends twitching,, None of them is solved by it . Montgomery Ward was created by "Aaron Montgomery Ward " in 1872 as the first every dry goods mail-order catalog business in Chicago Illinois. . Does the museum want it? There was never a better time to launch a new mail order firmand yet, it was also a remarkably unlucky moment to be timely. Hi! Click here to start shopping! Published in 1977, 96 pages, with selections from E. Remington & Sons ca. Every season Montgomery Ward features a variety of new and exciting products in our online catalog. Not only does our business reach every state, county, city, and hamlet, and nearly every farm in the United States, Canada, West Indies, Mexico, and throughout North America, but it also extends around the earthsix carloads of merchandise a week being our average shipments to the Orient, Australasia, and Trans-Pacific point; a carload a week to each, South Africa, South America, India, Canal Zone, Central America and Cuba; in addition to which an average of a ton of merchandise leaves the house daily by mail for foreign parts. Montgomery Ward & Co. ad, 1910. At over 600 pages, it offers thousands of items. 1980 Montgomery Ward Fall Winter Catalog 1348 pages. This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. More than 200 correspondents, stenographers and typewriters are busy every day writing letters to friends and customers all over the world., unsightly wooden shanties, structures, garbage, paving blocks and other refuse piled thereon., a human icicle, shunning and shunned in all but the relations of business., I think there is not another man in Chicago who would have spent the money I have spent in this fight with certainty that even gratitude would be denied as interest,, fought for the poor people of Chicago, not the millionaires. A bright red nose that would shine through fog like a flood light., I needed Rudolph now more than ever. Montgomery Ward JSJ10550 parts in stock. Thank you. Add to cart. 408 (N.D. Ill. 1945) Subject files (1862-1985) include information on takeover attempts, price controls, A. Montgomery Ward's role in preserving Chicago's lake front, company history, the National War Labor Board, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which originated as a Christmas advertising promotion in 1939. It also meant freedom from staunch traditions. Corsets. Ward, who had previously worked as a retail clerk and dry goods salesman, aimed his marketing . City of Chicago, ward 10 206. The honeymoon was brief, however. The company once boasted more than six hundred stores but since 2004 is exclusively an online retailer. 20900 Oakwood Boulevard, Dearborn, MI 481245029, Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation Overview, Teacher's Choice @ Giant Screen Experience, Henry Austin Clark, Jr. Graduate Internship, Clark Travel-to-Collections Research Fellowship, Diversity and Inclusion Internship Program, Simmons Graduate Internship: Organization and Processing of the Stumpf Office and Home Library, Simmons Graduate Internship: The Lillian F. Schwartz Archives: Curatorial Content Development & Research Internship, Simmons Graduate Internship: The Lillian F. Schwartz Archives: Collections Processing Internship, Teacher's Choice @ Giant Screen Experience, Educator Professional Development Overview. Below is a quick continued history of the iconic Montgomery Ward Company: Business continued to boom for Montgomery Ward throughout the decades. In settling the Ohio wilderness, hundreds of acres of land were cleared. Mr. Ward and his partners stocked goods to launch their first mail-order catalog, but his stock was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Nationally, the companies tried to one-up each other with increasingly thick and colorfully illustrated mega-catalogs; while locally, they also seemed to be in an architectural competition, each rapidly expanding their downtown warehouses with more elaborate constructions. Tea gowns, yards of flannel and pillow-case lace, stereoscopes, books of gospel hymns, the New . Here I was heavily in debt at age 35 still grinding out catalogue copy instead of writing the great American novel as I had once hoped, May recalled in a 1975 article about the creation of Rudolph. Christmas . After hatching the idea, May walked over to the art department and asked Ward illustrator Denver Gillen to come with him to the Lincoln Park Zoo to visit the deer corral and draft some sketches for the book. A heating plant fueled by oil which will not send forth great clouds of smoke into Chicagos skies. The selection grew from the first three barns offered in 1910 to more than 30 different styles, sizes, and floor plans in the 1930s. The bulk of mail order house, retail store and warehouse jobs are therefore closed [to them]., [While selling uniforms for Victory Workers in its own catalog, Montgomery Ward faced rising pushback from its employees, as seen in the 1944 strike outside the Chicago warehouse, pictured above.]. CHM, ICHi-068483. $399.99 Scarce Original 1912 Montgo. Georges eldest son William C. Thorne (b. His tenure was marked by labor troubles in the 1940s which culminated in two government seizures of the company in 1944. Wards multiple lawsuits got him labeled as an enemy of real parks by the Chicago Tribune. It shouldn't take longer than 3-4 weeks to arrive. $375.00 1912 Montgomery Ward Catalo. Museum Artifact: First Edition Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Illustrated Book by Robert L. May, 1939, Made By: Montgomery Ward & Co., Inc., 758 N. Larrabee Street, Chicago, IL [River North], Today children all over the world read and hear about the little deer who started out in life as a loser just as I did. Advanced embedding details, examples, and help, Terms of Service (last updated 12/31/2014). Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future. The building even had a dedicated building courier system, which relied on roller-skating routes across the building for delivering interdepartmental packages and communications. Click any thumbnail below to open full size image in a new browser tab. From a small shipping room in Chicago Ward published the world's first general merchandise mail-order catalog, a single 8 x 12 inch price list showing 163 products for sale with ordering instructions. 93 (1920), No. My family had an artist who worked for Montgomery Ward. Simply select the online catalog you wish to look at and you'll be shopping in no time. The new age of Love It Or Your Money Back had begun, a full 18 years before Richard Sears got into the same racket. The first commercial version of the Rudolph book was published by Christmas of that year, and by 1949, cowboy singer Gene Autry had scored a big hit with the first rendition of the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer songwritten by Robert Mays brother-in-law Johnny Marks. property, and libel laws as they apply. The latest styles: those little hats women wore, with lots of bows on them. Catalog Bundles ; Sears . Its one of those whimsical little pieces that puts children in a gleeful mood and entertains adults as well., Here I was heavily in debt at age 35 still grinding out catalogue copy instead of writing the great American novel as I had once hoped,, I was describing mens white shirts. During World War II, Montgomery Ward & Co. continued to employ more than 75,000 men and women, including 6,800 in the Chicago headquarters alone, and it was actively supplying important parts, supplies, and clothing to the Allies (Ward also now owned three actual production factories: a paint and varnish plant in Chicago Heights, a fencing plant in Fort Madison, Iowa, and a farm equipment factory in Springfield, IL, where carburetors, propellers and gun mounts were being built for military aircraft). One would presume that Robert L. May was set for life, but in reality, after focusing on Rudolph properties throughout the 1950s, he eventually found himself back in Montgomery Wards copy departmenta victim of Americas sky high tax rates at the time. Required fields are marked *. Some content affected by narrow inner margins. His two partners left the following year, but he continued the struggling business and was joined by his future brother-in-law Richard Thorne. . We study methods of improving our business as we would a science. Considering that the whole country fell into an economic depression a year later, one could start to imagine that Aaron Wards dream was cursed. Tweet 1980 Montgomery Ward Christmas Book Catalogs & Wishbooks christmas.musetechnical.com By the time the company fully relocated to the riverfront plant in 1910, its annual profits had topped the million dollar mark for the first time, and its daily operations were largely handled by the five sons of Wards old business partner George Thorne. Right: Interior of a Ward store in Bismarck, ND, 1930s]. 1864), whod started working in the catalog department way back in the 1880s, was now company president; Charles H. Thorne (b. Montgomery Ward, the world's first general merchandise mail-order business, issued its first single sheet catalog in 1872. She remained with the Bureau of Design into the 1950s, as Sewell Avery gradually abandoned his investment in the department, and she diedstill a Ward employeein 1955, aged 67. Prominent Chicago lawyer Silas Strawn would become Wards chairman. Immediately upon the appearance of a new vogue, it is designed in Montgomery Ward stores and will be sent at once to Henderson and Evansville, as well as other stores of the Montgomery Ward chain., depended, ultimately, on Anne Swainsons winning the buyers confidence, persuading them of the value of better design on the market, and in the management of a business like Wards. . 135 (1941), The Originators of the Mail Order Business (Montgomery Ward ad) The Inter Ocean (Chicago), May 19, 1901, Earnings in the Mail Order Business Printers Ink, March 5, 1914, Montgomery Ward Opens at Henderson Evansville Press (IN), August 8, 1929, Wards New Office Building to Boost City Beautiful Move Chicago Tribune, Oct 27, 1929, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is New Juvenile Fiction Hero Sedalia Democrat (MO), Dec 10, 1939, United States vs. Montgomery Ward & Co. U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois 58 F. Supp. This was the entirety of the characters footprint in the zeitgeist. By 1904, the company had grown such that three million catalogs, weighing 4 pounds each, were mailed to customers. He knew what they wanted, what frustrated them, and how to persuade them better than anyone in mail order had before. We study methods of improving our business as we would a science. Once again, the change led to a temporary rebound, and even record profits of $153 million in 1990. That kind of principle cant be beaten., [Many big stores rolled into one lie in your lap as you read this, read the intro to the 1916 Ward catalogue], [The shipping rooms of the Chicago Avenue complex, circa 1920]. City of Chicago, wards 11 and 12 207. An older man might have taken that as a sign, but at 27, Ward just started over again, and with two investors from the C. W. & E. Pardridge Company, he re-loaded and launched his humble mail order house in 1872, run out of a small shipping office near the corner of Clark Street and Kinzie. . 148 cubic feet (331 boxes) + microfilm + artifacts. . The little plank-frame Sears shed had been ordered and built by a neighboring farm circa 1920 and shipped as a kit to the train depot in Pataskala, Ohio. I called Barbara and her grandparents into the living room and read it to them. For example, it offers music boxes, the kind we had as children for our jewelry, but these played three songs, or six or eight, depending on how much you wanted to pay it was the days before radio. Vintage Montgomery Ward Catalog Spring Summer '75 Huge Thick Catalog 70's Fashion Decor Shoes Lamps Collectible Ephemera Time Machine Ad vertisement by OffbeatAvenue. In 1872, Montgomery Ward & Company launched America's first general mail order company. Sales Catalog, Fall & Winter, 1894, Montgomery Ward & Co. The Bureau was her baby. Believe it or not, the cheaply-made, 32-page Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer booklet featured in our museum collection is among the more valuable items we have on display. . This split became the ultimate turning point in the history of 20th century American retail, as General Wood famously jumped ship to Searsbuilding it into the biggest chain department store in the countrywhile Ward & Co. was left to play catch-up once again heading into the challenging 1930s. However, the immigrants new home presented challenging environmental conditions and social changes. Cultural traditions established hundreds of years ago were cherished and safely guarded to be handed down from father to son, or to a trusted apprentice after years in training.

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