Sears Roebuck catalog and Sears kit homes: encore

<p dir="ltr">Although <strong>Sears Roebuck & Co</strong>. announced many department store closings across Indiana and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018, the retailer has a deep and storied history on many levels in the Hoosier state. In this encore show originally broadcast in November 2018, we turn back the pages of history to explore the enormous impact of the <a href= "https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/rise-and-fall-sears-180964181/"><strong>Sears Roebuck Catalog</strong></a> 100 years ago, particularly on small towns and rural areas.</p> <p dir="ltr">In addition to leafing through the catalog's significance in its heyday (with more than 500 pages, it has been called "the <strong>amazon.com</strong> of its era" by social historians), we also explore <strong><a href= "http://www.arts-crafts.com/archive/kithome/rt-searskits.shtml">Sears kit homes</a></strong> that were built across Indiana beginning in 1908. </p> <p dir="ltr">The mail-order catalog began earlier, during the 1890s, and offered products ranging from household appliances to hats, shoes, undergarments, sleds, dolls and baseball mitts from Sears. Rival retailer <strong><a href= "https://www.wards.com/">Montgomery Ward</a></strong> had been selling goods by mail even before that, having been established in 1872.</p> <p dir="ltr">Nelson's studio guests are <strong>Paul Diebold</strong> of Indiana DNR's division of historic preservation and archaeology, an expert on Sears kit homes, and public historian <strong>Glory-June Greiff</strong>, who has researched the impact of the catalog.</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src= "http://hoosierhistorylive.org/images/Kathy-Atwell-updated.JPG" alt="Kathy Atwell, volunteer and historic interpreter at Prophetstown State Park, enjoys the restored interior of a Sears kit home that was moved to the property in 2004." width="241" height="472" align="left" />"Sears and Ward's catalogs had a tremendous impact, particularly on more isolated rural dwellers," Glory-June says. "[The catalogs] changed advertising in newspape