Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Mail-Order Catalogues - Lena Nelson Dooley

My First Edition 1931-31 Catalogue
I have written a number of novels set in the late 1800s. During that time period, mail-order catalogues were important. The general store in smaller towns and emporiums in medium-sized towns weren't able to carry everything their customers needed. So large companies back east would publish a catalogue with every item they had for sale. These catalogues were sent to stores, and customers could look for items they needed and fill out an order at the store.

The owners of the stores would compile an order to send in. If a customer wanted the item or items faster, the storekeepers would do a special order. The customer would have to pay for the extra postage.

Soon the catalogue companies started mailing the books to the actual customers. The Sears catalogue was soon called the "Consumer's Bible," and in most homes, it was called the "Wish Book."

I started collecting catalogues when I found a 1931-32 Sears Catalogue at an antique store. This one is the actual first edition. The rest of my catalogues are reprints or facsimiles.

One reason I'm interested in these books is that I can find out what was available at a specific time period, what it looked like, and how much it cost.

Here are other catalogues I own:






This last catalogue contains dress patterns. These catalogues as well Harper's Bazar and other magazines helped rural residents and women who lived in smaller towns keep up with the current fashions. Many of them made their own clothes. And dressmakers used the patterns as well.

When I was young, we lived in rural Northwest Arkansas. Catalogues were important to our world. And when the catalogue was out of date, we cut them up to make paper dolls with plenty of clothing from the catalogue.

Have you ever received one of the major catalogues?

If so, what is your favorite memory about using the catalogue?

I invite you to enter into the world of the late 19th century through my McKenna's Daughters Series.


Find out how three identical triplets find each other after being separated at birth.

16 comments:

  1. Great post, Lena! I love your catalogues. Thank you for sharing.

    mauback55 at gmail dot com

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    1. Melanie, you'd be surprised what you can find in them.

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  2. Neat post Lena, and great collection here of catalogues. Yes we got the Sears and Montgomery Wards. My folks had very little money so don't remember if they were ever able to order or just wish. I was young so my memory was of making me some paper dolls and clothes with them after the folks were finished with them. You could have whole families. Lena, you are the only one I have seen say they had catalogue paper dolls besides me. I'm still wanting these books of yours. Been fasinated with them first seeing them Thanks for the memories . Maxie mac262(at)me(dot)com

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    1. Maxie, if you haven't been able to afford my books, and I can understand that in this economy, you could ask your local library to order them. I'm told that they will order the books their patrons request. And you can put your name at the top of the list.

      With the paper dolls, we would cut out a full-length figure in underwear and glue that person to the cardboard left when our tablets had no more paper. That made them last longer.

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  3. Fun post, Lena. When the wish books were out of date, We made Christmas trees with them by folding all the pages in the book. The last and first page were taped together and Wallah! A Christmas tree.

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    1. Debbie, I've seen those. Did you spray paint them green?

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  4. In my small town of Lake Geneva, WI we had a small Montgomery Wards store and ordered a lot from their catalog because the store didn't stock the items. When the Christmas catalog arrived each year, I had the thing dogeared by the next day. I'd pour over the pages and pages of toys, wanting almost everything. But I only got one or two things. We couldn't afford more than that.

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    1. We went through our catalogues over and over, too.

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  5. Lena, This post was great. I love old catalogs. I live in a rural community and we ordered from The Sears , JC Penny and Montgomery Ward catalogs for many years. I didn't make paper dolls from them but cut mine out from The McCalls magazine.
    However in the 1960's we lived in a beautiful 2 story farm house that actually was ordered from a Sears catalog and brought by horse and wagons to be assembled on the farm site. It had 4 bedrooms and front and back staircases to the second floor. The house still proudly stands on the same farm. It is one of the older preserved houses in our county.
    When I was told of it's history I was really amazed. In the outbuildings were also a lot of farm implements with the Sears logo on them.
    Thank you.
    mcnuttjem0(at)gmail(dot)com

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    1. Those Sears craftsman houses are an important part of our country's history, Jackie. When my husband and I went to visit a good friend who moved away to pastor a church in a historic town a ways from us in Texas, we went to visit the family. Pastor James Ballard, who I had worked for as an assistant at our church before he moved, took us on a tour of the town. There were several of the Sears craftsman houses. I love seeing them.

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  6. What a delightful post, Lena! It was the JC Penney catalog that I loved to look through. I can remember being interested in only the toy section, then as I grew into my teens, the clothing section. Don't ever remember really ordering anything, but it was fun to look at.

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  7. Hi Lena, interesting post about the catalogs, I grew up at the time with Sears and cut people out of them for my playtime. I had the whole family and didn't cost MOM anything for my hours of play.
    Paula O

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  8. I love this delightful post, Lena! I have a 1902 edition of The Sears, Roebuck catalogue that I found in an antique store. It is fascinating to look through! When I was little and visited my grandparents, my grandmother showed me how to cut paper dolls from the catalogue. I loved it!!

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  9. I was raised as an MK in Nigeria. We loved to look at catalogs and choose items we wished we had. Of course, they were old catalogs by the time we got them and the items were't available. When our kids were young we gave them a catalog to pick out their Christmas wish list. sharon, wileygreeen1(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  10. Catalogs were a big thing in my family, my sister and I used to spend hours looking at all the wedding dresses.
    Because I live in Canada we had a store there called Eatons and we enjoyed this time together dreaming and wishing.

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  11. Oh how I loved getting the Sears "Wish Book" at Christmas. My sister and I poured over the toys and games. We could check as many as we wanted, but put big stars by the most important. We would get two from those we checked, and Mother let our grandparents know about the others.

    When the big catalog came, I got them after Mother and my grandmother Mimi finished with them and cut out paper doll families and wrote stories for them. I put them on cardboard too, Lena.

    Sure wish I had some of those old catalogs still around. Maybe I'll be lucky and find one in an antique store. Love yours, Lena.

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