Shopping for History

Thanks to manufacturers like Hay & Todd (later the Ypsilanti Underwear Company), the city of Ypsilanti, Michigan, was once synonymous with underwear. Hay & Todd Manufacturing’s large advertisement showing a woman in a form-fitting union suit scandalized train passengers as they rode through Ypsilanti in the 1860s. While this fabric sample booklet doesn’t include any provocative imagery, it does showcase a number of samples of silk and wool fabrics, giving modern audiences a tactile sense for the “health underwear” of the nineteenth century.

Henry Richardi and Frederick Bechtold’s business in wooden tools for the kitchen and laundry capitalized on Michigan’s lumber industry. Listings feature empty space for a salesperson’s annotations of prices and discounts. The “Grocer’s Ideal Pickle Dipper” is an excellent example of the niche items produced by this turn-of-the-century manufacturer. As the advertisement notes, this dipper’s use extends beyond just pickles. One could also use it to measure exact servings of mince-meat, jellies, mustard, chow-chow, oysters, or, certainly, any other condiment or finger food.

“The Big Store” of the Hannah and Lay Mercantile Company was a massive general store in Traverse City, from the 1880s until 1928. This 1908 spring-summer catalog includes welcome messages in English, German, Polish, Czech, and Swedish. Among a multitude of products, the catalog offers different designs, patterns, and colors of hammocks, and features a line drawing of a woman in full Victorian dress dozing peacefully. The hammocks ranged in price from $2.50 to $7.40.

Abbott’s is still in business in Colon, Michigan, which is known as the “Magic Capital of the World.” If you’ve ever wondered where ventriloquists and other magicians buy their specialty supplies, Abbott’s is a great example. The Genteel Boy Figure is only one of several models available in the “Vent” section of their catalog. Note that the $43.50 price for this figure includes postage, a bargain in any era. This catalog is massive, with more than 800 pages of supplies for close-up magic, card tricks, flower magic, illusions, and more.

Do you need to outfit the cast of a theatrical production? Whitney Scenic & Costume Company of Detroit offers a wide variety of costumes and accessories. In the introduction, the catalog encourages customers to write to them if they are looking for something not listed. The company even offers to mail back a sketch and make custom pieces. This clown costume comes in three styles: spotted, striped, or with pom poms. While some of the costumes sold in this catalog promote what modern viewers may recognize as offensive cultural stereotypes, this clown costume is timeless and charming.

Should you find yourself ready to invest in a super accordion in Detroit during the instrument’s heyday, look no further than the Castiglione Accordion Company. When this catalog was published around 1968, the company had been in business for almost a half century. The “Detroiter Super Model” weighed 24 ½ pounds and cost $1,700. When adjusted for inflation, that would be a price tag of nearly $17,000 dollars today.

The Ihling Bros. & Everard of Kalamazoo, Michigan offered what could be considered PPE (or personal protective equipment) for the office worker of 1901. Think protectors to keep ink away from vests or sleeves, or a green celluloid eye shade to protect workers’ vision. Not only would the discerning clerks in the offices of townships, villages, cities, and school districts look swell in this dapper equipment, they also could work in comfort knowing that their clothing and eyes would be safe from potential hazards. 

Detroit may be the Motor City, but many carriage and sleigh manufacturers operated in Michigan around the turn of the last century, including the Kalamazoo Wagon Company. This “Pleasure or Business Bobs” is a versatile vehicle “specially adapted to meet the wants of everyone requiring a business and a pleasure sleigh combined.” It features adjustable seats and even comes in a slightly larger three-seat model. And, as the advertisement notes, the wagon body can be mounted on “bobs” or pairs of runners (as pictured), or it can be furnished with wagon gear. Thus, this same vehicle body can be built as either a winter sleigh or a summer wagon, depending on your transportation needs.

While it’s unsurprising that outdoor enthusiasts might buy a folding or inflatable kayak in the 21st century, did you know that similar products were for sale in the 1880s? Unlike most of the other catalogs featured here, this catalog is focused on just a few products: the portable folding canvas boat; and folding minnow and fish crates. After a few pages describing the collapsible boat, there are ten pages of testimonials!

One of the the shorter letters:

Valparaiso, Ind., March 7, 1878

Messrs. Osgood & Chapin:-

Gents: I have never written you concerning the satisfaction with which I have used your Canvas Boat. It has more than proved itself to be Staunch, Seaworthy, and wonderfully convenient. Two of us took it into our light buggy and visited the small lakes in our country, where a heavy boat could not be carried. I believe you have the best portable boat yet invented. I have seen them all.

Yours truly, 

W. H. Holabird

In case Ypsilanti health underwear wasn’t enough to fend off illness, Alabastine and Alabasco wall coatings are advertised as a more sanitary option than wallpaper for home decorating:

“Wallpaper, as everyone knows, collects germs, breeds disease and spreads contagion.” With the flu pandemic of 1919 fresh in the collective memory, perhaps hygienic wall coverings seemed like an effective marketing angle.

A key ingredient in Alabastine is calcined gypsum, mined near Grand Rapids. The product comes in “plain, soft tints” that were “delightfully clean, cheerful and truly artistic,” as opposed to the “glaring, crude colors” created by competitors. The Alabastine Book also includes stencils for decorating and pages of examples of color plans for every room of the house.