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.

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(791)

Butterfly Effects

Butterfly Effects

Ballots are an essential component to a working democracy, yet they are rarely created (or even reviewed) by design professionals. Good ballot design is mainly a matter of following good design princi...

4 Marras 201515min

War and Pizza

War and Pizza

Households tend to take pantry food for granted, but canned beans, powered cheese, and bags of moist cookies were not designed for everyday convenience. These standard products were made to meet the n...

28 Loka 201516min

Atmospherians

Atmospherians

The phrase ‘from Central Casting’ has become a kind of cultural shorthand for a stereotype or archetype, a subject so visually suited to its part it appears to have been designed for that role. Search...

20 Loka 201518min

Structural Integrity (Rebroadcast)

Structural Integrity (Rebroadcast)

99% Invisible is honored to accept a 2015 Third Coast International Audio Festival award for Structural Integrity, a story of architectural engineering gone wrong, and then covertly made right. When i...

14 Loka 201523min

Rajneeshpuram

Rajneeshpuram

Indian philosopher and mystic Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh had a vision: he would build a Utopian city from the ground up, starting with 64,000 acres of muddy ranchland in rural Oregon. Purchased in 1981, t...

7 Loka 201528min

Dead Letter Office

Dead Letter Office

When something is lost in the mail, it feels like it has disappeared into the ether, like it was sucked into a black hole, like it no longer exists. But, it turns out, a lot of the mail we think … Con...

30 Syys 201516min

A Sweet Surprise Awaits You

A Sweet Surprise Awaits You

On the night of March 30, 2005, the Powerball jackpot was 25 million dollars. The grand prize winner was in Tennessee, but all over the United States, one hundred and ten second-place winners came for...

23 Syys 201514min

Milk Carton Kids

Milk Carton Kids

On a Sunday morning in 1982, in Des Moines, Iowa, Johnny Gosch left his house to begin his usual paper route. A short time later, his parents were awakened by a phone call–it was a neighbor—their pape...

15 Syys 201516min

Suosittua kategoriassa Liike-elämä ja talous

sijotuskasti
rss-rahapodi
mimmit-sijoittaa
psykopodiaa-podcast
rss-oivalluksia-rahasta-elamasta
rss-rahamania
ostan-asuntoja-podcast
herrasmieshakkerit
rahapuhetta
rss-viisas-raha-podi
rss-sami-miettinen-neuvottelija
sijoituspodi
hyva-paha-johtaminen
rss-lahtijat
rss-sisalto-kuntoon
rss-yritys-ja-erehdys
inderespodi
lakicast
rss-paasipodi
rss-asiakaskokemusklubi