ORIGINAL PUBLICATION DATE: FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 12, 2008

The Art Of Commerce: American Mail-Order And Trade Catalogs, 1874-1956

An exhibition of 145 mail order catalogs dating from 1874 through 1956 will open at the Enterprise Center of Louisiana Tech University, in Ruston, Louisiana, on September 5, 2008. This show will run until October 3.

Catalogs have been some of the most colorful and aesthetically-striking ephemera to make their way into American homes and businesses. Each cover, and each illustration within a catalog, was created by an artist whose job it was to entice customers into patronizing the concern that issued it. Catalogs were thus carefully designed works of art. Moreover, the information that catalogs contain reveals more about the details and visual-look of the American way of life and material standards of their day than any other surviving contemporaneous documents. 19th-century catalogs are now being widely consulted by scholars, but their usefulness has seldom induced historians to take the logical step of similarly incorporating 20th-century catalogs into their studies. This exhibition seeks to encourage this desirable action while introducing catalogs' artistic and documentary significance to a wider audience than has ever been encouraged to give them the respect and attention that they deserve.

This exhibition includes 145 catalogs, ranging chronologically from an 1874 Butterick's dress-pattern catalog to one from 1956 that promised to teach consumers how to turn concrete into gold by making garden statuary. The largest division within the show presents a chronological survey of beautiful and strikingly artistic covers. Because he deems these covers significant works of art, the curator treated them as art and had them juried into the show by internationally-exhibited artist Marie Bukowski. This is the first project that treats catalogs as full-fledged works of art. The remainder of the catalogs are exhibited in the following sections: Christmas; World War II; Premiums; Science and Technology; Sports and Leisure; Fashions; Food and Medicine; and Gardening, Farming and Poultry Raising.

There is an opening reception on September 5 from 6 to 8 p.m. The Enterprise Center is located at 509 West Alabama Avenue in Ruston. The show is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information contact the Curator, Saul Zalesch, at (318) 257-3077; or szalesch@latech.edu.