Selection Criteria
The material included in Trade Catalogues and the American Home has been selected in close collaboration with academic subject experts, collections specialists at participating libraries and archives, and under the guidance of the Editorial Board.
The wide range of documents in this resource allow researchers to explore gender, class, the development of advertising, the rise of mail order shopping and department stores, changing social attitudes towards consumerism, the rise of the American Dream, and the response of American business to conflict. Items have been selected from the following archives in accordance with the date range (bulk 1850-1950) and domestic focus of this resource.
Lawrence B Romaine collection at University of California, Santa Barbara
The Romaine Trade Catalogue Collection at UCSB contains more than 50,000 items, primarily 19th and early 20th century American trade and advertising literature including more than 41,000 trade catalogues from Romaine’s personal collection, gifted to the university archive. The collection includes content in every key area of domestic life from clothing, to dry goods, furniture and appliances.
The Romaine Trade Catalogue Collection is arranged by subject category, or 'Industry'. The material within Trade Catalogues and the American Home has been sourced from those categories within the Romaine Collection that fall within the scope of the resource and align with the key themes of domestic daily life and consumer culture. The organization of the content by subject area within the archive forms the basis for the arrangement of the digitised material in the resource where it is categorised by ‘Industry’. For more information on this, please see the Industries Page.
All material relating to domestic life and the home preserved within these categories has been digitised for this resource.
Hagley Museum and Library
Hagley Museum and Library have a particularly strength in the history of engineering, manufacturing, industry and technology, driven by the manufacturing heritage of the Du Pont family. Material included within Trade Catalogues and the American Home has been sourced from Hagley's TRCAT Library Stacks and their Consumer Goods Catalogues collections in order to enhance and complement the domestic focus of Trade Catalogues and the American Home.
Winterthur Library
The Winterthur Library have a strong trade catalogue collection with a particular focus in the decorative arts and design and a significant holding of trade cards. Material from Winterthur Library appearing in Trade Catalogues and the American Home include the Thelma Mendsen collection as well as material from the Winterthur Trade Catalogue Collection. These items enrich the domestic focus of the collection and reinforce the subject areas and industries represented within the Romaine Trade Catalogue Collection at UCSB.
A note on exclusions
Where exclusions have been made, this is largely due to:
- Collections falling outside the defined remit of this resource
- Existing open-access content
The material included in Trade Catalogues and the American Home has been selected in close collaboration with academic subject experts, collections specialists at participating libraries and archives, and under the guidance of the Editorial Board.
The wide range of documents in this resource allow researchers to explore gender, class, the development of advertising, the rise of mail order shopping and department stores, changing social attitudes towards consumerism, the rise of the American Dream, and the response of American business to conflict. Items have been selected from the following archives in accordance with the date range (bulk 1850-1950) and domestic focus of this resource.
Lawrence B Romaine collection at University of California, Santa Barbara
The Romaine Trade Catalogue Collection at UCSB contains more than 50,000 items, primarily 19th and early 20th century American trade and advertising literature including more than 41,000 trade catalogues from Romaine’s personal collection, gifted to the university archive. The collection includes content in every key area of domestic life from clothing, to dry goods, furniture and appliances.
The Romaine Trade Catalogue Collection is arranged by subject category, or 'Industry'. The material within Trade Catalogues and the American Home has been sourced from those categories within the Romaine Collection that fall within the scope of the resource and align with the key themes of domestic daily life and consumer culture. The organization of the content by subject area within the archive forms the basis for the arrangement of the digitised material in the resource where it is categorised by ‘Industry’. For more information on this, please see the Industries Page.
All material relating to domestic life and the home preserved within these categories has been digitised for this resource.
Hagley Museum and Library
Hagley Museum and Library have a particularly strength in the history of engineering, manufacturing, industry and technology, driven by the manufacturing heritage of the Du Pont family. Material included within Trade Catalogues and the American Home has been sourced from Hagley's TRCAT Library Stacks and their Consumer Goods Catalogues collections in order to enhance and complement the domestic focus of Trade Catalogues and the American Home.
Winterthur Library
The Winterthur Library have a strong trade catalogue collection with a particular focus in the decorative arts and design and a significant holding of trade cards. Material from Winterthur Library appearing in Trade Catalogues and the American Home include the Thelma Mendsen collection as well as material from the Winterthur Trade Catalogue Collection. These items enrich the domestic focus of the collection and reinforce the subject areas and industries represented within the Romaine Trade Catalogue Collection at UCSB.
A note on exclusions
Where exclusions have been made, this is largely due to:
- Collections falling outside the defined remit of this resource
- Existing open-access content