"A dazzling trove for students of Americana." Time...

Located on the site of the original Sears Tower, the historic Sears, Roebuck and Company catalog plant is one of the nations most unique landmarks. Representing American ingenuity at its best, Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald combined technology, commerce, and social science with bricks and mortar to build the Worlds Largest Store on Chicagos West Side. Completed in 1906, the plant housed nearly every conceivable product of the time: clothing, jewelry, furniture, appliances, tools, and more. The complex employed 20,000 people, and merchandise orders were processed and delivered by railwithin the same day. During the first two decades of the 20th century, almost half of Americas families shopped the over 300 million catalogs published in that era. WLS (Worlds Largest Store) Radio broadcasted the Gene Autrey show from the top of the tower, and the first Sears retail store opened here on Homan Avenue and Arthington Street. In 1974, Sears moved to the current Sears Tower. Thanks to many individuals who fought to save these architecturally and historically important treasures, the administration building, the original Sears Tower, the catalog press-laboratory building, and the powerhouse remain today. There are currently plans for redeveloping these buildings into housing, office, and retail space. A new Homan Square Community Center stands on the site of the merchandise building.

Faithful reprint of the retailer's Christmas catalog offers a nostalgia-inducing look at consumer goods of the 1940s, from toys to housewares, clothing, furniture, candy, and a selection of gifts for servicemen.

Take a hundred-year excursion into the past when all your wishes and whims could be found within the pages of a Sears, Roebuck, & Co. catalogue. Whether you lived in Manhattan, New York, or Manhattan, Kansas, a new camera, a grand piano, and even the latest medical supplies were only a mail order away with your Sears catalogue. Florida Water, Liquid Skin, hammer-less revolvers, bankers’ shears, travelling bags, bridging telephones, and the Acme Triumph Six-Hole Steel Range (which was the “The Wonder of the Stove World” according to the ad copy) could all be had for reasonable prices. In this compilation of the best collectibles from the 1905 through 1910 Sears catalogs, readers will find everything the early-twentieth-century American needed to outfit home, office, medicine chest, or craft workshop. A useful resource for artists, antiques dealers, and history buffs, this title is certain to make any reader feel nostalgic for simpler times. From the department introductions and the descriptions of Sears’s warehouses and factories to the hundreds of merchandise-filled pages, readers will find treasures on every page of Sears, Roebuck, & Co.: Best Collectibles from the 1905–1910 Catalogues.

A facsimile edition of the 1902 catalog for the retail chain displays the manners, customs, necessities, luxuries, and cost of living of an America at the turn of the century through the products Americans bought.

A fascinating piece of history and a window to turn-of-the-century America. The Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog was the Amazon.com of its day, giving American families across the country access to thousands of items from clothing and furniture to buggies and hair tonic. Whether they could buy it or not, people would pour over the massive volume that represented an icon in American retail. The 1908 Sears, Roebuck & Co. Catalogue offers an amazing look at life in early twentieth-century America. Sears, Roebuck & Co. have defined and innovated American retail for years, As the company grew from humble beginnings, it’s catalog selection exploded to include all sorts of categories and encompassed almost everything imaginable. With merchandise ranging from ordinary to fantastical (and almost all of it priced at the pennies-on-the-dollar rate of the time), browsing through this vintage collection is sure to be an enjoyable experience.