Explore Sears’ holiday Wish Book catalogs dating back to 1930

In its famous catalog, Sears sold $600 DIY house kits from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in an estimated 100,000 'Sears and Roebuck homes.'

Sears used to sell entire DIY houses in its catalog

From 1908 through the 1940s, Sears sold DIY house kits starting at $600. An estimated 100,000 homes were built, but fewer than 5,000 have been identified today.

Scroll through a Sears historical timeline, starting in the year 1886

The Sears story starts with railroad worker Richard Sears purchasing a declined shipment of watches for a discounted price. An interactive historical timeline chronicles the history of Sears from then onwards.

Some argue the Sears catalog undermined Jim Crow laws in the rural South

When the Sears catalog was popularized, Black Americans didn’t always have an easy time shopping in US stores due to racism and Jim Crow laws. Some say that the Sears catalog was radical at the time for helping Black Americans avoid retail shopping in the South—often a negative experience.

Sears once tried to become a tech company

In 1984, Sears arguably created one of the first online retail services, called “Prodigy,” in 1984 alongside IBM and CBS. But it was more of a WeChat than an Amazon, offering a variety of other services to users a few years before the dot com era.

The Black Friday Archive collects Black Friday ads from the past 25 years

The archive features advertisements from notable retailers such as Bath & Body Works, Gap, and The Home Depot, among others. These ads span from the years 2000 to 2024, in addition to some from early holiday sales at Macy’s in 1963.

See a collection of Valentine's Day cards from the past century

Hallmark helped popularize (and commercialize) the holiday in the early 20th century, largely through its greeting cards. This digital collection includes cards from the 1910s through the 2000s, allowing you to see how the holiday—and our popular understanding of romance—has evolved. Below is a card from the 1930s.

Macy’s revolutionized retail with fixed pricing, pay-upfront policies, and marketing

The brand soon grew into a cultural icon, hosting the first in-store Santa in 1862, and launching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924, now a holiday staple. Its flagship Herald Square store became the world’s largest, and its festive window displays set a new standard for holiday celebrations.

Santa Claus originally wrote Christmas letters instead of receiving them

Parents originally used the letters as an opportunity to help discipline their children. Gifts eventually took on a more central role in the holiday, turning the letters into chances for kids to write Christmas wish lists.

German printer Richard Sellmer revived Advent calendars after World War II

Advent calendar production resumed in 1946, when German printer Richard Sellmer began issuing nostalgic winter-town designs that became classics, later exporting them to the United States. His company still operates today, producing more than 140 varieties.

The Whole Earth Catalog offered readers tools for healthy eating

The publication promised hippies "access to tools"—listings for "high quality or low cost" books, devices, and instructions for alternative living, including cultivating natural and organic foods. This archive comprises high-definition scans of nearly all materials published between 1968 and 2002.

Browse over a century of Billboard issues

For a music nerd, there's nothing more fascinating than poring over the Billboard charts from past decades to see how music—and the way it's categorized—has evolved. This digital archive allows you to click through almost every issue of the magazine and, in the process, watch the gradual emergence of nearly every American musical trend of the past century.

In 1924, the department store Marshall Field's invented the first modern 'wedding registry'

However, there were many traditions around wedding gifts before the wedding registry was invented, too—from dowries to marriage chests. Read about the history of the wedding registry in this article.

Explore early Thanksgiving documents, from recipes to early proclamations

History buffs will love this trove of original documents related to the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving, including 18th-century recipes, one of Sarah Josepha Hale’s appeals to President Lincoln to establish the national holiday, and a copy of Abraham Lincoln’s original 1863 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation. You can also find illustrations and photos of historical Thanksgiving celebrations over the years.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

Watch the Super Bowl commercial that launched Discover

A Sears subsidiary, the financial services company Dean Witter, launched Discover Card through a Super Bowl commercial during Super Bowl XX.

Thomas Edison created the first strand of electric Christmas lights in 1880

Edison strung electric bulbs outside his laboratory in 1880, and his business partner Edward H. Johnson first wrapped a tree in lights in 1882. It wasn’t until the lights were commercialized in 1917 that they became common in household Christmas decorations.

2 months after Pearl Harbor, American libraries launched a drive to collect 10 million books for soldiers

The 1942 Victory Book Campaign—sponsored by the American Library Association, the Red Cross, and the USO—asked the public to donate books to both train and entertain troops. The national campaign exceeded its goal, collecting more than 10.2 million books.

The history of the iconic Barbie doll

The 1959 debut of the Barbie doll changed the culture of toys permanently, and its many iterations have come to reflect, in a certain way, the aspirations of women around the world. But Barbie's unrealistic looks and plastic substance have prompted...

Tiffany & Co. released a $200K Advent calendar in 2021

Tiffany & Co. has released ultra-luxury Advent calendars containing more than $100K worth of jewelry, including gold bracelets, diamond earrings, and platinum pendants. The 2021 edition cost $200K and featured daily drawers of high-end pieces.

Read Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letters from 1977 on

Each year, Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholder letters are eagerly anticipated by employees and Buffett fans alike. A resource lists every single letter from 1977 and is great for anyone seeking a peek behind the curtain into Buffett’s brain through years of stock market booms and busts.

A 1908 toy visualizes how the sun never set on the British Empire

Researchers uncovered an early-1900s children’s toy that romanticized the British Empire: a rotating world map showing where the sun shone on Britain’s far-flung territories. The interactive device also served as an advertisement for "The Children’s Encyclopedia."

A millennial's guide to American Hanukkah specials

The 1990s and early 2000s were a boom time for television specials, including dozens of Hanukkah specials. See classics like Adam Sandler's "Chanukah Song" on "SNL" or the special "Rugrats" episode for the holiday.

How 'Star Wars' turned toys into collectibles

George Lucas licensed the "Star Wars" franchise to Kenner Products, which created small figurines that became wildly popular. By the 1977 Christmas season, they were facing a shortage and sold mail-in rainchecks, effectively allowing customers to purchase figures that weren't yet produced. The strategy worked, portraying the toys as valuable collectibles whose price would appreciate.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

Explore the material culture of socialist Cuba

Even the objects of everyday life were politicized under socialism. This catalog of Cuban artifacts, collected between 1959 and the fall of the Soviet Union, reveals how revolutionary values infiltrated the most ordinary of items—from cocktail coasters to cologne.

Peruse a running sale of collectible checks

The George H. Labarre galleries hold regular auctions of collectible checks, along with other numismatic items (such as coins, paper money, and so on). See the antiquated iconography on old checks from railroads, regional banks, and businesses.

The 1925 ‘Wizard of Oz’ predates the classic 1939 film

The film differs significantly from the 1900 book and the later 1939 film adaptation: Dorothy is 18 years old, the Tin Woodman is a villain, and the entire story of Oz is framed by a toy-maker reading the original Baum book to his granddaughter.

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

Walt Disney's early film 'Alice's Wonderland' was a groundbreaking innovation in the silent film era

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

El Niño, Spanish for 'the boy,' was named after Jesus Christ because the phenomenon resembled the weather changes observed around Christmastime.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

Brian Wilson wrote the Beach Boys' 'Don't Worry Baby' for the Ronettes, but the legendary girl group rejected it.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight