About this collection

Opened by marketing pioneer John Wanamaker (1838-1922) at 13th and Market Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1876, Wanamaker’s department store was one of America’s first modern department stores. Wanamaker's goal was to revolutionize the experience of shopping, turning a mundane activity into a grand event.

Wanamaker’s was well-ventilated, decorated with contemporary art, with large rooms that, after 1911, included a 150-foot-high Grand Court featuring attractions like the world’s second largest organ. The department store was the first to feature electric lighting, to adopt the telephone, and to install a pneumatic tube delivery systems for transporting documents and cash deposits throughout the building.

It also relied on innovations in customer service and marketing, including the substitution of of haggling for prices in favor of a set sales price. This decision was partly due to Wanamaker’s desire to make shopping a more pleasurable, less adversarial experience. But it was also informed by his devout Presbyterian faith, which led him to decide that “if everyone was equal before God, then everyone should be equal before price”.

This digital collection offers a selection of individually accessioned catalogs from the Wanamaker department store in Hagley Library's collections.