Wanamaker's Temple

Wanamaker's Temple PDF Author: Nicole C. Kirk
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479827231
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
How a pioneering merchant blended religion and business to create a unique American shopping experience On Christmas Eve, 1911, John Wanamaker stood in the middle of his elaborately decorated department store building in Philadelphia as shoppers milled around him picking up last minute Christmas presents. On that night, as for years to come, the store was filled with the sound of Christmas carols sung by thousands of shoppers, accompanied by the store’s Great Organ. Wanamaker recalled that moment in his diary, “I said to myself that I was in a temple,” a sentiment quite possibly shared by the thousands who thronged the store that night. Remembered for his store’s extravagant holiday decorations and displays, Wanamaker built one of the largest retailing businesses in the world and helped to define the American retail shopping experience. From the freedom to browse without purchase and the institution of one price for all customers to generous return policies, he helped to implement retailing conventions that continue to define American retail to this day. Wanamaker was also a leading Christian leader, participating in the major Protestant moral reform movements from his youth until his death in 1922. But most notably, he found ways to bring his religious commitments into the life of his store. He focused on the religious and moral development of his employees, developing training programs and summer camps to build their character, while among his clientele he sought to cultivate a Christian morality through decorum and taste. Wanamaker’s Temple examines how and why Wanamaker blended business and religion in his Philadelphia store, offering a historical exploration of the relationships between religion, commerce, and urban life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and illuminating how they merged in unexpected and public ways. Wanamaker's marriage of religion and retail had a pivotal role in the way American Protestantism was expressed and shaped in American life, and opened a new door for the intertwining of personal values with public commerce.

Wanamaker's Temple

Wanamaker's Temple PDF Author: Nicole C. Kirk
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479827231
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
How a pioneering merchant blended religion and business to create a unique American shopping experience On Christmas Eve, 1911, John Wanamaker stood in the middle of his elaborately decorated department store building in Philadelphia as shoppers milled around him picking up last minute Christmas presents. On that night, as for years to come, the store was filled with the sound of Christmas carols sung by thousands of shoppers, accompanied by the store’s Great Organ. Wanamaker recalled that moment in his diary, “I said to myself that I was in a temple,” a sentiment quite possibly shared by the thousands who thronged the store that night. Remembered for his store’s extravagant holiday decorations and displays, Wanamaker built one of the largest retailing businesses in the world and helped to define the American retail shopping experience. From the freedom to browse without purchase and the institution of one price for all customers to generous return policies, he helped to implement retailing conventions that continue to define American retail to this day. Wanamaker was also a leading Christian leader, participating in the major Protestant moral reform movements from his youth until his death in 1922. But most notably, he found ways to bring his religious commitments into the life of his store. He focused on the religious and moral development of his employees, developing training programs and summer camps to build their character, while among his clientele he sought to cultivate a Christian morality through decorum and taste. Wanamaker’s Temple examines how and why Wanamaker blended business and religion in his Philadelphia store, offering a historical exploration of the relationships between religion, commerce, and urban life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and illuminating how they merged in unexpected and public ways. Wanamaker's marriage of religion and retail had a pivotal role in the way American Protestantism was expressed and shaped in American life, and opened a new door for the intertwining of personal values with public commerce.

Wanamaker's Temple

Wanamaker's Temple PDF Author: Nicole C. Kirk
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479807311
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
How a pioneering merchant blended religion and business to create a unique American shopping experience On Christmas Eve, 1911, John Wanamaker stood in the middle of his elaborately decorated department store building in Philadelphia as shoppers milled around him picking up last minute Christmas presents. On that night, as for years to come, the store was filled with the sound of Christmas carols sung by thousands of shoppers, accompanied by the store’s Great Organ. Wanamaker recalled that moment in his diary, “I said to myself that I was in a temple,” a sentiment quite possibly shared by the thousands who thronged the store that night. Remembered for his store’s extravagant holiday decorations and displays, Wanamaker built one of the largest retailing businesses in the world and helped to define the American retail shopping experience. From the freedom to browse without purchase and the institution of one price for all customers to generous return policies, he helped to implement retailing conventions that continue to define American retail to this day. Wanamaker was also a leading Christian leader, participating in the major Protestant moral reform movements from his youth until his death in 1922. But most notably, he found ways to bring his religious commitments into the life of his store. He focused on the religious and moral development of his employees, developing training programs and summer camps to build their character, while among his clientele he sought to cultivate a Christian morality through decorum and taste. Wanamaker’s Temple examines how and why Wanamaker blended business and religion in his Philadelphia store, offering a historical exploration of the relationships between religion, commerce, and urban life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and illuminating how they merged in unexpected and public ways. Wanamaker's marriage of religion and retail had a pivotal role in the way American Protestantism was expressed and shaped in American life, and opened a new door for the intertwining of personal values with public commerce.

John Wanamaker

John Wanamaker PDF Author: Herbert Ershkowitz
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 9781580970044
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
John Wanamaker played a major role in the development of American retailing and consumerism. Opening a small men's store in Philadelphia in 1861, by the turn of the century he had major department stores in his home town as well as New York, and was one of the country's largest merchants.Wanamaker's world-view had as much of an impact on American culture as his business enterprises. In the early twentieth century the downtown department store was an important attraction for a city, similar in function to a symphony orchestra or major league sports team of today. Wanamaker's department store in Philadelphia acted as an anchor for the city center. Like a magnet, the store held the urban population together by providing entertainment and a setting for civic ceremonies and pageants.Wanamaker's influence extended beyond the stores themselves. He provided employment for 8,000 people in Philadelphia and 7,000 in New York, offering jobs to blacks and women when they were still excluded from many businesses. He supported a 3,000 member church which ran a school, savings bank, library and employment service.John Wanamaker was a sharp businessman, and some of his methods have been criticized, but the state of America's inner cities of his era compared to today speaks for itself. Professor Herbert Ershkowitz of Temple University has drawn upon local archives to chronicle a unique chapter in the history of American culture.

The Gospel of Church

The Gospel of Church PDF Author: Janine Giordano Drake
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197614302
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
"From the end of the Civil War until the early twentieth century, Anglo, immigrant, and African American settlers were moving north and west faster than ministers within the major denominations could follow them with churches. In 1890, Northern Methodists, the largest Protestant denomination, only claimed 3.5 percent of the American population. Roman Catholics claimed 9.9 percent, and African American Baptists, the largest Black denomination, claimed only 18 percent of the African American population. In total, under 30 percent of Americans went to church on a weekly basis. While African American churches served a relatively larger role within their communities, the major white denominations played a minor role in the lives of the working poor. Clergymen like Dwight Moody reflected, "The gulf between the churches and the mases is growing deeper, wider and darker every hour." Home missionaries like Josiah Strong warned, "Few appreciate how we have become a non-churchgoing-people." Strong was right. In large fractions of the country, especially mining and industrial centers in the West, a simple lack of church edifices and long-term ministers to fundraise for them gave way to a vacuum of Protestant, denominational authority. In part, this disconnect between the number of churches and the size of the population was a result of culturally dislocated migrants. In 1890, more than 9 million Americans were foreign-born, and only a small fraction of those Americans had any familiarity with Anglo-Protestant traditions. They were joined by another 1 million African Americans migrants from the South to northern industrial centers. But this was only one of many reasons the poor did not go to church with the wealthy. While middle-class families paid lip service to the importance of building capacious churches, their own policies and practices reinforced the class system. As one minister reflected in 1887, "The working men are largely estranged from the Protestant religion. Old churches standing in the midst of crowded districts are continually abandoned because they do not reach the workingmen." Meanwhile, he continued, "Go into an ordinary church on Sunday morning and you see lawyers, physicians, merchants and business men with their families [-]you see teachers, salesmen, and clerks, and a certain proportion of educated mechanics, but the workingman and his household are not there." As the working-classes swelled with the expansion of American factories, ordained Protestant ministers served an ever-dwindling proportion of the country"--

A Companion to American Religious History

A Companion to American Religious History PDF Author: Benjamin E. Park
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119583667
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
A collection of original essays exploring the history of the various American religious traditions and the meaning of their many expressions The Blackwell Companion to American Religious History explores the key events, significant themes, and important movements in various religious traditions throughout the nation’s history from pre-colonization to the present day. Original essays written by leading scholars and new voices in the field discuss how religion in America has transformed over the years, explore its many expressions and meanings, and consider religion’s central role in American life. Emphasizing the integration of religion into broader cultural and historical themes, this wide-ranging volume explores the operation of religion in eras of historical change, the diversity of religious experiences, and religion’s intersections with American cultural, political, social, racial, gender, and intellectual history. Each chronologically-organized chapter focuses on a specific period or event, such as the interactions between Moravian and Indigenous communities, the origins of African-American religious institutions, Mormon settlement in Utah, social reform movements during the twentieth century, the growth of ethnic religious communities, and the rise of the Religious Right. An innovative historical genealogy of American religious traditions, the Companion: Highlights broader historical themes using clear and compelling narrative Helps teachers expose their students to the significance and variety of America’s religious past Explains new and revisionist interpretations of American religious history Surveys current and emerging historiographical trends Traces historical themes to contemporary issues surrounding civil rights and social justice movements, modern capitalism, and debates over religious liberties Making the lessons of American religious history relevant to a broad range of readers, The Blackwell Companion to American Religious History is the perfect book for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in American history courses, and a valuable resource for graduate students and scholars wanting to keep pace with current historiographical trends and recent developments in the field.

Wanamaker's

Wanamaker's PDF Author: Michael J. Lisicky
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1614230307
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
An “informative and entertaining” history of the famed Philadelphia department store, with photos included (Montgomery News). Philadelphia was once the proud home of Wanamaker’s, a department store founded by the retail giant John Wanamaker in 1861. Its name was synonymous with service, and Philadelphians still fondly remember the massive bronze eagle in the Grand Court, concerts from the world’s largest pipe organ, and the spectacular Christmas festivities. In this book, Philadelphia native Michael J. Lisicky takes a nostalgic journey through the history of the store, from its beginnings as a haberdashery to its growth into New York and Delaware and the final poignant closing of its doors. Lisicky brilliantly combines interviews with store insiders, forgotten recipes, and memories from local celebrities such as Trudy Haynes and Sally Starr to bring readers back to the soft glow of the marble atrium and the quiet elegance of the Crystal Tea Room that was Wanamaker’s. “A wonderfully affectionate look at the Market St. store whose name, for generations, was symbolic of Philly.”—Philadelphia Daily News

John Wanamaker

John Wanamaker PDF Author: William Allen Zulker
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780963628404
Category : Businessmen
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description


John Wanamaker

John Wanamaker PDF Author: Herbert Adams Gibbons
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 574

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Book Description


Out of the Shadow

Out of the Shadow PDF Author: Rose Cohen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Immigrants
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
Cohen was Russian-born American author whose 1918 autobiography Out of the Shadow provides a classic account of the lives of Jewish immigrants in New York City at the end of the 19th century.

Early Warner Bros. Studios

Early Warner Bros. Studios PDF Author: E. J. Stephens
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 9780738580913
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
Since 1928, Warner Bros. has produced thousands of beloved films and television shows at the studio's magical 110-acre film factory in Burbank. This collection of evocative images concentrates on the Warner Bros. legacy from the 1920s to the 1950s, when timeless classics such as Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and East of Eden came to life. It also looks at WB's earlier homes along Hollywood's "Poverty Row," the birthplace of Looney Tunes, and the site of WB's pioneering marriage between film and sound in the 1920s. Early Warner Bros. Studios also tells the tale of four brothers--Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner--scions of a Polish Jewish immigrant family who rose from the humblest of origins to become Hollywood moguls of enormous and lasting influence.