Philadelphia's Golden Age of Retail

Important News Block

Tuesday April 1: The Blue Bell Library is open regular hours today, with limited service. There is no phone service or public internet service. However, you may still check out items! You may also call our Ambler Branch (215-646-1072). 

Event location
Ambler

Philadelphia historian Tom Keels and Lawrence M. Arrigale return to Ambler Library with a presentation on their book, Philadelphia's Golden Age of Retail.

Keels and Arrigale bring Philadelphia's heyday as a mercantile mecca back to life with presentations on the city's dear departed department stores -- Wanamaker's, Strawbridge & Clothier, Gimbels, Lits, and Snellenburg's -- as well as its specialty shops, like the Blum Store, Nan Duskin, Jacob Reed's Sons, J.E. Caldwell's, Bailey Banks & Biddle, and many others. 

Their presentations illustrate how our city's retailing titans revolutionized American marketing, developed "retailtainment" as a concept a century before it became a buzzword, helped generations of Philadelphians celebrate holidays and other special occasions.

Register Here for This Free Event

 

 

Who should attend