308 results for: Retail and Department Stores
Ephemera
Balke, Cole, & Co. account statement, August 28, 1890
According to the 1890 Polk Directory, Balke, Cole, & Co. was located at 1217 and 1219 Front Street (now First Avenue) in downtown Seattle. Proprietors Francis Cole, Rudolph L. Balke, and Walter James Coffman (1867-1898) sold mirrors, pictures, and art material. The receipt pictured here details sales made to John Leary totaling $24.35 (about $650 in 2018). Lawyer, businessman, and…
ID Number:2018.3.3.62
Date:1890
Ephemera
Malmo & Co. receipt, 1899
The receipt pictured here was issued to Miss Collins, by Malmo & Co., a seed and nursery company established in Seattle in 1893 by Norwegian immigrant Charles Malmo (1862-1938). Miss Collins paid $5.00 for 12 bunches of violets and three strings of Smilax (a woody vine). This object is one of several attributed to a collection from the family of…
ID Number:2018.3.3.83
Date:1899
Ephemera
J.S. Graham receipt, 1899
The receipt pictured here was issued to Emma Louise (Collins) Downey (1869-1951) by J. S. Graham, purveyor of "artistic Millinery, Cloaks and Suits." Miss Collins paid $20.28 for a hat, sailor, waist, silk, and another hat. This object is one of several attributed to a collection from the family of John Collins (1835-1903), an Irish immigrant who moved to Seattle…
ID Number:2018.3.3.84
Date:1899
Ephemera
Louch, Augustine & Co. grocery bill, January 31, 1901
Englishman Charles Louch (b. 1850) came to Seattle about 1883 and began selling fruits, tobacco, and groceries, eventually expanding to sausage and smoked meats. His signature 1888 Brand hams were popular locally and also a favorite of Klondike gold rush camps. Partnering with traveling food salesman Manuel Brock Augustine (1844-1922) in 1892, their business became well-known, and the men respected…
ID Number:2018.3.3.85
Date:1901
Ephemera
Littler Stores envelope, circa 1950
Upscale men's apparel store Littler was begun in 1931 by Anson A. "Bob" Littler (1900-1991), who started his career as a clerk at Frederick & Nelson in the menswear department. An avid golfer, Mr. Littler began playing in tournaments around 1926, and competed frequently with fellow retail merchants George H. Bartell (1868–1956) and Eddie Bauer (1899-1986). Also a local civic…
ID Number:2018.3.3.89
Date:Circa 1950
Ephemera
D. Kaufman receipt, November 1, 1880
The receipt pictured here was issued by David Kaufman, "Dealer in Boots and Shoes and Custom-Made Clothing." An immigrant from Germany who moved to Seattle from Victoria, British Columbia in 1869, Mr. Kaufman (1834-1912) was a successful tailor, importer, and business man in Seattle. When he died, his will bequeathed a house to each of his four children. The purchaser…
ID Number:2018.3.3.90
Date:1880
Correspondence
Wa Chong Company letter, April 20, 1909
On December 15, 1868, the man believed to be Seattle's first Chinese immigrant, Chun Ching Hock (1844-1927) opened the Wa Chong Company at the foot of Mill Street (now Yesler Way). The store sold imported Chinese goods, tea, rice, coffee, flour, and fireworks, but the company's most profitable business was labor contracting - recruiting and placing Chinese immigrants in domestic…
ID Number:2018.3.3.91
Date:1909
Ephemera
Schwabacher Bros. & Co. receipt, December 31, 1877
Schwabacher Brothers & Company, a San Francisco general store and wholesale house, expanded into Washington Territory when they opened a store in Walla Walla in 1860. Within a short time, the firm became Puget Sound's major wholesaler of canned goods, dry goods and other materials to the logging camps, mill towns and farming communities. Their first Seattle store opened in…
ID Number:2018.3.3.95
Date:1877
Ephemera
Anderson & Thompson Ski Company catalog, 1956
In the 1930s, Norwegian Jorgen Aaland experimented with making a laminated wooden ski. He lived in Seattle at the time and took his idea to Ray Anderson, a ski instructor and president of the city's General Furniture Company. Anderson developed the idea further and received a patent from the US Patent Office in May 1933. Anderson and mountaineer Ben Thompson…
ID Number:2018.3.3.110
Date:1956
Ephemera
Fulmer's Columbia Florist flower coaster, circa 1950
This flower coaster advertises Fulmer's Columbia Florist at 5212 Rainier Avenue. The flower shop, owned by Cecil H. Fulmer (circa 1895-1968) and his wife Helen M. Fulmer (circa 1898-1984), operated at 5212 Rainier Avenue just south of Columbia City business district from the late 1940s to 1953. The couple opened the Fulmer's Agate Shop at this same address, but the…
ID Number:2018.3.3.137
Date:Circa 1950