Shopping the 1894 Montgomery Ward Catalog

 

I have a collection of antique catalogs with all kinds of interesting historical items pictured in them. Last month we took a glimpse at the 1908 Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog. Today, we'll take a peek at the 1894 Montgomery Ward catalog. On August 18, 1872, Aaron Montgomery Ward started what would become a 113-year business with the first mail-order catalog on a single sheet of paper. The catalog grew rapidly to a 152 pages, advertising merchandise with over 3,000 items. By 1897, the catalog was 1000 pages with annual sales over $7 million. The company continued to grow rapidly until 1985 when Montgomery Ward ended the printing of their famous catalog. It was the end of a piece of American history.

Stomacher and Beaded Yokes

Stomacher

  A stomacher was a decorative item worn over bodices that fastened down the front of a gown. It was a stiffened triangular insert worn point down and fastened to the bodice at either side by points, pins, or ribbon ties. Functionally, the stomacher filled in the gap between the two front edges of the bodice and continued the corseting effect. Visually, the highly decorated insert took the eye from the top down to its long bottom point, making the torso appear even longer. Beaded collars, as shown in the catalog image above, were decorative items worn over the shoulders.

Hair Combs

Ladies were always looking for something pretty for their hair. In the photo above, are some fancy hair combs a woman would have inserted into her bun or updo. Below are hairpins that would have helped hold her hair in place when piled on top or the back of her head.

Hairpins

Catalogs boasted a surprising array of wedding bands for both males and females. I don't know if you can read the tiny print, but all that is listed below each ring is the price, sizes available, and if it has a gemstone. At the top of the page, it says the rings are solid gold and sold by weight. Some of the lady's rings have garnet, turquoise or pearl insets.

I found these serving sets interesting. At one time, I owned a Victorian water set like the one in the top right picture. The pitcher is attached to the oval-shaped rod so that you can pour water without lifting the pitcher. It was highly engraved and very pretty. Other servers like the ones top left held condiments, seasonings, and oil.

Below are cast-iron toys--or as stated in the catalog--indestructible malleable iron toys. Because they were so sturdy, many of these toys have survived and are still around. Today, these antique toys are highly sought after. 

This image shows animal toys that were made of iron and then painted. The horse is a wind-up toy that says it will walk on a flat surface like a real horse. The two people in the box are two mechanical gymnasts that do various feats while turning on a horizontal bar.

Surprisingly, I found some sunglasses called "colored lens spectacles" in the 1894 catalog.The top glasses are called Coquille Spectacles and are made for weak eyes. They are shell-shaped with smoke or blue lenses, have straight temples, a steel frame, and are of ordinary quality. They only cost 20 cents. What a deal!

HHH AUGUST BOOK DAY

 

THE DÉBUTANTE’S SECRET

(The Quilting Circle 4)

By Mary Davis

Washington State, 1894

Geneviève Marseille has one purpose in coming to Kamola—stopping her brother from digging up the past. Deputy Montana has lived a simple life. But when a fancy French lady steps off the train and into his arms, his modest existence might not be enough anymore. A nemesis from Aunt Henny past arrives in town threatening her with jail. Will she flee as she’d done all those years ago, or stand her ground in the town she’s made her home? When secrets come out, will the lives of Geneviève, Montana, and Aunt Henny ever be the same?

SWORD OF TRUST

By Debbie Lynne Costello

“Complete with all the medieval details, charm and wonderfully strong characters, this book has it all. Secrets, betrayal, forgiveness and trust… It’s a book you want to read to the end, but yet, never want it to end!”~Reviewer

Deirdre Mackenzie is caught reiving by a hated English Laird. A beautiful reiving lass is the least of Bryce Warwick’s worries with King Richard’s distrust of his nobles. Despite the odds against them, the two are drawn together. But there are adversaries seeking to ruin their chances at love. The stakes are high, secrets prevail, and treason is just a kiss away.

 

CORNERSTONE

By Nancy J. Farrier

Men are not to be trusted, and rarely true to you. It happened to Cinda Bryant when the man she’d been engaged to for years did the unthinkable. So why does her heart skip when her shop is broken into, and the very attractive Officer Ortega helps her? Daniel Ortega has been waiting for the right woman to come along, and Cinda is that woman. But is Cinda too wounded to see how much he cares for her? When Daniel asks Cinda to teach a quilting class for the teens he’s helping, can she work a miracle in their lives?

  

UNDER THE TULIP TREE

By Michelle Shocklee

Sixteen-year-old Lorena Leland’s dreams of a rich and fulfilling life as a writer are dashed when the stock market crashes in 1929. Seven years into the Great Depression, Rena accepts a position interviewing former slaves for the Federal Writers’ Project. There, she meets Frankie Washington, a 101-year-old woman whose honest yet tragic past captivates Rena. Frankie’s story challenges Rena’s preconceptions about slavery, but it also connects the two women whose lives are otherwise separated by age, race, and circumstances. Will this bond of respect, admiration, and friendship be broken by a revelation neither woman sees coming?

 

ROSE AMONG THORNES

By Terrie Todd

When Rusty Thorne joins the army, he never imagines becoming a Japanese prisoner of war. Though he begs God to help him not hate his brutal captors, Rusty can no longer even hear the Japanese language without revulsion. Only his rare letters from home sustain him—especially the notes from his mother’s helper, which the girl signs simply as “Rose.” Rose Onishi is on track to fulfill her lifelong goal of becoming a concert pianist. When forced to leave her beloved home to work on the Thornes’ farm, her dream fades to match the black dirt staining her callused hands.

 

THIMBLES AND THREAD

By Suzanne Norquist, et al

4 Love Stories Are Quilted Into Broken Lives

“Mending Sarah’s Heart” By Suzanne Norquist, et al.

Rockledge, Colorado, 1884

Sarah doesn’t need anyone, especially her dead husband’s partner. With four brothers to mentor her boys and income as a seamstress, she seeks a quiet life. If only the Emporium of Fashion would stop stealing her customers and the local hoodlums would leave her sons alone. When she rejects her husband’s share of the mine, his partner Jack seeks to serve her through other means. But will his efforts only push her further away?

 

“Bygones” by Mary Davis

Texas, 1884

Drawn to the new orphan boy in town, Tilly Rockford soon became the unfortunate victim of a lot of Orion Dunbar’s mischievous deeds in school. Can Tilly figure out how to truly forgive the one who made her childhood unbearable? Now she doesn’t even know she holds his heart. Can this deviant orphan-train boy turned man make up for the misdeeds of his youth and win Tilly’s heart before another man steals her away?

WRITTEN ON THE HEART

BIBLE MEMORY CURRICULUM FOR KIDS AGES 9-12

By Amber Lemus

Help your child memorize King James scriptures with this beautiful and interactive memory curriculum.

Scriptures paired with original coloring pages make these short daily lessons easy and fun to complete, with minimal supervision required. This curriculum is designed to aid the child in memorizing many of the key Scriptures by giving them a coloring page to help them associate the memory with an image, as well as key repetition and involvement of multiple senses in writing and speaking the verse. By the end of the week, the child will recite the verse back to their parent/teacher.

 

THE PROMISE TREE

(Montana Treasure, book 1)

By Janalyn Voigt

A preacher’s daughter shouldn’t encourage a troublemaker, no matter what her wayward heart desires. Liberty has always believed she should marry a man of God, but Jake doesn’t qualify. The promises they’d made at age twelve can’t change that. If only Jake would stop pursuing her, she might keep from falling in love with him. Jake fears he’ll lose Liberty to Beau, the new man in town. He doesn’t trust the smooth-talker—and certainly not with Liberty. Jake and Liberty must each overcome their own false beliefs. Only then can they experience the truth of God’s redeeming love.

 

 

 

DARIA’S DUKE

By Linda Shenton Matchett

Will a stolen inheritance and false accusations thwart the chance for happily-ever-after? After the death of her father, Daria Burke is thrust into the role of a servant by her stepmother. Locked in her room one night, Daria watches as the woman and her daughters sashay from the house wearing her mother’s gowns and jewelry. Realizing she’ll never be accepted as family, she flees the house and applies to be a mail-order bride. Then the sheriff arrives on the eve of her wedding with an arrest warrant. Can she prove her innocence or will she go to jail and lose her one chance at happiness?

PRE-ORDER

 

 

THE CRYPTOGRAPHER’S DILEMMA

By Johnnie Alexander

A Cryptographer Uncovers a Japanese Spy Ring

FBI cryptographer Eloise Marshall is grieving the death of her brother, who died during the attack on Pearl Harbor, when she is assigned to investigate a seemingly innocent letter about dolls. Agent Phillip Clayton is ready to enlist and head oversees when asked to work one more FBI job. A case of coded defense coordinates related to dolls should be easy, but not so when the Japanese Consulate gets involved, hearts get entangled, and Phillip goes missing. Can Eloise risk loving and losing again?

 

TITANIC: LEGACY OF BETRAYAL

By Kathleen E. Kovach, et al.

A secret. A key. Much was buried on the Titanic, but now it's time for resurrection. Follow two intertwining stories a century apart. 1912 - Matriarch Olive Stanford protects a secret after boarding the Titanic that must go to her grave. 2012 - Portland real estate agent Ember Keaton-Jones receives the key that will unlock the mystery of her past... and her distrusting heart. Review: “I told my wife to move this book to the top of her reading list... This titanic story is more interesting than the one told in the Titanic movie... She will absolutely love it.”

THE FRUITCAKE SCANDAL

By Vickie McDonough

Pastor Clay Parsons waited a year to bring his fiancée, Karen Briggs, to his new church post. They plan a Christmas wedding, but in the meantime, Karen helps the church ladies with various projects, including a bake sale. But revealing her fruitcake recipe could spell disaster for her future with Clay and his congregation.

The Old Northwest ~ Out of the Mysterious Unknown

It is one of the best things I can stir my imagination to do—to consider the days of the Old Northwest. Not the northwest as we know it now, but the Northwest Territory organized after the Revolutionary War in 1787. The Old Northwest included all the land west of Pennsylvania, northwest of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River below the Great Lakes, and that portion of present Minnesota ceded in the Treaty of Paris in 1783 below what we know as the Boundary Waters.

 

The land was largely a domain of darkness, a vaguely-mapped mystery. Thomas Jefferson took a stab at it when he helped write the Land Ordinance of 1784. He proposed the region be divided into ten states with the names Illinoia, Michigania, Saratoga, Washington, Chersonesus, Sylvania, Assenisipia, Metropotamia, Polypotamia, and Pelisipia. Though Jefferson’s divisions and names didn’t take except for the first two, it’s interesting to note that he didn’t see these divisions as mere acquisitions of other states, but as wholly independent states in themselves, holding all the rights and powers of governance therein.

I'm also intrigued by the various other provisions and protections of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Each could be a study in themselves. Here’s the summary from Wikipedia:

“The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established the Northwest Territory, and defined its boundaries, form of government, and administrative structure. In particular, it defined the bodies of government, established the legal basis of land ownership, provided for abolition and transfer of state territorial claims, made rules for admission of new states, established public education, recognized and codified 'natural rights', prohibited slavery, and defined the land rights and applicability of laws to the Native Americans.”

At the time, however, prairies in future Minnesota, Illinois, and Indiana rippled like the waters of the mighty northern lakes themselves, framed to the north in timber that stood in the way of knowing what lay beyond. The blank canvas that would one day become Wisconsin stood as a warring ground between native tribes struggling for dominance of its fish and game. Hardwood dwindled a third of the way up the great “mitten” that was to become Michigan, and then the pine stood unbroken all the way to the straits of Mackinac. In both the future states of Michigan and Wisconsin, there were few trails and traces. Rivers, where they existed, were the paths of exploration and travel by native and voyageur. Nevertheless, great areas of the interior were left unexplored by even the Indians where those areas were difficult to travel.

This is how the Old Northwest stood for thousands of years, silent but for the sound of the wind rushing through the treetops and across the endless grassy knolls; caught in the washing of the waves upon the shores of the Great Lakes and trickling down thousands of miles of rivers. But when time finally caught hold of this vast territory—larger than all of France—it ceased being a lonely, isolated place marked only by small Indian villages, council fires, and scattered trading posts.

First, after the fur traders, came the miners and farmers. Logging wasn’t popular then with the white settlers who came to the Old Northwest. But time caught up at last on the boots of timber cruisers who suddenly took notice of the thick pine, no longer seeing it as something standing in the way, but rather something by which to profit. Those cruisers claimed and marked and measured. When the lumberjacks raised their clamor in the woods, the silence ended with the ring of the axe and the whine of the buzz saw.

I grew up here, in a Wisconsin town built on the swirling dark water of the mighty Wisconsin River, one of those giant tributaries of the Mississippi, and at one of those first mill towns to be planted among the pinelands. Other towns sprang up. In fact, most of Wisconsin’s major cities were built on waterways that marketed the pine, and where hundreds of sawmills—and in later years paper mills—were established.

By the late 19th century, Wisconsin had become one of the premier lumber producing states in the U.S., and the Old Northwest was no longer a place of unfathomable mystery. By the 1890s, logging and lumbering employed a full quarter of all working Wisconsinites. More than 23,000 men labored in the woods, and another 32,000 at the sawmills where timber was turned into boards.

It’s a period of history romanticized by story-tellers, and for good reason. Lumberjacks were a special breed of men, just as their pioneer wives were a sturdy sort of woman, capable and determined. They were willing to put off the comforts of eastern cities for a rugged life, where they worked long hours in the outdoors, enduring the freezing northern winters in shared spaces of mixed personalities, races, and creeds.

This is my introduction to that time. Join me next month as we learn more together about the daily life of the loggers and lumberjacks in the Great Lakes region, and we’ll remember a particular incident upon which we are approaching an infamous anniversary.

Coming Soon! Pre-Order Available! 

Lumberjacks and Ladies ~ Four Stories of Romance Among the Pines

Naomi Musch is a multi-published author whose great love is historical fiction. Her novel Mist O’er the Voyageur was a 2019 Selah Awards finalist and two-time Book of the Year finalist. The sequel, Song for the Hunter, will release in early 2022, as will Not for Love, her novella in Barbour’s Lumberjacks and Ladies collection. She’s at home in the Old Northwest with her husband Jeff near their adult children and ever-expanding passel of grandchildren. Visit her website and sign up for her newsletter at https://naomimusch.com/

The History of Crayons (with giveaway) By Donna Schlachter

Photo by Miesha Maiden from Pexels

Crayons are such a wonderful way to express our creativity. Because of their size and shape, they are the perfect tool for young hands. When pigments are mixed with various mediums, including wax, chalk, and oil.

The word “crayon” was first used in 1644, and came from the French word for pencil, craie, but the use of such devices has been known for many years. The first drawing implements were sticks in dirt, or rocks scratching on walls of cave, and then even a burnt stick or charcoal for leaving a mark on hides or wooden slabs.

Ancient Greeks and Romans combined hot beeswax with known dyes to write on stones. Leonardo da Vinci used a form of pastels in the late 1400s, and artists have used a cross between pastels and crayons since the 18th century. Jane Austen mentioned them in Pride and Prejudice in 1813, and an alternative manufacturing method came up with a formula that used oil instead of wax, making them less likely to melt and more durable.

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

 

In 1881, companies in America began producing crayons, and Binney & Smith (now Crayola), began production in 1903, selling their crayons in sets according to varieties of colors. Crayons encased in cedar wood casings came out in 1883.

 

Photo by Ksenia Chernaya from Pexels

As with anything of interest to anybody, there arose various collector clubs that acquired the original crayons, crayon boxes, boxes of crayons, pencil cases, coloring books, and all sorts of paraphernalia associated with crayons. Currently, the official count is 2,929 different colors of crayons. You might want to take a look around the house—you might have a valuable historical icon that somebody will pay big bucks for.

Question: Answer the following question to be entered into a random drawing for a free ebook of Cactus Lil and the City Slicker: What is your favorite crayon color?


Resources:

http://www.crayoncollecting.com/

http://www.historyofpencils.com/writing-instruments-history/history-of-crayons/


About Cactus Lil and the City Slicker:

Lily Duncan—“Cactus Lil” to friend and foe alike—is as prickly as her name implies. Lil loves the desert, and she loves penning romantic short stories for a magazine under a pseudonym.

When Peter Golding’s uncle sends him to bring Daisy back to New York City, Peter decides to earn the old man’s respect and bring her back as his bride. He soon learns Daisy—uh, Lily Duncan is no shrinking violet.

 
Cactus Lil’s heart is torn. Will Peter choose her or his job? And will she decide to surrender her heart or send him packing—again?

About Donna:

Donna writes historical suspense under her own name, and contemporary suspense under her alter ego of Leeann Betts, and has been published more than 30 times in novellas, full-length novels, and non-fiction books. She is a member of ACFW, Writers on the Rock, SinC, Pikes Peak Writers, Capitol Christian Writers Fellowship, Christian Women Writers, and Christian Authors Network; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; ghostwrites; edits; blogs regularly for Heroes, Heroines, and History; and judges in writing contests. www.HiStoryThruTheAges.com