Anspach Travel Bureau Collection of Tourism Literature, 1942-2000
Real estate and travel company founded in 1932 by brothers Herman and Robert Anspach in Highland Park, Ill. Currently part of Valerie Wilson Travel, Inc. Collection spans 1942-2000 with the bulk of materials dating from the 1960s- 1980s. Primarily brochures, leaflets and other take-away direct marketing materials advertising resorts, hotels, airlines, cruise lines, and other services and destinations comprising the travel and tourism industry. Also includes newsletters, itineraries, and some correspondence. All continents and ocean regions are represented.
Abercrombie & Fitch Catalog Collection
The Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterly Catalog Collection consists of a run of lifestyle-oriented clothing catalogs issued between 1997 and 2007. The catalog featured articles on a wide range of youth popular culture and lifestyle topics, along with numerous photographs by Bruce Weber. Articles included advice, music and movie reviews, and profiles and interviews with celebrities and cultural critics such as philosopher Slavoj Žižek. [include link?] The Creative Director for the catalog series was Sam Shahid, who had previously worked in the in-house advertising agencies for Calvin Klein and Banana Republic. After 2003, the lifestyle content and controversial photography was scaled back to focus more narrowly on seasonal fashion.
Colored Mail Order Corporation of America Records, 1939
The Colored Mail Order Corporation of America was a mail order company targeting African American clients founded by African American journalist and businessman Chester Arthur Franklin. This collection contains catalogs, customer order forms and stationary materials (reply envelopes and post cards, etc.), and materials asking individuals to help distribute catalogs. It also contains advertisements for the company that include endorsements from customers and prominent African Americans. Finally, the collection includes correspondence regarding catalog production and distribution, and some correspondence on the process of seeking endorsements. Some materials target potential customers in Mississippi, specifically, and most promotional strategies link the success of the business and the quality of its products to notions of "racial progress" and pride. Clothing models drawn in the catalog are African-American. This is a small collection, and all original materials are found in Box 1.
Sears, Roebuck and Company Catalog
The Sears Roebuck and Company catalog began as a printed mailer for the R. W. Sears Watch Co. in 1888 and by 1894 had expanded into a full-fledged catalog for the Sears, Roebuck and Co. mail order supply house, selling a diverse inventory of products. The library has print and/or microform copies of the catalog for most years between 1894 and 1993. See library catalog for specific dates.
For additional catalog marketing related material in this pathfinder, see:
