Advertising Resources in the BPCL

The Mail-Order Catalog Collection consists of thousands of catalogs from nearly 800 companies. While the collection contains several catalogs dating back to the late 1800's, the bulk of the collection dates to the latter part of the twentieth century, and into the twenty-first. The catalogs are primarily from companies located in the United States, but there are a few international companies listed.

Mail-order catalogs are an excellent source for the study of consumer culture–from clothing fashions to interior design to food and beverages to personal computing, and so forth. Advertising and marketing strategies can be compared from company to company, or within a specific company over several years. For example, the merchandise sold by the L.L. Bean Company of today varies greatly from the male-oriented sporting goods advertised in their 1941 catalog.

As the collection has developed through donations, it is representative, rather than exhaustive, in nature. Due to the sheer volume of mail-order catalog production, the BPCL's collection is a selective list.

All of our mail order catalogs are cataloged and available

• in Library Search by title, keyword, and/or company name
• browse them by the local call number mailordercatalogs.

This is an active collection, so stay tuned for new issues!

Guide prepared by Amanda Spurr, under the supervision of Jean Geist, February 2000.  Revised and updated September 2008 by Stefanie Hunker.  Updated May 2012 by Stefanie Hunker.