It’s not 1939 outside. But this unfortunate date (see above) hasn’t prevented me from perusing, in some detail, the Fall-Winter catalog from Sears, Roebuck and Co. They are perhaps my only costly vice ...

Long before Amazon and internet shopping, you could buy almost anything from a mail-order catalog. Clothing, furniture, jewelry, toys, plant seeds. Even homes. From 1908 to 1940, customers could pick ...

From heroin to houses, Sears had it all. But before the Chicago business became America’s largest retailer—and affixed its name to the world’s tallest building—Sears started by selling time. In 1886, ...

Sears' mail-order catalogs from the 1950s and 1960s offered dogs, ponies, monkeys, and other animals for purchase. Rating: ...