Doubt anyone BORN in 1912 was reading catalogs.

Goodness, old fixer, you are always so agreeable and good natured.

Here's a real good look at years gone by...you can search by articles you wish to peruse or just type in a particular year if that's what interests you.

Here is a link that might be useful: Vintage ad browser

My mother's family lived out of the Sears catalog ca 1890 - 1940.

Attached is a steroscope view of Sears at his desk. Note the old style telephone on his desk.

The Ward's and Sears Christmas catalogs! It was so hard to wait. The most read books in our house were probably the catalogs. I don't remember ever getting anything from them but I know my mother ordered things. I suppose it wasn't anything that affected me.

They certainly carried a lot of merchandise! Maybe it was the "amazon" of the day!

Sears established one of the still-lovely suburbs along the lake north of Chicago: Kenilworth. Children of residents attend Sears grammar school, then go on to New Trier (high ranking high school).

Hard to know what to credit for the high test scores -- genetics, affluent parents, rigorous educations. Only 'magnet' schools in the area have higher test scores.

Catalogs' popularity probably had a lot to do with the customer base location. There were a LOT more stores and a MUCH bigger variety of stores in my home town than there is in that town today. My guess is the catalog had everything. My mother didn't drive and I can't picture my dad taking her shopping in another town! If she couldn't buy it in town, she ordered it through "Monkey Ward's".

chisue, I think intellectual potential is evenly distributed among different groups and has nothing to do with genetics. Affluent kids (even those with less ability) do better than their poorer counterparts because they're more frequently given enrichment opportunities and are pushed in the right directions. There are socio-economic and immigration status correlations to school test scores. It's not that the schools in better neighborhoods have smarter kids, it's that they don't have kids from disadvantaged and underperforming groups that lower the schools' scores.

lov-kitchen, I think you have it backwards. Early 20th century catalog sellers came on the scene to serve a much more rural population (than today) that didn't have access to stores. And the ones they found in small towns had limited choices.

There are far more stores today and a much higher percentage of the population living in urban and suburban settings. And, far fewer people living on farms and in rural settings. There's lots of "catalog"-type sales today, but it's for convenience, not necessity.

I think "the Amazon of the day" sums it up, Socks. I was thinking just recently of Sears' "Wish Book." Its arrival at the start of the Christmas season (which used to start a lot later than it does today) was a rather big deal, even after I was married, and we always ordered something from it. So many bright and tempting pictures!

LL Bean was another favorite catalog.

Snidely -- I agree. The Chicago magnet schools' scores may prove this.

We also need to remember that public schools (including Sears and New Trier) have to accept he whole community, while magnet schools cherry-pick. 'The whole community' along the North Shore is an elite.

Parental expectations are another factor.

"Not many still remembering these days!" referring to people who may have been looking at a catalog in 1912.

"Doubt anyone BORN in 1912 was reading catalogs." referring to the fact that people looking at a 1912 catalog were probably born before 1900. This is now 2014.

"Goodness, old fixer, you are always so agreeable and good natured.". I agree with the original statement that not many are around to remember 1912.

Made sense to me. Any other questions?