The House that Came in the Mail Again
99% Invisible5 Loka 2021

The House that Came in the Mail Again

The Sears & Roebuck Mail Order Catalog was nearly omnipresent in early 20th century American life. By 1908, one fifth of Americans were subscribers. Anyone anywhere in the country could order a copy for free, look through it, and then have anything their heart desired delivered directly to their doorstep. At its peak, the Sears catalog offered over 100,000 items on 1,400 pages. It weighed four pounds. Today, those 1,400 pages provide us with a snapshot of American life in the first decade of the 20th century, from sheep-shearing machines and cream separators to telephones and china cabinets. The Sears catalog tells the tale of a world -- itemized. And starting in 1908, the company that offered America everything began offering what just might be its most audacious product line ever: houses.

Buy The 99% Invisible City!

Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early.

Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jaksot(778)

Mini-Stories: Volume 8

Mini-Stories: Volume 8

This is part 2 of the 2019- 2020 mini-stories episodes where I interview the staff about their favorite little stories from the built world that don’t quite fill out an entire episode for whatever rea...

7 Tammi 202050min

Mini-Stories: Volume 7

Mini-Stories: Volume 7

It’s the end of the year and time for our annual mini-stories episodes. Mini-stories are fun, quick hit stories that came up in our research for another episode...or maybe it was some cool thing someo...

19 Joulu 201940min

Smart Stuff with Justin and Roman- Founder Effect

Smart Stuff with Justin and Roman- Founder Effect

The long-awaited return of Smart Stuff with Justin and Roman, featuring Justin McElroy and Roman Mars. Make your mark. Go to radiotopia.fm to donate today. Everyone should listen to My Brother, My Bro...

15 Joulu 20195min

The ELIZA Effect

The ELIZA Effect

Throughout Joseph Weizenbaum's life, he liked to tell this story about a computer program he’d created back in the 1960s as a professor at MIT. It was a simple chatbot named ELIZA that could interact ...

11 Joulu 201945min

The Infantorium

The Infantorium

“Incubators for premature babies were, oddly enough, a phenomenon at the turn of the 20th century that was available at state and county fairs and amusement parks rather than hospitals,” explains Laur...

3 Joulu 201934min

Mannequin Pixie Dream Girl

Mannequin Pixie Dream Girl

In the 1930s, Lester Gaba was designing department store windows and found the old wax mannequins uninspiring. So he designed a new kind of mannequin that was sleek, simple, but conveyed style and per...

27 Marras 201941min

Cautionary Tales

Cautionary Tales

Galileo tried to teach us that adding more and more layers to a system intended to avert disaster often makes catastrophe all the more likely. His basic lesson has been ignored in nuclear power plants...

19 Marras 201931min

Ubiquitous Icons: Peace, Power, and Happiness

Ubiquitous Icons: Peace, Power, and Happiness

There are symbols all around us that we take for granted, like the lightning strike icon, which indicates that something is high voltage. Or a little campfire to indicate that something is flammable. ...

13 Marras 201935min

Suosittua kategoriassa Liike-elämä ja talous

sijotuskasti
mimmit-sijoittaa
rss-rahapodi
psykopodiaa-podcast
herrasmieshakkerit
rss-rahamania
ostan-asuntoja-podcast
taloudellinen-mielenrauha
rss-sami-miettinen-neuvottelija
rahapuhetta
lakicast
rss-startup-ministerio
rss-draivi
sijoitusovi-podcast
rss-h-asselmoilanen
rss-uppoava-vn-laiva
rss-rikasta-elamaa
rss-sisalto-kuntoon
rss-seuraava-potilas
rss-myynnilla-on-asiaa-kert-kenner