I own a replica of an 1895 Montgomery Ward Catalogue, published by Dover. In settling the Ohio wilderness, hundreds of acres of land were cleared. 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., Our new Chicago Avenue Building is said to be the largest structure in the worldfifty acres under one roof,, Youve got to admire a business thats run on the square,, Every man in this house has got to be as square as men are made. A headline in the December 29 issue of the Tribune that year claimed that Wards end brings little grief to area business, civic leaders, noting that most observers were pleased to see the struggling company give up its real estate to stronger up-and-coming stores like Kohls or Target. Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future. Be the first to hear about new products andspecialoffers. . Cover of an original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer written for Montgomery Ward & Co. by Robert L. May and illustrated by Denver Gillen, 1939. . In 1859 Ward became a salesman in a general store in St. Joseph, Mich., for $6 a month and board, and later he was made manager . . Ward was ultimately victorious in his effortsLake Park was reborn as Grant Park in 1901, and the Field Museum was built further south on land donated by the Illinois Central Railroad. Catalogs-Montgomery Ward's Competitors, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, 1916-1917, 1919, 1922-1923, 1937-1938, 1943, 1948-1951, 1953, 1955-1959, 1886, 1888, 1890, 1895, 1907-1908, 1910-1911, 1915-1917, 1921-1922, 1940, 1942, 1951, 1953-1954, 1914, 1916-1917, 1920, 1937, 1939-1940, 1950, 1954-1955. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Avery was already the longtime president of the United States Gypsum Company, and had a track record of success leading a massive organization. 408 (N.D. Ill. 1945) Sales: $6.62 billion (1996) SICs: 5311 Department Stores; 5722 Household Appliance Stores. The Factor's Almanac, by James Talcott, Inc. 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. A bright red nose that would shine through fog like a flood light.. Please turn it on so that you can experience the full capabilities of this site. 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. Santa . 56 by Montgomery Ward & Co.; Schroeder, Joseph J., Jr. (Edited by) . The closing of Wards ends 128 years, not only of service to customers but of service through civic affairs., [An abandoned Wards catalog store in Checotah, Oklahoma. In 1883, the company's catalog, which became popularly known as the "Wish Book", had grown to 240 pages and 10,000 items. Orders from the retail stores and catalog order offices have totaled 2,400,000 copies, and, according to the company, teachers and psychologists are calling it a perfect Christmas book for children. . The building was only Wards headquarters for 10 years, as most workers moved to the building at 600 West Chicago Avenue by 1910. Among the catalog giant's astounding range of offerings were house kits, which the company began marking in 1908. 1875) was the young vice president (the two other brothers, George and James Thorne, were also board members). Item Description, Box Number, Folder Number, Collection Name, Collection By the 1880s, Montgomery Ward was widely known as the largest and most reputable mail order house in the country. Add to cart. By 1872, the company was able to recoup and send their first mail order out. . on the Internet. It is a Montgomery Ward catalog. There are no access restrictions on the materials for research purposes, Unfortunately, their entire supply of inventory was wiped out by the Great Chicago Fire. 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. Do you have any documentation of his work? Montgomery Ward Catalogue of 1895. Corsets. Enjoy the latest news from The Henry Ford, special offers, and more. Want to know more about Montgomery Ward? Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. In the 1910s, Thorne took the Ward stock public for the first time; helped oversee the opening of new distribution centers in Kansas City, Portland (OR), and Fort Worth (TX); and organized the rollout of a novel benefits program for Ward employees, including group health insurance coverage. The building even had a dedicated building courier system, which relied on roller-skating routes across the building for delivering interdepartmental packages and communications. Montgomery Ward & Co., founded in 1872, was the world's first mail-order goods business. 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? . The order was placed with a down payment. Over the years, the brand has consolidated into focusing mostly on furniture and home items with a vibrant online storefront and direct mail catalog focusing on very affordable home goods. "Ward had conceived of the idea of adry goodsmail-orderbusiness inChicago, Illinois, after several years of working as a traveling salesman among rural customers. If these pieces of 2-inch dimensional planks were nailed or bolted together, they could be as strong as a solid post or beam. We study methods of improving our business as we would a science. Outside the fog swirled in from Lake Michigan, dimming the street lights, May remembered. By now, there were sawmills with greater power and larger circular blades that were cutting dimensional lumber. 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. The companys arguably out-of-control growthhighlighted by a peak fleet of 556 retail stores in 1930left it unsurprisingly vulnerable to huge losses as the Depression set in. Bottom Left: Seven female employees prepare for an office party in 1929. 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. That kind of principle cant be beaten., 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,, The president [Merseles] and I just didnt get along,, He wanted to use retail stores as an outlet for surplus goods. Exterior view of the Montgomery Ward complex, located at 618 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, c. 1960. Congress of Industrial Organizations (Albany), National War Labor Board: U.R.W. Gratefully I buried myself in the writing. While Ward advertised a few Stetsons in the 1890 catalog, there are no illustrations of them - only Ward's own hats. None of them is solved by it . The nickname Monkey Wards, once used lovingly by shoppers, evolved into something a bit more derisive as their experience declined and better options sprouted up. Events such as the Civil War reduced the amount of manual labor available. 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. Barns became standardized, and cultural identity was lost. Reviews: 20 Estimated Reading Time: 6 mins See Also: 1941 montgomery ward catalog Show details SAVE TODAY Congress of Industrial Organizations (Chicago), National War Labor Board: U.R.W. He took the fear out of dealing by mail., and you will be charged only in proportion to our quotations. Wal-Mart and Target pummeled the stumbling old giant in the 1990s, and parent company GE Capital finally put Wards to bed after the Christmas season of 2000, announcing the closure of all 250 of its remaining storesand its Chicago offices. She died in July at just 33 years of age, leaving May a widower and single father. [Above: Wards 1960 catalog and a store promotional photo from 1963. Search the history of over 797 billion 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. By 1904, the company had grown such that three million catalogs, weighing 4 pounds each, were mailed to customers. The original Montgomery Ward factory opened in Chicago, 1860s by a young man named Aaron Montgomery Ward. Stereoscopes heres a link to my post on those. With George B. Everitt now in the role of president, Wards again hoped to paint itself as the classier alternative to Sears. Montgomery Ward GNB12894A parts in stock. All of the microfilm catalogs available through the National Archives Web site are also offered in printed form. $375.00 1912 Montgomery Ward Catalo. In 1872 he founded Montgomery Ward & Company, which became nationally known.. Ward, a young traveling salesman of dry goods, was concerned over the plight of many rural . This takes in everybody from the President to the office boy. Comparatively, other mail order services up to this point were either industry/trade specific or for an elite customer base. Sales Catalog, Fall & Winter, 1894, Montgomery Ward & Co. As a traveling frontier salesman of the Great Plains, young Aaron Ward was usually far from the battlefields of the Civil War, despite being of the right fighting age. OffbeatAvenue. For many centuries, things remained unchanged in the building trades. But what could a little reindeer teach children?, Outside the fog swirled in from Lake Michigan, dimming the street lights,, Light . Aaron Montgomery Ward (February 17, 1843 or 1844 - December 7, 1913) was an American entrepreneur based in Chicago who made his fortune through the use of mail order for retail sales of general merchandise to rural customers. 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. My family had an artist who worked for Montgomery Ward. . August 18 is National Mail Order Catalog Day. . Every season Montgomery Ward features a variety of new and exciting products in our online catalog. This year, the Chicago History Museum is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the company responsible for that designation: Montgomery Ward. . Ferdinand the Bull has a competitor, announced an article in the December 10, 1939 edition of the Sedalia Democrat (a small newspaper in Missouri). CHM, ICHi-062410. Montgomery Ward Publication date 1875 Topics Household supplies--Catalogs, Dry-goods--Catalogs, Clothing and dress--Catalogs. 5 hours ago Since 1872 Montgomery Ward has provided customers with a reliable catalog shopping experience. In fact, FDR had to repeatedly distract himself from addressing the likes of Hitler and Mussolini in order to deal directly with the defiant mail order magnate in Chicago. In 1988 senior management led a drive for a levereged buyout and Wards became a privately-held company. In 1893, founder Aaron Montgomery Ward sold his controlling interest to partner George R. Thorne, and the company became a public corporation in 1919. 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. Private Company. Required fields are marked *. In addition, Montgomery Wards charitable foundation provided millions of dollars over the years to Chicago-area charities. Use as a trusted citation in the future the Montgomery Ward complex, located at W.. 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