80 Years of Department Store Catalogues

Links Around the Web
1

A few days ago I was thinking about how one of the highlights of my childhood was getting the Christmas JC Penny Catalogue in the mail and scouring through the toy section and wistfully covet things in there we knew were too expensive for us to ever own. Out of curiosity (and a desire to put a name to a specific item I was curious about) I went looking to see if there was any archive of the catalog and lo-and-behold!

Not only did I find at least one catalog from the 90’s, I found a site that contained several catalogs over the last 80 years from multiple department stores.

I love niche archives like this both to give names and dates to things I was interested in as a kid, but also to see what was on offer and the way things are marketed and advertised over the years and thought others people here might be interested in it as well. I am also delighted that it’s just sitting there, unassuming as a subdomain on a technical accounting firm’s domain.

(And for those curious to know what specific Item I was looking for, it was #6 on this page.)

5 Likes
2

Ah yes, the Wish Book. I was always soooo excited to get it in the mail. :)

2 Likes
3

Woah this is so cool! I wonder if historical fashion folks know about this resource; those early Sears catalogs have a lot of clothes.

1 Like
4

In 1954 they got a mechanical pencil tie clip that actually writes.

2 Likes
5

what an awesome resource! im a magazine fanatic so I love seeing any archived mags/catalogues/zines etc, thank u for linking this one!

3 Likes
6

yesss oh my god i LOVED going through the sears and toys-r-us catalog every year :') thank you for sharing this i’ll definitely be looking through

2 Likes
7

I spent hours here lol. Thank you so much for sharing!

3 Likes
8

Welp, there goes my afternoon. :joy:

(seriously, thanks for this. I also loved the JC Penney and Sears catalogs!)

Edit: These made me wonder if anyone had uploaded the old Pleasant Company catalogs (before Mattel bought American Girl). Lo and behold:

I LIVED in these catalogs as a kid.

2 Likes
9

Ooh neat, thanks for sharing! gosh I love people making archives like this

2 Likes
10

This is an awesome find! The amount of time that must have been spent scanning all these catalogues is mind-boggling.