Figure 1.--Here are the different styles of boys' and men's underwear offered by Wards in its Fall-Winter 1915-16 catalog. Girls underwear was also included.
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Figure 1.--Here are the different styles of boys' and men's underwear offered by Wards in its Fall-Winter 1915-16 catalog. Girls underwear was also included. |
We notice a page in the Wards Fall and Winter catalog for men's and children's (boys and girls) underwear. There was quite a number of different variations offered. There wwre both shirts and drawers and union suits. The girls shirts were called vests, but the pants for boys and girls were called drawers. One interesting aspect of this ad is that the girls underwear was included in the section for men and boys rarther than the women's section.
Although the word "consumerism" has a modern ring, it was personal concern for an early consumer movement, the "National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry," That inspired a young traveling salesman named Aaron Montgomery Ward to start the world's first general merchandise mail-order company in 1872. Aaron
Montgomery Ward was born on February 17, 1844, in Chatham, New Jersey, to a family whose forebears had served as officers in the French and Indian Wars as well as in the American Revolution. Looking for something more compatible, Monty left home and followed the river to Lake Michigan and the town of St. Joseph,
county seat and market for outlying fruit orchards. Chicago was the center of the wholesale dry goods trade and in the 1860s Ward joined the leading dry goods house, Field Palmer & Leiter. As a retailer, Potter Palmer had previously built a reputation for fair dealing. Ward absorbed these principles while working as a clerk
for $5. The Chicago City Directories for 1868 through 1870 listed Ward as a salesman for Wills, Greg & Co. and later for Stetthauers & Wineman, both dry goods houses. In 1870, after canvassing territory in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Ward was again footloose. The plan shaping in Ward's mind was to buy goods at low cost for
cash. By eliminating intermediaries, with their markups and commissions, and cutting selling costs to the bone, he could offer goods to people, however remote, at appealing prices - for cash. Since its founding in 1872, the company has literally "grown up with America" and has had a major impact on the shopping habits of a
nation of consumers. Montgomery Ward & Co. discontinued its catalog operations in 1985 as part of its restructuring effort to change itself into a modern, competitive chain of value-driven specialty stores, a move which for a time saved the company. week.
We notice a page in the Wards Fall and Winter catalog for men's and children's (boys and girls) underwear. There was quite a number of different variations offered. There wwre both shirts and drawers and union suits. The girls shirts were called vests, but the pants for boys and girls were called drawers. One interesting aspect of this ad is that the girls underwear was included in the section for men and boys rarther than the women's section.
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