Canadian Mail Order Catalogues

About This Site

Technical Information

Partnership

Acknowledgements

The National Library of Canada has digitized catalogues from its collection that span the decades from the 1880s to the 1970s. Included in this site are catalogues from Christie Grant, Dupuis Frères, Eaton's, Goodwin's, John Eaton, Nerlich, P.T. Legaré and Simpson's.

The catalogues are available in a searchable database, which supports keyword searching of the catalogue indexes. Users can search for a particular item in all the catalogues at once, or choose one catalogue to search. Browsing of the catalogues' indexes is also an option.

The catalogues have been digitized in their entirety, and users can view full-page images or zoom in to take a closer look.

Technical Information

This site uses the LizardTech MrSID software plug-in for viewing catalogue page images.

MrSID offers the ability to magnify, reduce and manipulate a catalogue page image. Without the plug-in, the page display is presented in the MrSID non plug-in version, which offers only basic functionality.

We recommend that you download the MrSID plug-in for enhanced viewing of the catalogue page images. For download instructions see the MrSID plug-in help page.

Partnership

A larger site on the history of mail order in Canada has been produced in partnership with the Canadian Postal Museum at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, and Museum and Heritage Services, City of Toronto: Before e-Commerce, www.civilization.ca/cpm/catalog/cat0000e.html.

Acknowledgements

The National Library of Canada gratefully acknowledges the cooperation and contribution of the companies and individuals who provided permission for use of the following catalogues:

• The Army and Navy Department Store catalogues are reproduced with the permission of Army and Navy Department Store Limited.

• The Eaton's and John Eaton Co. catalogues are reproduced with the permission of Sears Canada Inc.

• The Dupuis Frères catalogues are reproduced with the permission of Josette Dupuis-Leman.

• The Nerlich & Co. catalogue is reproduced with the permission of A.W. Pat Brodeur, Cassidy's Ltd.

• The Simpson's catalogues are reproduced with the permission of Hudson's Bay Company.

We also gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance of the Department of Canadian Heritage, whose Canadian Cultural Online Program (CCOP) made this work possible