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Consumerism, Styles and Advertising…Who Knew?
At the bottom of the trade catalogues distributed by Berkey & Gay, there was a catch phrase
line that was obviously advertising the company furniture. In the catalogue from 1900, the overall
feeling from the advertisements is that their furniture (Berkey& Gay) is what makes the home attractive,
and without it, one’s home is not a fun place to be. At the bottom of page 7, the advertisement stated
was, “half the fun of living is in an attractive home. Try Berkey & Gay Furniture!”1 This company tried to
assert that their products were going to make your home a better place to be through the
advertisement at the bottom of the pages in their trade catalogue. The changes in these advertisements
as well as the style changes of Berkey & Gay as well as those of Widdicomb Company and Stickley Bros.
Company accelerated consumerism.
Consumerism is an impact of the American Industrial Revolution. During this time in America,
there were many new innovations that changed the life of Americans forever. Railroad networks, steam
power, steam shipping routes, textile factories, telegraph lines, steel production/mills, and mechanized
harvesting machines for agricultural production are examples of the advancements that occurred this
time in America.2 These innovations led the country to make and produce goods cheaper than ever. In
1830, after the success of early railways and the creation of steam power, railroads were constructed all
throughout the country. They were the preferred method of travel by passengers because they were
faster and less expensive than canal travel.3 Supplied by machines, steam power, and other
technological innovations ,new factories suddenly were appearing in cities. What used to be a country
predominantly supported by agrarian agricultural, mostly rural, and dependent on imports now was
increasingly urban and self-reliant due to the Industrial Revolution.4
There was more than technological innovation that was fueled by industrialization.
Consumerism had started to take off, since men and women all across the country started to buy goods.
Scholars Ben Fine and Ellen Leopold examine an economic theory written by N. McKendrick who stated
that consumerism meant, “changes of life-style” and that it was a time where “men, and in particular
women, bought as never before”5 Life before the revolution was one without economic safely nets, and
hard times.6 Therefore, if the family was not extremely wealthy, they did not buy an abundance of
1
Berkey & Gay, Trade Catalogue, 1900, Collection 232, Box 10, Furniture Collection, Grand Rapids Library, Grand
Rapids, 7.
2
Kevin Hillstrom and Laurie Hillstrom, The Industrial Revolution in America: Communications, Agriculture and
Meatpacking, Overview/Comparison, (Ebook: Abc-clio, 2007) , vii.
3
Charles Morris, The Dawn of innovation: The First American Industrial Revolution (New York: Public Affairs, 2012),
188.
4
Charles Morris, The Dawn of Innovation: The First American Industrial Revolution, 163.
5
Ellen Leopold and Ben Fine, “Consumerism and The Industrial Revolution” Social History 15, no. 2 (May 1990):
157, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4285840, (accessed March 21, 2013).
6
Charles Morris, The Dawn of Innovation: The First American Industrial Revolution, 181.
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luxury, non-essential goods since at any time, their life could be rocked with economic hardship. After
the revolution, industrial workplaces boomed. Factories made steel, textiles, furniture, rail cars, and
brand new American appliances such as the refrigerator and washing machine.7 As these items were
produced, many bought them. Joan Seidl’s study points out that the United States became a country
where many new items that were begging to be bought. There were so many items in fact, that
furnishing a household became a complicated and often long process.8 Thus, it can be concluded that
consumerism is an impact of the Industrial Revolution. Even though it was an impact of the Industrial
Revolution in America, it was accelerated by changes in style and advertising.
Consumerism was accelerated by advertising and style changes. This is evident in the example of
the Grand Rapids furniture industry and in particular, three main companies. Berkey & Gay, a company
that was in operation in Grand Rapids for almost an entire century, made the biggest change in
advertising out of the three companies that I studied.9 Considering the example at the beginning, from
the 1900 Berkey & Gay catalogue, it is important to discuss the importance of this advertisement. The
ad tried to assert that their products were going to make your house a better place to be. This is proof
that Berkey & Gay advertisements were pushing women to be homemakers.
In the early 1900s, the Progressive Era bungalow style house gained popularity. The bungalow
was the home solution to middle class families. Not only was it designed to help middle class families
could own their own homes, it also helped with social issues as well. Gustav Stickley believed that
housing and social issues were related and therefore there was a need for good design.10 This idea is
seen directly in the1900 advertisement. The ad was geared toward women, who were in charge of the
household, unless they were needed to provide extra income for the family. Middle class women were
expected to stay in the home because women were in charge of their household. During this time
period, the furniture and the style of your house stated who you were as a person and what values you
upheld. Since many were now purchasing bungalows, the only way to decipher class was the furniture
inside the home. Therefore, as Berkey & Gay stated, if you buy their furniture your life will be better and
you will not have to worry about what your neighbors think.
Only ten years later, in 1910 the advertising had changed drastically. In this catalogue, there
were hand drawn pictures of how the furniture could be used in the home. On the page labeled
“furniture for the library” the drawing is of a woman who is immersed in her book sitting on a couch
while a man sits on the other side of the couch with a newspaper in his hand but is looking at who
appears to be his wife. Once again, this idea that the styles in your house states who you are comes into
play in this advertisement. The picture is of this happy couple on the couch, they are reading in the
8
Joan M. Seidl, “Consumers’ Choices: A study of Household Furnishings 1880-1920” Minnesota History 48, no. 5
(April 1983).
9
Christian Carron, Grand Rapids Furniture: The Story of America’s Furniture City (Grand Rapids: Public Museum of
Grand Rapids, 1998), 130.
10
Gwendolyn Wright, “The Progressive Housewife and the Bungalow” in Thinking Through the Past: A Critical
Thinking Approach to U.S. History, by John Hollitz (Boston: Wadsworth, 2010), 114.
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perfect setting. It means that during this time, family was important. Family time, family values, and
family areas were important to society. Otherwise, the advertisement would not have been able to
convince audiences to buy their product. Consider the last example. It is obvious that Berkey & Gay play
off the fears or the dilemmas that are happening in the society at the time. Before, it could be assumed
that women were afraid of what their house said about their place in society. This must have meant that
the society was pushing for quality time for families. They wanted the men to go home after working in
the factories all day and spend time with their loved ones, not to go to the bar with their co-workers.
Therefore, the change in these advertisements was that the companies realized the societal issues in the
United States, and played off of those in order to sell furniture.
In the last example from the Berkey & Gay trade catalogues, has no date printed on it, but it
assumed to be from the late 1920s since most of the pictures inside are of the Thorndyke 18th century
mahogany and St. Martin’s collections. On page 17, below a picture of the item of furniture, there was a
statement of advertising that said, “Does your friend delight in visiting you, or do they avoid coming
except when compelled by sheer necessity.”11 The drastic change in advertising is evident here. In 1900,
the advertisements were geared at bringing the furniture into your home to make it a better place to be.
By 1910, the advertisement is a picture of a simple and comfortable household that could have been
relatable to many customers. Now, a little over ten years later the advertisements were geared towards
making the customer feel empathetic. These changes follow a pattern described by Author Roland
Merchant. He said, “by about 1914 a few advertisers had begun to appreciate the advantages of selling
the benefit instead of the product” and that the reader should have “ to have lived through an
experience”12 This change was found in the 1910 example. The picture showed the man and woman
appreciating the couch, by sitting on it together in comfort. Merchant went on to say (about the
advertising in the late 1920s) that, “Negative or scare appeals might often be inappropriate, but
empathetic depiction of consumer experiences, instead of the product itself, gained steadily in favor.”13
This played off of the idea of a social faux pas. There was a cultural norm that your house was supposed
to describe you and state who you are as a person. This advertisement was created to make women feel
as though they were violating those norms or that they were not up to date and therefore, they should
be embarrassed of their actions. For if this was not the case, and then once again the advertisement
would not have succeeded. They play on the fears that women already have. Women were already
afraid that their furniture was not up to date. The advertisement only made those fears more real for
women. Obviously, Berkey& Gay followed suit in this idea of playing off of the fears of women, in the
last ad campaign by attacking the women’s fears of the judgment of their household. After all, in this
era, it was the outer appearance that was thought to have reflected one’s true qualities of taste and
character.14
11
Berkey & Gay, Trade Catalogue, 1900, Collection 232, Box 10, Furniture Collection, Grand Rapids Library, Grand
Rapids.
12
Roland Merchant, Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity: 1920-1940 (Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 1985), 10.
13
Merchant, Advertising the American Dream, 23.
14
Merchant, Advertising the American Dream, 210.
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Both the Widdicomb Company and the Stickley Borthers Company had changes in advertising as
well, although they were not as drastic as Berkey & Gay. The Widdicomb Company was in operation in
Grand Rapids from 1873-1950 and is still operational, under the new name John Widdicomb Company.15
The Widdicomb Co. advertisements went through the least amount of change. After examining the ads
that the company placed in the national “Good Furniture” magazines between the years 1914 and 1930,
it is clear that the only change was that of the styles in the pictures, and sometimes the
background/border of the ad. In July of 1918, the ads depict one piece of furniture, with a plain white
background, with a sentence above it stating, “Built to Please and Satisfy.”16 The quote purely talks
about the quality of the product. In an ad found in the September issue, the advertisement is again one
piece of furniture on the page with no background and the words in the middle of the page read, “The
discriminating class of buyers who inspect furniture for perfection of workmanship and material, as well
as for active appearance have found our product to be entirely dependable.”17 Here again, the
advertisement was focused on the quality of the furniture. It was not until the1926 issue of Good
Furniture where there was an ad published in the September issue that has a background border and
the words are the focus of the page, but the message was still essentially the same. It stated, “The
quality that is so apparent to the eye carries through those hidden parts that determine the life of the
furniture.”18 The quality of the furniture pieces was obviously the number one goal to the company,
because it was the number one focus of the advertisements for more than ten years. The reason the ads
never changed, is due to the fact that the company did not need to change the advertising. The styles
had changed drastically throughout these years, but the advertising did not. That must have meant that
the company did not need to change it, since they were doing well at selling. It is obvious that the
company was doing well because it made it through the depressions at the turn of the century and the
Great Depression from 1929-1933. Why fix something that is not broken? Since the styles were
changing, and the company does preach about the quality of their items, it could be assumed that they
did not see a need to play off the fears of society. They had enough options for customers to choose
from in terms of style, and their quality claims to be outstanding. Therefore, a thriving company with a
solid customer base did not need to update its marketing strategies and as seen in the evidence, they
did not. Although the ads proved to have had slight changes over the years including the change in
background, fonts, and furniture pieces, they were not as drastic as those from Berkey& Gay and as
prominent as Stickley Bros. Co.
Stickley Bros. Co. Furniture was owned and operated by two of the five Stickley Brothers from
the years 1891 to 1954. This company not only had a slight change in their national advertisements, but
they also gained exposure in their brother, Gustav Stickely’s magazine, The Craftsman. The magazine
focused on style, and was a basic roadmap for furnishing a simple bungalow house. Stickley asserted
15
16
Christian Carron, Grand Rapids Furniture: The Story of American’s Furniture City, 13.
Unknown, “The Magazine of Decoration” Advertisement, Good Furniture, Vol. XI (1918).
17
Unknown, “The Magazine of Decoration” Advertisement, Good Furniture, Vol. XI (1918).
18
Unknown, “Furniture Textiles and Decorative Accessories” Advertisement, Good Furniture, Vol. XXVII (1926).
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that the elaborate decorations and furnishings were useless in a normal household. Furthermore, he
said that the items that are bought for the household should be both useful and simple.19 He stated,
“That is why we have from the first planned houses that are based on the big fundamental principles of
honesty, simplicity and usefulness,- the kind of houses that children will rejoice all their lives to
remember as “home,” and that give a sense of peace and comfort to the tired men who go back to them
when the day’s work is done.”20 Although not conventional, because it is a written article, it can be seen
as an advertisement, because it sells the benefits of the bungalow house and the simple quaint
furniture. The talk of this simple lifestyle goes back to the earlier argument about women creating the
perfect home for the family. Just as the advertisement pointed out before, family and quality time was
concern on the minds of middle class American women who were again, striving to keep be ideal
homemaker. They needed to make the home comfortable enough that their husbands and children
would enjoy such a place together. Another point to return to is that the furniture describes who that
family or that woman is as a person. If she was to get simple and quaint furniture it would obviously tell
her friends and neighbors that she is a simple, loving caretaker who values her role as a wife and a
mother. Middle class women wanted to fit in with the upper class and the social/cultural norms. To
Stickley Bros. Co, one way to accomplish this was to buy Quaint furniture. Of course all of the items that
were in the pictures, and the furniture that is talked about in the writings, were sold by the Stickley
Brothers Co. The Craftsman magazine also had detailed descriptions about the right draperies, chairs,
and the way the furniture in the house should be arranged. It therefore served as another way of
advertisement for the Stickley Bros. Company in Grand Rapids for a number of years. These changes in
advertising techniques excelled mass consumerism in the United States.
Advertising started by talking about the product, to get consumers excited about whatever it is
that they were buying. However, as time elapsed, advertisements changed to taking advantage of the
scared and sympathetic customers. It played of their insecurities as women; the fear that their values
and character could be judged based solely upon the objects in their houses and the expectation that
they were the caretaker of the family. The new techniques propositioned the customers to not only feel
as though they want to have it, but that they need to have.21 The growing number of advertising
companies during the 1920s also proves that Americans were consuming. In the late 1920s, the median
family income in the nation was below $1,600 a year and in Detroit, an advertising man earned about
$5,167.22 Advertising men were in high demand, and were paid quite well compared to the national
average. The demand for advertising men/agencies would not have been so high if the advertisements
did not work or if members of the American society were not consuming. This data proves that the
consumer market grew over time. The average advertising man was making more than twice as much as
the average American, it can be assumed that they were in high demand. Advertising men were
obviously in demand during the late 1920s which proves that the market was doing well and that people
19
Gustav Stickley, “The Craftsman Home” in Thinking Through the Past: A Critical Thinking Approach to U.S History,
by John Hollitz (Boston, Wadsworth, 2010), 124.
20
Gustav Stickley, “The Craftsman Home” In Thinking Through the Past: A Critical Thinking Approach to U.S History,
124.
21
Walter Dill Scott, “Effective Advertising” in Thinking Through the Past: A Critical Thinking Approach to U.S.
History, 157.
22
Merchant, Advertising the American Dream, 37.
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were spending. If they were not spending, companies would not have put forth as much money for
advertisements.
Style changes also accelerated American consumerism. Consider once again
the example of the three Grand Rapids furniture companies. The styles of the
furniture that the Berkey &Gay, Widdicomb Co., and Stickely Bros. Co. produced all
changed over time to appeal to a greater mass of people. Berkey &Gay Company
had the greatest change in their advertisements, but that is not the case with the
changes in style. In the 1900’s, Berkey & Gay generally skipped over the Arts and
Crafts movement which was started by Gustav Stickley and focused on furniture
Figure 1
that was simple and useful. Although, Berkey &Gay did produce an American
Colonial line which was similar. Most of the collections that Berkey& Gay did produce in 1900’s were
ornate and were described in the trade catalogue by the company itself as “Elizabethan Dignity,” as
shown in Figure 1 to the right. The ornate details of the wood work help to show what the Elizabethan
furniture looked like. By 1906, Berkey & Gay have still decided to focus on ornate designs with the
Flemish Renaissance and the Designs for their Library lines, but they do however,
unveil their Colonial line shown in the picture to the left. The colonial line is
important and again connects back to what the house and furniture say about you
as a person. As stated earlier, a large dilemma in American society was quality
family time. Either the father did not want to come home after work, they were
too busy juggling two jobs, or something else prevented them from being at home.
The Colonial style furniture made to appeal to men because it was simple, and had
Figure 2
minimal designs. If there were more furniture styles that men actually enjoyed,
then men would be more likely to come home and participate in the quality family time that society
seemed to be so concerned about. If his home was comfortable and up to par with his tastes, he would
want to come home instead of hang out with others after work. An example of this simple yet
comfortable style is seen on the left in figure 2. In the 1928 catalogue, the collections are the same as
they were in the past, except another was added, called the Chippendale. The Chippendale style, mostly
known for its beautiful mahogany wood work, designs is clearly crafted to show the most detail possible.
During the late 1920’s people were seeing mass production in its prime. Therefore the items were
starting to look the same, but the point of the Chippendale style was to show that each piece was hand
crafted and hand made. 23 This is an important change in style because it shows that society wanted to
buy items that felt individually made and not massed produced items, even though mass produced
items were cheaper in price. Berkey & Gay had changes in their style that had a societal connection. In
turn, these connections helped to accelerate mass consumption, since they changed the styles to suit
what was happening in society or what the public wanted to see in their furniture.
Not only did the Widdicomb Company have style changes in their furniture, but they were also
bigger and more noticeable changes. Starting with the 1890 catalogue, the style was simple, yet it
distinct designs on it, to spruce it up. This, the style was very similar to Berkey & Gay, in that it was very
23
F.K.W. and Horace Jayne, “Exhibition of Furniture of the Chippendale Style” Bulletin of the Pennsylvania
Museum, 19 no. 86 (May 1924): 149.
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detailed and ornate. This is entirely accurate with the type of housing styles that many people preferred
in this time era. Before 1900, many lived in Victorian style houses, filled to the brim with elaborate
furniture.24 Therefore, it is no surprise that both Berkey & Gay and the Widdicomb Company created
and produced similar styles in their earlier catalogues. By 1894, the premier style on the front and
throughout the first few pages is much simpler with tiny accents on the handles, the top, or the bottoms
of the legs of the furniture. It is not comparable to the “Victorian” style furniture
at all. (Figure 3) There is one other major difference between the two styles. The
beds in figure 3 as well as many of the other pieces of this 1894 collection are
on wheels! To fast forward a few years to 1906, there is another style change. In
this catalogue there are beds with high posts around the top of them. Today,
one might see a canopy hanging from the posts on these types of beds. This
style was not reflected in the 1901 or 1896 catalogues. Therefore, the style was
Figure 3
relatively new to society. Three years later in 1909, Widdicomb introduced
ladies’ desks and secretary bureau’s. Most of the new pieces had wheels and although some had wood
work, many of them were plain with only simple designs. An interesting component to 1909 catalogues
is that it had a shortage of the cheval mirrors. With each of the catalogues before it, there were entire
pages devoted to the different cheval mirrors that Widdicomb produced. In this catalogue, there were
only a small number of the mirrors throughout the catalogue. Instead, many of the mirrors in this book
were unmatched and mostly shown on top of the dresser. This may have been due to the fact that the
cheval might have been too ornate for the time period. At the turn of the century, many families were
focused on simplicity in the household. The chevals were large decorate mirrors that took up a lot of
space. The small square detached mirror replaced the cheval simple. It can be concluded that some
woman thought the cheval mirrors were too old fashioned, by being Victorian and ornate or just wanted
to simplify the items in their home. In less than twenty years, the Widdicomb Company made three
drastic changes in their styles. They added simple furniture, wheels, high bed posts, and ladies’ desks
and cut down on the amount of turning cheval mirrors. 25 As more women started to take care of their
households, it is assumed that they were given charge of managing the bills, and schedules to keep the
household running smoothly. Therefore, adding women’s desks to the catalogues would have helped to
fulfill middle class women’s roles in society which entailed running of the household.
It is clear that consumers were buying during this time. As more families were able to secure
their own single family homes they would need the necessary items to fill them and for the women who
were running the household, this was no easy task. To some women, the home was a symbol that
demonstrated individuality, economic success, and nurture. 26 Therefore, the choices of the decorations
that went inside the houses were important and women needed to find exactly the pieces that
24
Edward Bok, “Simplicity” in Thinking Through the Past: A Critical Thinking Approach to U.S. History by John
Hollitz, 125.
25
Widdicomb Company, Furniture Catalogue, 1890, Collection 232, Box 41, Furniture Collection, Grand Rapids
Library, Grand Rapids.
26
Joan M. Seidl, “Consumers’ Choices: A Study of Household Furnishing 1880-1920.” Minnesota History 48, no. 5
(April 1983): 184.
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portrayed everything that she was looking for. This is why the changes in advertising were so important
to analyze. As proved above, the changes in advertising over time by evoking a fear of judgment from
others. Therefore, the consumers were compelled to buy more goods, so that they were not looked
down upon by any of their friends, neighbors, or community members. In terms of the Grand Rapids
example, consider an example from a Berkey & Gay trade catalogue. One of their advertisements
stated, “Are you proud of your leadership in furnishing? In every community there are certain women to
whom others look for friendly guidance, either spoken or tacit. Do your bedrooms- your dining roomreflect your best taste? By selecting Berkey & Gay Furniture, you may be sure every detail will be in the
strictest accord with the best decorative trends.”27 Just as with the first Berkey & Gay ad, the company
used their techniques to play of the fears and insecurities of middle class women who were trying to fit
in with the upper class women. A middle class woman would certainly be worried about what her
furniture said about her values to the rest of the community. She would never want to have an out of
date piece of furniture in her house, for fear she would have been looked down upon. The furniture
companies and their advertisements played off of these fears using their words and pictures. Since the
advertisements worked, as one can see from the average incomes, it can be assumed that middle class
women in that society had already had fears and insecurities about their house, furniture and what all of
their items said about them as a person. For this reason, it is concluded that the changes in
advertisements led to accelerated consumerism.
Similarly, the changes in style were also very important to the acceleration of consumerism. It is
apparent through the examples above that the styles changed relatively often, depending on the
company that one might examine. Just like today, customers wanted the latest-and-greatest styles that
were available on the market. Since society was constantly changing throughout the years from 18901930 with the institution of new cultural practices, and laws, the styles of furniture changed with it in
order to keep consumers satisfied and up to date. Also, updating the furniture styles, kept the customer
coming back to buy new furniture because theirs was outdated and no longer fit in their home. For
example, Berkey & Gay once again played of this fear that women could have outdated furniture. The ad
stated, “Does your home mark you as out of date? Do they reflect the full richness of your personalityindicate your taste?”28 Once again the fear of judgment is asserted into this statement. The ad asserts
that having out of date furniture is bad, and why would anyone want to have bad furniture. Therefore,
companies continued to create, and update styles throughout their years of business. That way, new
customers would buy furniture because it was the newest on the market, but also returning customers
could replace their outdated furniture with new pieces. Outdated furniture could mean different things
to different consumers. Just like consumers today, if you buy and item and an updated version comes
out a year later, the product you own, would be seen as outdated. But to others’ standards, the product
will not be outdated until the item is no longer sold on the market. Therefore, the definition of outdated
is different with each consumer but it is apparent that at least some middle class women were insecure
27
Berkey & Gay, Trade Catalogue, 1900, Collection 232, Box 10, Furniture Collection, Grand Rapids Library, Grand
Rapids
28
Berkey & Gay, Trade Catalogue, 1900, Collection 232, Box 10, Furniture Collection, Grand Rapids Library, Grand
Rapids
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about the styles of their furniture, because Berkey & Gay played off of that fear in the advertisement
above. Consequently, the style changes were important to the quick growth of consumerism.
Consumerism in America grew quite quickly. It started as an impact of the American Industrial
Revolution. The innovation and technology of the industrial revolution allowed steam engines, factories,
and transportation. Consumerism was an impact of these new inventions and it was accelerated by the
changes in advertising techniques and styles. This essay used the furniture industry in Grand Rapids to
help prove this point. The advertising techniques changed with society. The companies used their
advertising techniques to play of the fears and insecurities of middle class women who were trying to fit
in with the upper class women. A middle class woman would certainly be worried about what her
furniture said about her values to the rest of the community and hence, would never want to have an
out of date piece `in her house. The furniture companies and their advertisements played off of these
fears using their words and pictures which obviously work because the market continued to grow over
the years of study, which were 1890-1920. These advertisements helped to accelerate the consumerism
by causing fear and insecurity. Society was constantly changing with new cultural practices and laws and
therefore, the styles of furniture changed with it in order to keep consumers satisfied and up to date.
Also, updating the furniture styles, kept the customer coming back to buy new furniture because theirs
was outdated and no longer fit in their home. Consequently, consumerism is accelerated by changes in
styles and advertising techniques.
9