Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalogue Number 82, Spring Supplement, New York Catalogue

[Early 20th century Advertising and Mail Order Sales] Pictorial cover, with the Statue of Liberty (holding a copy of a Montgomery Ward catalog). Softcover. Some creases to extremities. Profusely illustrated. 208 p. "Montgomery Ward was founded by Aaron Montgomery Ward in 1872. Ward had conceived of the idea of a dry goods mail-order business in Chicago, Illinois, after several years of working as a traveling salesman among rural customers. He observed that rural customers often wanted "city" goods but their only access to them was through rural retailers who had little competition and did not offer any guarantee of quality. Ward also believed that by eliminating intermediaries, he could cut costs and make a wide variety of goods available to rural customers, who could purchase goods by mail and pick them up at the nearest train station." In 1896 the US post office started to offer free rural delivery. This led to expansion of the mail order business. - Smithsonian.