After the letters, envelopes and postcards, I still needed mailers and catalogs. Rural Free Delivery meant businesses could expand and reach more customers, and people in rural areas would have access to goods far from home.
Again, I turned to online image searches, trying to limit those chosen to 1917, give or take a year. Though I was able to find some fully scanned catalogs including the inner pages, I focused on covers and glued each one shut with inserts. These would be placed in the pigeon holes and not opened for viewing. Some of these came from sale listings, so I was able to get accurate measurements for scale, though I had to increase the scale size to get a good print in some instances. Some required more sprucing up in PhotoShop than others as well.
I’m not completely sure, but I would imagine many magazines were sent in envelopes with handwritten addresses. Since I spent so much time researching and working on the catalogs and magazines, I didn’t want to hide them away in envelopes.
Seed catalogs.
This one is a 1916 with a changed date. I could not pass up that cover!
Ladies magazines.
Needlework.
Lionel electric toy trains.
Machinery and pulleys.
Buggies.
Photography.
Horses.
National Geographic.
Booze. Prohibition is coming!
I used true real life magazine pages for the inserts for the magazines. The color and variation add more realism.
For the catalogs, I used black and white printed pages. While many of these would not have been printed to the edges of the pages in reality, I liked the look better than plain card stock or paper.
I’m still making many more envelopes with letters, but this is the mail I have on hand, along with a few gifted letter sets not shown here. Like flowers, you always need more filler than you think…so I might be making even more in the end. I also plan to add packages.
