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August 18 is National Mail Order Catalog Day. This year, the Chicago History Museum is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the company responsible for that designation: Montgomery Ward. Portrait of Aaron Montgomery Ward. CHM, ICHi-062410 The well-known company was founded by Aaron Montgomery Ward in 1872, with a mission to make its products more available More
Collections volunteer Robert Blythe details the history of artifacts in our Marshall Field & Company collection. In 2006, many Chicago-area residents were crestfallen when all Marshall Field & Company stores were rebranded as Macy’s stores. A local institution, Field’s was the premier Midwestern department store with industry-leading customer service standards. Generations of Chicagoans cherish their More
Costume collection manager Jessica Pushor puts one of our Bes-Ben hats in the spotlight. With the autumn chill in the air, stores are enticing shoppers with warm clothes for the fall. Hats were once a major part of a woman’s wardrobe, and here at the Chicago History Museum, we have found the perfect one for More
Water Tower Place, a seven-story, 758,000 square-foot vertical mall, opened its doors on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile in October 1975. At the time, it was almost completely vacant with the exception of its anchor stores, Marshall Field & Company and Lord & Taylor. However, due to its almost immediate success and prominent location on North Michigan More
Planning an exhibition such as Chicago Styled: Fashioning The Magnificent Mile® requires combing through the entire costume collection to find the most appropriate garments. We start this process by looking through our collection database and old catalog cards and then pulling the actual garments from storage to examine in person. For Chicago Styled, we pulled More