Montgomery Ward – 1844-1913

In 1872, Ward, a prominent Chicago merchant, began distributing a 280-page catalog throughout the rural Midwest, seeking to expand his market to farmers unable to get into the city. The success of Ward’s mail-order retailing model inspired Richard W. Sears and A. C. Roebuck to begin their own catalog-based mailorder business in 1889, which became the giant of the new mail-order industry, transforming American retailing—and introducing “urban” goods throughout the country.