Catalogue No. 115
Sears,
Roebuck & Co., Chicago, IL
Undated but probably c.1915 - c.1925
.pdf version (106mb)
This optical excerpt of the full Sears catalog has a folded and center-stapled construction, so that it can be handed out by itself, which this one was. The poor quality, acidic paper has turned a medium brown color, and is fragile. The scanned images have been made, even though pages broke off from the whole during the process, to perpetuate the data on the pages even as the pages continue to deteriorate. For better contrast, red has been removed from the images, making the background yellow rather than brown. It is not clear whether the No. 115 refers to this secion of the catalog, or to a coded date of printing, possibly 1915, as sometimes is the case with camera catalogs. Due to the large amount of printing on each 8½x11" page, single pages are shown below rather than facing pages, as usual. The section starts with page 325 and continues through page 362, giving you some idea of how massive a Sears catalog was in the day.
The sole wooden view camera is recognizable as the Imperial View Camera, probably made in Lacrosse, Wisconsin, even though Sears says that their new factory is in Rochester. The reader is probably supposed to think that this is Rochester, New York, where many camera manufacturers were located, but the reality is it is Rochester, Minnesota, home of the Conley Camera Co., which Sears did purchase in 1924, after a decade or more of contracting the manufacture of cameras that got a Sears label. The Imperial View Camera was always, to my knowledge, made in Lacrosse. Conley eventually would make view cameras for Sears, but apparently after this catalog was printed.
