Shopping Through the Ages: 1896

I’ve been perusing the Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog again.  I just can’t help myself.  I’ve decided to start a weekly post about neat things I find each year as I “shop through the ages”.

I love seeing things that my ancestors may have bought.  Some seem silly, but then again – have you ever seen the stuff they sell on infomercials at night??  Times haven’t changed that much, have they?

This week, I am highlighting the 1896 Spring Catalog.  Come shopping with me.

• A combination child’s carriage and chair. This looks like quite the contraption!  Being a mother, I can appreciate how nice it is to have your baby tied down for a bit.  I’m only partially kidding.  There are so many things for them to get into!  And this is the age before the exersaucer – and Cheerios (Or maybe not.  I don’t know how long Cheerios have been around).  Anyway, the chair actually lowers and the wheels come out.  You can then push your baby around the house.  I don’t know that it would be appropriate for outside though.  The wheels look a bit tipsy to me.
• “Delay is dangerous when bargains like this are flying around”.  I love the ad campaign to sell this couch, which is billed as “The Greatest Thing in The World”. 
• How about a telephone?  I’d love to have one of these antiques someday.
• Or a “concert roller organ”?  I wonder what the quality of the music this produced was.
• A “Scholar’s Companion” whatever that is.  I couldn’t quite figure it out.  Is it a small safe to lock your special possessions inside? Any ideas?
• What about a full beard – or maybe just a goatee?  These couldn’t have looked real.  Why on earth would someone have needed these?  Maybe for a play?  I can’t imagine someone actually walking around town in one of these – even if you spent the extra money for the “ventilated” version.
• Anybody up for a board game?  How about “The Rival Doctors”? It is the “race for a rich patient by the doctors of a country village”. 
• Maybe you’re in the market for a new hat.  Doesn’t this one look comfortable?
• What kid wouldn’t want to wear this?  Doesn’t exactly make you want to run outside and climb a tree, does it?
• I have to admit that after having nursed 5 babies myself, I have often wondered how on earth women could possibly feed their babies when they were wearing a corset. I could imagine some very hungry, screaming infants out there, waiting for their moms to “get to the food” so to speak.  Apparently, they had nursing corsets!  Really!
• Don’t slouch around your mom.  She might make you wear one of these shoulder braces! “A Cure for Round Shoulders”.
• I can’t imagine living without a full bathroom in the house. I suppose if you have to have a “toilet set” though, it might as well be pretty. It lists the different pieces included in the set.  Does anyone know what the difference between a chamber and a slop jar are?  Just curious.  I’m sure that neither had a very nice function.
• Could you see yourself cruising around the neighborhood on this? I would imagine that you’d end up pushing it more than actually riding.
• What’s that you said? Huh?  Still can’t hear you, Sonny!
• Wow, cameras have come a long way! 
• And I’ll leave you with this: a picture of a full dining room from 1896.

See you next time, when we shop through 1897!