The House that Came in the Mail Again
99% Invisible5 Okt 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.

Avsnitt(777)

Great Bitter Lake Association

Great Bitter Lake Association

A little-known bit of world history about a rag tag group of sailors stranded for years in the Suez Canal at the center of a war. Great Bitter Lake Association Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to liste...

30 Okt 201933min

Audio Guide to the Imperfections of a Perfect Masterpiece

Audio Guide to the Imperfections of a Perfect Masterpiece

To help celebrate its 60th anniversary, the Guggenheim Museum teamed up with 99% Invisible to offer visitors a guided audio experience of the museum. Even if you've never been to the Guggenheim Museum...

23 Okt 201927min

Unsure Footing

Unsure Footing

Before 1992, the easiest way to run the time off the clock in a soccer game was just to pass the ball to the goalkeeper, who could pick the ball up, and hold it for a few seconds before throwing it ba...

15 Okt 201926min

The Kirkbride Plan

The Kirkbride Plan

Today, there are more than a hundred abandoned asylums in the United States that, to many people, probably seem scary and imposing, but not so long ago they weren't seen as scary at all. Many of them ...

8 Okt 201939min

The Help-Yourself City

The Help-Yourself City

There’s an idea in city planning called “informal urbanism.”  Some people call it “do-it-yourself urbanism.”  Informal urbanism covers all the ways people try to change their community that isn’t thro...

1 Okt 201931min

99% Invisible presents What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law

99% Invisible presents What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law

Donald Trump took office 977 days ago, and it has been exhausting. Independent of where you are politically, I think we can all agree that the news cycle coming out of Washington DC has been very inte...

24 Sep 201940min

Dead Cars

Dead Cars

Everything in Bethel, Alaska comes in by cargo plane or barge, and even when something stops working, it’s often too expensive and too inconvenient to get it out again. So junk accumulates. Diane McEa...

18 Sep 201936min

The Pool and the Stream Redux

The Pool and the Stream Redux

This is the newly updated story of a curvy, kidney-shaped swimming pool born in Northern Europe that had a huge ripple effect on popular culture in Southern California and landscape architecture in No...

10 Sep 201940min

Populärt inom Business & ekonomi

badfluence
framgangspodden
varvet
rss-jossan-nina
uppgang-och-fall
rss-borsens-finest
rss-svart-marknad
avanzapodden
fill-or-kill
lastbilspodden
bathina-en-podcast
borsmorgon
rss-inga-dumma-fragor-om-pengar
24fragor
rss-dagen-med-di
dynastin
rss-kort-lang-analyspodden-fran-di
tabberaset
loungepodden
rikatillsammans-om-privatekonomi-rikedom-i-livet