Researching 1800's Items by Linda K. Hubalek

When reading a historical fiction book, readers expect the writers to have the facts right about the time frame the book is set in.

It takes research to find the correct term for things still used today, too. My favorite source for finding items and their descriptions is in my reproduction of the 1895 Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalogue and Buyer's Guide. (Yes, even the word for catalog was different back then.)

For instance a men's billfolds were called books. You had the choice of bill books, hip-pocket books, and extra large bill books.

Want to buy a woman's coat? Think along the line of "Ladies Wraps", be it a cloak, cape, jacket, shawls, and under the children's section you can also find "reefers".

Men's hats? Choose from planter hats, sombreros, fedoras, cow boys' hats (cowboy is two words in the catalog), straw, hunting caps to silk top hats.

Need a saddle? The catalog has eight pages of detailed illustrated ladies' side saddles, boy's saddles, men's varieties of English, military, Morgan tree (we'd call them western style) with double cinches. Cost? Most saddles ranged between $10 to $25, with the least cost at $3.75, and the most expense, the new "Pride of the West" at $37.25.

This 600 plus page catalog showed thousands of items a person could order by mailing the company a letter, and the items would be delivered through the mail service too.

I love looking through the catalog just to see what a person could order.

No where else could you order a stove, a dog remedy, jewelry, a surveyors' compass, a butter trowel, a fish spear, a hammerless shotgun, a china oatmeal set and a two-seat business wagon, all from the same catalog.

I don't think Amazon could even come close to having all of these (be in 1800's) items available.

Thanks for stopping to enjoy today's Sweethearts of the West blog.

Linda Hubalek

Website | Amazon Author Page | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest