Monday 4 January 2016

Everything From Oriental Rugs to Prefabricated Houses

"This catalogue is destined to grow wherever the maple leaf grows, throughout the vast Dominion.  We have the facilities for filling mail orders satisfactorily, no matter how far the letters have to come and the goods have to go." (Timothy Eaton, 1887)



When the Eaton's catalogue first came off the press in 1884, it was a mere 32 pages.  By the 1920's, the catalogue had grown to 500 pages.  In 1890, there were more than 100 clerks filling catalogue orders.  By 1896, Eaton's was sending out 135,000 parcels by post and 74,000 by express.  By 1903, the mail order operation was so large that it had to move to a separate building in Toronto.  Here are some of the products featured in the Eaton's catalogue over its 90 year history:


  • clothing
  • farm implements
  • silverware
  • china
  • prefabricated houses
  • jewelry
  • patterns
  • toys
  • dolls
  • books
  • windmills
  • lamps
  • hats
  • Oriental rugs
  • records
  • crystal
  • train sets
  • appliances
  • luggage
  • sporting goods
  • fishing accessories
  • hair permanent machines
  • accordions
  • pianos
  • guitars
  • phonographs
  • vacuums
  • mattresses
  • medicines
  • stationery
  • cameras
  • seeds
  • bulbs
  • baby carriages
  • women's furs
  • linens
  • drapes
  • blacksmith's tools
  • candy
  • priest's cassocks
  • Klondike miner's clothing


Eaton's Spring Summer 1913, back cover (detail).

Prefabricated Houses in Eaton's Catalogue circa 1913 courtesy http://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cpm/catalog/cat2104e.shtml#1222116.

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