An address delivered by Mr. Joseph H. Appel at the Annual Meeting of the Business Historical Society.

It was two o'clock of a morning in late October, 1899. As night editor I had just put to press Colonel McClure's Philadelphia Times and was examining a first copy. My eye caught John Wanamaker's advertisement—with a banner head across the top—in color. A thought flashed in my mind—why not make it read: “Wanamaker's Daily News”? Make up the page like a newspaper—a newspaper of the store? Why not? Isn't a store a little world? Why not tell its news? I slept on the thought. Next day I wrote a letter—closing with “kindly reply at your earliest convenience.” The reply was prompt. “Come and see me,” signed John Wanamaker. Two days later I said goodbye to the Times and became an advertising writer in a great store.

An address delivered by Dr. Ralph M. Hower at the Annual Meeting of the Business Historical Society.

I propose to interpret my subject rather liberally and to concentrate upon what seem to me to be some fundamental changes in retailing—ranging the whole of the 19th century, but focussing attention especially upon the years from 1850 to 1875, a period of great innovation. And please note that all my remarks have to do with American experience.

To start, then, let me sketch briefly the retailing picture in the larger American cities about 1850. In general the principle of specialization dominated the scene: both retail and wholesale trades were split up, by types of merchandise, into single-line or specialty stores. If you examine the advertisements and business directories of the period, you will find a really astonishing array of stores, each of which confined itself to a narrow range of goods.