Catalog: The Illustrated History of Mail Order Shopping

by Robin Cherry

In " The Illustrated History of Mail-Order Shopping", Robin Cherry traces the timeline of these snapshots from American history and discovers along the way how we dressed, decorated our houses, worked, played, and got around. Catalogs are a record of how much things cost in different eras and how both language and graphic design have evolved. From corsets to bell-bottoms, from baby doll dresses and Doc Martens all the way to iPods, the history of these catalogs is the history of our lives and our culture. Organized into categories like clothing, food, animals, and houses, author Robin Cherry explores the vivid stories behind Sears, Montgomery Ward, Lillian Vernon, Harry & David, Jackson & Perkins, and of course, 45 years of the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

271 pages, Hardcover

First published September 4, 2008

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was fun, but had several major flaws.

There were hundreds of illustrations, but half the labels neglected to mention the publication year. How am I supposed to know the context?

At regular intervals, there were yellow pages with white text. Just, wow.

The writing was disorganized. The entire second half of the book was poorly organized.

All that said, it was quite fun to look through old Sears catalog pages and such.

[Kristen Northrup · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always preferred catalogs to stores, so this was a very appealing idea for a book. And it is full of interesting history and factoids, as well as plenty of old pages. No Lileks-like commentary, however.