Vicki Howard | University of Essex - IDCR (original) (raw)

Papers by Vicki Howard

Research paper thumbnail of Trade Catalogues as Historical Sources: Advertising American Consumer Culture in the Great Depression

Research paper thumbnail of Imagining Consumers

American Quarterly, 2001

SCHOLARS INTERESTED IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCtion must read Regina Blasz... more SCHOLARS INTERESTED IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCtion must read Regina Blaszczyk’s Imagining Consumers: Design and Innovation from Wedgwood to Corning. The title of Blaszczyk’s book captures the work’s major contribution to the field of consumer culture studies. Imagining Consumers is a collection of business case studies that shows how manufacturers in the ceramics and glassware industry responded to the tastes and practical requirements of their customers. Through extensive archival research, Blaszczyk persuasively argues that a host of “fashion intermediaries” carried men’s and women’s desires for particular designs of pressed and cut glass, dime store and schemeware china, and colorful pottery for casual dining back to the manufacturers, who in turn shaped the production and marketing of these goods to fit demand (12). Focusing on design, production, and marketing, it reveals the power of consumers: firms that considered their customers when they designed and marketed goods thrived, while others who developed styles or products without listening to their audience failed. This story of the glass and ceramics industries complicates the picture of a consumer society forged by the engines of mass production, distribution, retailing, and new ways of advertising. Blaszczyk follows the path of Philip Scranton’s work on batch production, which

Research paper thumbnail of Arcades, shopping centres and shopping malls

Research paper thumbnail of The Routledge Companion to the History of Retailing

Research paper thumbnail of ‘History of department stores: introduction’

History of Retailing and Consumption

When I was working on my history of the American department store industry, I wished for a book-l... more When I was working on my history of the American department store industry, I wished for a book-length global study of department stores that united all the stories of retail development and their diverse historical contexts around the world. I am still waiting. Most historical research and analysis of the subject takes place within a single national framework. Given the intricacies of law and policy that shape the direction of retail development in different countries, as well as the important role of culture in all things commercial, national studies make sense. The practicalities of research also favour national studies. Transnational projects require broader training and sometimes additional language skills, as well as international access to archives. While we are still waiting, this special issue of History of Retailing and Consumption takes us closer. As I hope readers will agree, it demonstrates the rich and diverse path of mass retailing around the globe, covering Eastern Europe, the Americas, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Each article focuses on a single country, but together they contribute to our understanding of the international history of this important social institution. The special issue documents cross-cultural influences in retailing, highlighting the influence of the United States across the world, but moving beyond the more wellknown Anglo-American networks. Many similarities are evident across national borders, but vastly different political and economic contexts resulted in unique retail environments, shaping labour and consumption in divergent ways. In the Western context, department stores originated in the nineteenth century. The term 'department store' became current in the 1890s in both Britain and the United States, though it was more narrowly applied in Victorian Britain than it was across the Atlantic. One provincial English department store, Browns of Chester, even objected to the term. 1 While historians have documented early opposition to the new retail mode on both sides of the Atlantic, customers embraced it. 2 Perhaps sooner and to a greater extent in the United States than in Britain, department stores expanded the contours of consumer culture. As has been well documented in North America, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century these department stores made mass consumption possible through their low prices and wide variety of goods under one roof. They also spread a consumer ethos through mass advertising and branding, new merchandising and sales methods, lavish interiors and attractive amenities. 3 Nineteenth-century American department stores were harbingers of the rise of a national commercial society and

Research paper thumbnail of Issue 6.1: Introduction

History of Retailing and Consumption

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter 5. An Essential Industry in Wartime

Research paper thumbnail of Karen M. Dunak. As Long as We Both Shall Love: The White Wedding in Postwar America

The American Historical Review

Research paper thumbnail of “I am Kay and I Prefer Modern”: Bridal Testimonials and the Rise of Consumer Rites, 1920s–1950s

Testimonial Advertising in the American Marketplace, 2009

Between the 1920s and the 1950s, the bride emerged as a central advertising figure, paralleling t... more Between the 1920s and the 1950s, the bride emerged as a central advertising figure, paralleling the rise of the American wedding industry.1 Pictured in her long white gown and veil or as a newlywed, she appeared in promotions for products associated with women’s roles and feminine identity, as well as in advertisements for goods that had little connection to weddings or marriage. Brides also featured in testimonial advertisements during the 1920s and 1930s. A woman about to marry or newly married provided a credible voice for the advertiser.2 Indeed, bridal status itself brought a degree of authenticity to producers’ claims. With the bride’s combination of youth, innocence, and beauty, she offered the perfect psychological sell. As a future Mrs. Consumer, the bride was an ideal candidate for this type of advertising, able to share expertise in beauty products and household goods with readers who identified with her role as wife and future mother.

Research paper thumbnail of From main street to mall: the rise and fall of the American department store

Consumption Markets & Culture, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of From Main Street to Mall

Research paper thumbnail of “The biggest small-town store in America”: independent retailers and the rise of consumer culture

The case study of Bresee's Department Store in Oneonta, New York, suggests that small-town de... more The case study of Bresee's Department Store in Oneonta, New York, suggests that small-town department stores were not necessarily fully “modern” by the early twentieth century. This article demonstrates how modern, big-store, business methods came later and documents how earlier modes of trade, such as credit and bartering, persisted into the early twentieth century, even in non-rural, northern contexts. Preliminary findings suggest that eliminating the urban bias in much historiography by including small-town retailing practices may lead to a later periodization of American consumer society.

Research paper thumbnail of Department store advertising in newspapers, radio, and television, 1920-1960

Purpose – Focusing on the early development of the three major forms of local advertising employe... more Purpose – Focusing on the early development of the three major forms of local advertising employed by independent department stores across the USA – newspapers, radio, and television – this paper examines continuity in the industry's commercial use of new technologies. Design/methodology/approach – The research draws on different types of primary sources, including department store financial records and correspondence, retailing

Research paper thumbnail of At the curve exchange': postwar beauty culture and working women at Maidenform

Beauty culture shaped the work experiences of women factory operatives and office staff at the Ma... more Beauty culture shaped the work experiences of women factory operatives and office staff at the Maidenform company in complex ways during the 1940s and 1950s. Through advertising, the company newsletter, beauty contests, “Pin-Up of the Month” competitions, and the ultra-feminine form made possible by the…

Research paper thumbnail of A" real man's ring": Gender and the invention of tradition

... ftaut" Kith Laura Lm Plwitr. Bride and Groom Rings FASHIONABLK SOCIETY sanctions... more ... ftaut" Kith Laura Lm Plwitr. Bride and Groom Rings FASHIONABLK SOCIETY sanctions the return of the ancient custom of the double ring service?the exchange of wedding bands between bride and groom. ... through vour Whole-saler. Bristol Seamless Ring Co. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Trade Catalogues as Historical Sources: Advertising American Consumer Culture in the Great Depression

Research paper thumbnail of Imagining Consumers

American Quarterly, 2001

SCHOLARS INTERESTED IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCtion must read Regina Blasz... more SCHOLARS INTERESTED IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCtion must read Regina Blaszczyk’s Imagining Consumers: Design and Innovation from Wedgwood to Corning. The title of Blaszczyk’s book captures the work’s major contribution to the field of consumer culture studies. Imagining Consumers is a collection of business case studies that shows how manufacturers in the ceramics and glassware industry responded to the tastes and practical requirements of their customers. Through extensive archival research, Blaszczyk persuasively argues that a host of “fashion intermediaries” carried men’s and women’s desires for particular designs of pressed and cut glass, dime store and schemeware china, and colorful pottery for casual dining back to the manufacturers, who in turn shaped the production and marketing of these goods to fit demand (12). Focusing on design, production, and marketing, it reveals the power of consumers: firms that considered their customers when they designed and marketed goods thrived, while others who developed styles or products without listening to their audience failed. This story of the glass and ceramics industries complicates the picture of a consumer society forged by the engines of mass production, distribution, retailing, and new ways of advertising. Blaszczyk follows the path of Philip Scranton’s work on batch production, which

Research paper thumbnail of Arcades, shopping centres and shopping malls

Research paper thumbnail of The Routledge Companion to the History of Retailing

Research paper thumbnail of ‘History of department stores: introduction’

History of Retailing and Consumption

When I was working on my history of the American department store industry, I wished for a book-l... more When I was working on my history of the American department store industry, I wished for a book-length global study of department stores that united all the stories of retail development and their diverse historical contexts around the world. I am still waiting. Most historical research and analysis of the subject takes place within a single national framework. Given the intricacies of law and policy that shape the direction of retail development in different countries, as well as the important role of culture in all things commercial, national studies make sense. The practicalities of research also favour national studies. Transnational projects require broader training and sometimes additional language skills, as well as international access to archives. While we are still waiting, this special issue of History of Retailing and Consumption takes us closer. As I hope readers will agree, it demonstrates the rich and diverse path of mass retailing around the globe, covering Eastern Europe, the Americas, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Each article focuses on a single country, but together they contribute to our understanding of the international history of this important social institution. The special issue documents cross-cultural influences in retailing, highlighting the influence of the United States across the world, but moving beyond the more wellknown Anglo-American networks. Many similarities are evident across national borders, but vastly different political and economic contexts resulted in unique retail environments, shaping labour and consumption in divergent ways. In the Western context, department stores originated in the nineteenth century. The term 'department store' became current in the 1890s in both Britain and the United States, though it was more narrowly applied in Victorian Britain than it was across the Atlantic. One provincial English department store, Browns of Chester, even objected to the term. 1 While historians have documented early opposition to the new retail mode on both sides of the Atlantic, customers embraced it. 2 Perhaps sooner and to a greater extent in the United States than in Britain, department stores expanded the contours of consumer culture. As has been well documented in North America, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century these department stores made mass consumption possible through their low prices and wide variety of goods under one roof. They also spread a consumer ethos through mass advertising and branding, new merchandising and sales methods, lavish interiors and attractive amenities. 3 Nineteenth-century American department stores were harbingers of the rise of a national commercial society and

Research paper thumbnail of Issue 6.1: Introduction

History of Retailing and Consumption

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter 5. An Essential Industry in Wartime

Research paper thumbnail of Karen M. Dunak. As Long as We Both Shall Love: The White Wedding in Postwar America

The American Historical Review

Research paper thumbnail of “I am Kay and I Prefer Modern”: Bridal Testimonials and the Rise of Consumer Rites, 1920s–1950s

Testimonial Advertising in the American Marketplace, 2009

Between the 1920s and the 1950s, the bride emerged as a central advertising figure, paralleling t... more Between the 1920s and the 1950s, the bride emerged as a central advertising figure, paralleling the rise of the American wedding industry.1 Pictured in her long white gown and veil or as a newlywed, she appeared in promotions for products associated with women’s roles and feminine identity, as well as in advertisements for goods that had little connection to weddings or marriage. Brides also featured in testimonial advertisements during the 1920s and 1930s. A woman about to marry or newly married provided a credible voice for the advertiser.2 Indeed, bridal status itself brought a degree of authenticity to producers’ claims. With the bride’s combination of youth, innocence, and beauty, she offered the perfect psychological sell. As a future Mrs. Consumer, the bride was an ideal candidate for this type of advertising, able to share expertise in beauty products and household goods with readers who identified with her role as wife and future mother.

Research paper thumbnail of From main street to mall: the rise and fall of the American department store

Consumption Markets & Culture, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of From Main Street to Mall

Research paper thumbnail of “The biggest small-town store in America”: independent retailers and the rise of consumer culture

The case study of Bresee's Department Store in Oneonta, New York, suggests that small-town de... more The case study of Bresee's Department Store in Oneonta, New York, suggests that small-town department stores were not necessarily fully “modern” by the early twentieth century. This article demonstrates how modern, big-store, business methods came later and documents how earlier modes of trade, such as credit and bartering, persisted into the early twentieth century, even in non-rural, northern contexts. Preliminary findings suggest that eliminating the urban bias in much historiography by including small-town retailing practices may lead to a later periodization of American consumer society.

Research paper thumbnail of Department store advertising in newspapers, radio, and television, 1920-1960

Purpose – Focusing on the early development of the three major forms of local advertising employe... more Purpose – Focusing on the early development of the three major forms of local advertising employed by independent department stores across the USA – newspapers, radio, and television – this paper examines continuity in the industry's commercial use of new technologies. Design/methodology/approach – The research draws on different types of primary sources, including department store financial records and correspondence, retailing

Research paper thumbnail of At the curve exchange': postwar beauty culture and working women at Maidenform

Beauty culture shaped the work experiences of women factory operatives and office staff at the Ma... more Beauty culture shaped the work experiences of women factory operatives and office staff at the Maidenform company in complex ways during the 1940s and 1950s. Through advertising, the company newsletter, beauty contests, “Pin-Up of the Month” competitions, and the ultra-feminine form made possible by the…

Research paper thumbnail of A" real man's ring": Gender and the invention of tradition

... ftaut" Kith Laura Lm Plwitr. Bride and Groom Rings FASHIONABLK SOCIETY sanctions... more ... ftaut" Kith Laura Lm Plwitr. Bride and Groom Rings FASHIONABLK SOCIETY sanctions the return of the ancient custom of the double ring service?the exchange of wedding bands between bride and groom. ... through vour Whole-saler. Bristol Seamless Ring Co. ...