In August 1872, Montgomery Ward published and mailed the world's first general merchandise
catalog. Regardless of their distance from the stores in cities and towns, Americans could shop
at home for a variety of products and have them delivered to their homes. In the years that
followed its 1872 catalog, the expansion of Ward's product lines to include toys, fine china,
automobile parts, tools, and even houses, helped make the retailer one of the nation's
largest department store chains.
Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.
In August 1872, Aaron Montgomery Ward published the world's first general merchandise catalog for consumers to shop from home and have products delivered to doors. Ward's 1872 mail-order catalog revolutionized retail trade much like the advent of shopping on the World Wide Web forever changed how we researched and bought products in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Aaron Montgomery Ward was born in Chatham, NJ, in 1843. He moved to Chicago, IL, in 1865, where he worked as a traveling salesman and wholesale representative for lamp, leather, and dry goods businesses. During his travels through the nation's rural communities, he found that the quantity and quality of goods available was poor. Families repeatedly told Ward that they would happily order quality products from a catalog if they could be delivered to their home at attractive prices. Despite facing criticism of his catalog shopping idea from potential investors and the loss of his first warehouse and its inventory to the 1871 Great Chicago Fire, Ward founded Montgomery Ward & Company in August 1872. Later that month, he wrote and printed the world's first general merchandise catalog consisting of 163 items for sale with prices and ordering instructions. He mailed catalogs to some of the 500,000 members of the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry—many of whom he had met while working as a traveling salesman. Ward's Chicago, IL, shipping office sent orders to customers "collect on delivery" by railway express. Customers inspected the merchandise and paid the railroad station master or rejected the shipment. By 1875, customers sent their payment with orders, but were assured by Montgomery Ward's "Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back" promise.
By the end of the 19th century, Aaron Montgomery Ward's catalog had expanded into a bound volume containing images and descriptions of thousands of items including agricultural tools, furniture, cloth and apparel, pots and pans, sewing machines, plumbing and electrical fixtures, kitchen appliances, jewelry, and firearms. Ward's success inspired competition, when Richard Sears and Alva Roebuck opened their own Chicago, IL, mail-order company—Sears, Roebuck and Co. Despite the competition, Montgomery Ward & Co. (also known as Wards) expanded rapidly. In addition to building its landmark Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalog House along the Chicago River in 1907–1908 and a national network of distribution centers, the company opened its first retail store in Plymouth, IN, in 1926. Within 3 years, Wards had 531 stores throughout the United States.
During the Great Depression, Montgomery Ward cut staff and closed stores while investing heavily in remodeling its remaining outlets and updating its product lines. After declining a merger offer from Sears, Wards emerged from the depression as the nation's largest retailer. However, Wards struggles were far from over. Unwilling to settle with striking workers in 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the U.S. Army to seize the company fearing the labor unrest would negatively impact the distribution of goods during World War II. President Harry Truman ended the seizure in 1945. As its retail rivals boomed in the post-World War II years, Montgomery Ward struggled. Infighting within management, increased competition, and unsuccessful mergers saw the retailer's fortunes stagnate. In 1985, Montgomery Ward mailed the last of its "Wish Book" catalogs, ending its 113 years as a mail-order business. In 1997, competition from discount retailers like Walmart and Target resulted in Montgomery Ward filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
. Emerging from bankruptcy in 1999, the company's new owner closed more than 100 stores and renovated remaining locations hoping to compete against "brick-and-mortar" rivals such as Target, Walmart, JCPenney, and Sears, as well as a new challenger—e-commerce. After a disappointing winter holiday shopping season in 2000, the retailer founded 129 years earlier by Aaron Montgomery Ward ceased operations in 2001.
You can learn more about Montgomery Ward and the history of our nation's retail trade sector using census data and records. For example:
Department stores like Montgomery Ward, Wanamakers, Jordan Marsh, Bullock's, and Marshall Field's once drew huge crowds to stores and shopping malls throughout the United States.
In November and December 2000, department stores reported sales of nearly $57.8 billion. More recently, the popularity of electronic shopping has drawn shoppers away from malls and
department stores. By 2019, combined November and December sales at department stores had fallen to $31.8 billion while spending on electronic shopping and at mail-order houses rose
from approximately $24.9 billion to $152.3 billion during the same period.
Photo courtesy of Harris County, TX.
The holiday story Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer originated as a Montgomery Ward winter holiday promotion.
Copy editor Robert L. May published the children's book to draw shoppers into Montgomery Ward department stores during the 1939 holiday shopping season. The promotion was so popular that in that first year alone, the department store gave away more than 2.4 million copies of the book.
In 1948, Max Fleischer directed an 8-minute animated film based on May's story that became part of Montgomery Ward's holiday advertising. That same year, Johnny Marks wrote the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Sung by cowboy-crooner Gene Autry, the holiday song quickly rose to the top of the American pop music charts.
In 1964, Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass produced a stop-motion animated television special based on Robert May's story. With narration by American singer and actor Burl Ives, the program is still "must watch television" when it airs during the winter holidays.
Today, the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is as much a part of holiday folklore as stories like Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
On August 25, 1864, Confederate soldier Jacob W. Cobb, Jr. captured future superintendent of the census Francis Amasa Walker during the Civil War's Second Battle of Ream's Station.
Released during an October 1864 prisoner exchange, Walker returned to his family's home in North Brookfield, MA.
Walker was working at a Springfield, MA, newspaper when President Ulysses Grant appointed him to supervise the 1870 Census. A decade later, President Rutherford Hayes asked Walker to oversee the 1880 Census.
Learn more about Walker in, "Captured! The Civil War Experience of Superintendent of the Census Francis Amasa Walker."