Museum Studies - Arndt

This digital collection contains a selection from Hagley Library's collection of trade catalogs and pamphlets. The materials date from 1783 to 1988 and vary in size. The trade catalogs contain lists, often illustrated, of items sold by an assortment of manufacturers, mostly American. The pamphlets largely consist of promotional materials. They are organized chronologically by publication date.

Use this large University of California libraries discovery system to locate freely available catalogs (often from HathiTrust).

e.g., to find trade catalogs on farm equipment search for:
catalogs AND equipment AND (farm* OR agricultur*)

Then limit results to Open Access (found on the left-hand side of the results page)

Then limit results to publication years of interest - e.g., 1890-1929 (found on the left-hand side of the results page)


For catalogs outside of the U.S. consider searching for the word catalogue or catalogues

Try searching for the word "catalogs" and a general category (e.g., pottery, gardening, currency) that would cover your artifact.


Department Store Catalogs

Alternatively, to find a handful of digitized Sears, Roebuck or Montgomery Ward catalogs by using the search Internet Archive with the following command:

                                                subject:"department store catalog"

"Select architectural trade catalogs from Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library. Trade catalogs, also known as manufacturer's or commercial catalogs, are an important primary source of information on building materials, supplies, decorative elements and industry trends during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Avery Library has a large collection of these original catalogs, most of them in our rare book collection called "Classics." --- Columbia University

"This online collection of architectural trade catalogs represents a portion of the Andrew Seager Archives of the Built Environment, a Division of University Libraries' extensive collection of trade catalogs which spans over 100 years of products and materials related to building trades in the United States.

Used by manufacturers and suppliers to market their products directly to architects and builders through the mail, these catalogs, price sheets, and informative newsletters often guided architects to the latest innovations that clients desired. Considered ephemeral, relatively few of these catalogs have survived, but they provide a rare glimpse into the products and concerns of a certain era." --- Ball State University