Business & Economics

Learn more about the Father of the Franchise Industry in this illuminating history about the Howard Johnson restaurant franchise and the man behind it all.

Howard Johnson created an orange-roofed empire of ice cream stands and restaurants that stretched from Maine to Florida, and all the way to the West Coast. With a reputation for good food at affordable prices, hungry customers would regularly return for more. The attractive white Colonial Revival restaurants, with eye-catching porcelain tile roofs, illuminated cupolas and sea blue shutters, were described in Reader's Digest in 1949 as the epitome of eating places that look like New England town meeting houses dressed up for Sunday. Highlighted in television shows such as Mad Men and films Netflix's 2019 The Irishman, it's obvious that Howard Johnson's occupies an indelible and pleasant place popular culture. Boston historian and author Anthony M. Sammarco recounts how Howard Johnson introduced twenty-eight flavors of ice cream, the Tendersweet clam strips, grilled frankforts and a menu of delicious and traditional foods that families eagerly enjoyed when they traveled.

Michigan is home to an amazing array of food and drink brands, each with a fascinating story behind it.

Ready-to-eat breakfast cereals like Kellogg’s and Post changed how the world eats, and Gerber first made baby food commercially available. But the Wolverine State is bursting with many other notable edibles, such as Faygo, American Spoon, Jiffy, Sanders and Vernors. Better Made uses Michigan potatoes for its chips. Fudge, pasties and anything made with cherries are also local standards. Others are gone but not forgotten, like Awrey’s and Twin Pines.

Authors Gail Offen and Jon Milan explore the history and stories behind all of these and many, many more.

There have been few cars that ignited the public’s interest as much as the Ford Mustang.

Introduced at the opening of the New York World's Fair in April 1964, the Mustang was based on mechanicals from the earlier Ford Falcon compact car; it quickly established a new motorcar category which was widely copied by domestic and overseas competitors—the “pony car.” From the outset, the Mustang represented inspired product planning and design, followed by brilliantly executed marketing. Ford's Mustang team effort used every tool in the vehicle-marketing toolbox: clever teases long before the new product went on sale, unprecedented publicity, simple but effective advertising, the stage at the World's Fair, movie placement, distribution of toy plastic models, and even a replica pedal car for the young drivers of the future. With a measure of luck, it became a classic case of releasing the right product at the right time, and Ford sold one million units in less than two years. Even today, the Mustang is held high as a symbol of American design, engineering, and the freewheeling American spirit.

The most respected of firearm companies,  Smith & Wesson explores the guns and company history from 1852 to to 1965. Rarely seen historical photographs, advertisements, and company documents culled from the company archives, museums collections, and the private collections of Smith & Wesson collectors make this a must for every gun collector and admirer.

Horace Smith and Daniel Baird Wesson shared a dream of manufacturing a firearm that could fire repeatedly, using a new and self-contained cartridge. In 1852, the dream became a reality with the founding of Smith & Wesson Firearms Company. Over the next 154 years, the company grew to be one of the most innovative and respected firearms manufacturers in the world. The story of Smith & Wesson is not only about two knowledgeable and enterprising men but also the story of generations of creative and dedicated men and women. The spirit of innovation generated by the partners has long outlived them. Today Smith & Wesson is synonymous with quality, performance, and durability. Smith & Wesson explores the company history, its people, and significant products from the partners' first venture in 1852 to the sale of the Wesson family business in 1965. This book features rarely seen historical photographs, advertisements, and company documents culled from the company archives, museums collections, and the private collections of Smith & Wesson collectors.

For more than 150 years, Marshall Field's reigned as Chicago's leading department store, celebrated for its exceptional service, spectacular window displays, and fashionable merchandise.

Few shoppers recalled its origins as a small dry goods business opened in 1852 by a New York Quaker named Potter Palmer. That store, eventually renamed Marshall Field and Company, weathered economic downturns, spectacular fires, and fierce competition to become a world-class retailer and merchandise powerhouse. Marshall Field sent buyers to Europe for the latest fashions, insisted on courteous service, and immortalized the phrase give the lady what she wants. The store prided itself on its dazzling Tiffany mosaic dome, Walnut Room restaurant, bronze clocks, and a string of firsts including the first bridal registry and first book signing.

Become Part of the Store Family

From its flagship store on Market Street in the heart of Philadelphia, Strawbridge & Clothier strove to meet the needs of its customers for over a century. Built on a foundation of integrity and character, the store and its founders, Justus Strawbridge and Isaac Clothier, made sure the customer was always right and the price just. The department store later branched out to nearby New Jersey and Delaware in the mid to late Twentieth Century. At the time of its sale in 1996, Strawbridge & Clothier was the oldest department store in the country with continuous family ownership.

Author Margaret Strawbridge Butterworth charts the history of Philadelphia’s Strawbridge & Clothier through vivid stories from past employees and customers alike as she invites readers to join the “store family.”

For the first 60 years of the 20th century, logging dominated the physical, economic, and social landscape of the Oregon coast. Millions of trees fell to axes and saws. Millions of dollars bought land and machines. Thousands of young men sweated in the forests and swaggered in the towns. Mills from Astoria to Brookings belched smoke and shipped lumber throughout the world. As the industry responded to its worldwide market, it went from boom to bust and back to boom. Every decade brought new technologies that meant fewer loggers could cut more trees and send them to mills faster than ever. This book, which includes historical images from museums, agencies, and personal collections, reveals the dangers and pride loggers experienced as part of their profession and captures the culture of logging as forests shrank and markets grew.

A history of the iconic department store and a city’s life over a century and a half.

Anyone who has waited in a Christmas line for the Walnut Room’s Great Tree can attest that Chicago’s loyalty to Marshall Field’s is fierce. Dayton-Hudson even had to take out advertising around town to apologize for changing the Field's hallowed green bags. And with good reason—the store and those who ran it shaped the city's streets, subsidized its culture, and heralded its progress.

The resulting commercial empire dictated wholesale trade terms in Calcutta and sponsored towns in North Carolina, but its essence was always Chicago. So when the Marshall Field name was retired in 2006 after the stores were purchased by Macy’s, protest slogans like “Field’s is Chicago” and “Field’s: as Chicago as it gets” weren't just emotional hype. Many still hope that name will be resurrected like the city it helped support during the Great Fire and the Great Depression. Until then, fans of Marshall Field’s can celebrate its history with this warm look back at the beloved institution.

The initial edition of Images of America: The Kentucky Bourbon Trail was published in 2009, and since then, the Kentucky Bourbon Trail® tourist attraction has grown to include 10 of the state's largest and most famous distilleries along with members of the new Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour®.

This revised edition contains nearly 100 new images of the bourbon industry, past and present, making it an essential companion for bourbon enthusiasts as they visit the Kentucky Bourbon Trail® distilleries. Along the KBT™, tour guides and exhibits offer visitors a variety of interesting facts and often a taste of this uniquely American spirit. This book offers a look back at some of the pioneers of whiskey distilling, the distilleries that have come and gone, and the history of those brands that carry on the craft today. The Kentucky Bourbon Trail® and Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour® are experiences that rank among Kentucky's most famous and fastest-growing tourism attractions, with over 3 million visits in the last five years

Philadelphia was once the proud home of Wanamaker's, a department store of many firsts 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. 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

The Record Plant studio in Sausalito, California, was one of America’s top-of-the-line music recording facilities. Opened in 1972, Record Plant was known as the “resort studio,” just across the Golden Gate Bridge in Northern California and away from the big city. One of three studios, the first Record Plant was opened in New York City in 1968 by Chris Stone and Gary Kellgren. The second studio in Los Angeles opened in 1969, followed by the third studio in Sausalito. San Francisco Bay Area–based radio station KSAN FM hosted live studio broadcasts from the Sausalito studio. With its nautical-inspired interior wood artistry, the building known as the “Plant” had a groovy aesthetic that drew in some of the most iconic musical artists of all time, including Fleetwood Mac, Bob Marley, the Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone, Prince, Tom Petty, Metallica, Santana, Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Dave Matthews Band, and many more.

Katiana Giacona, a Marin County native, was resident DJ at the former Sausalito Studio location when it was a spa and yoga event center called Harmonia. For Record Plant, Sausalito Studio she has assembled a collection of discography and photographs from the studio as well as interviews from former receptionists, managers, audio engineers, producers, and staff. Ken Caillat was the producer of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album, one of the greatest rock and roll albums of all time.

Relive the history of Hudson's department store, a fixture in downtown Detroit , when retailing was an event and the department store ruled the shopping scene and was a Detroit icon.

The J. L. Hudson Company redefined the way Detroiters shopped and enjoyed leisure time. Many Detroiters share memories of times spent shopping and enjoying spectacular events sponsored by Hudson's. A solid and lofty icon built by businesspeople who believed in their passion, Hudson's defined Detroit's downtown, creating trends and traditions in consumer culture that still resonate with us today. Now and in the future, as Hudson's boxes, shopping bags, and artifacts are discovered in closets, attics, basements, and flea markets, many will remember that it was once as solid a civic fixture as the City-County Building or the Detroit Public Library.

See how the Packard Motor Car Company grew into one of the country's finest automobile companies and produced cars that exemplified quality and innovation.

Founded in 1899, the Packard Motor Car Company grew into one of America's finest automobile companies, producing cars that exemplified American quality and innovation. Packards were the cars of presidents, movie stars, and those with an appreciation for high quality. The company is known for producing a variety of automobiles, as well as marine engines for PT boats. The Packard represents the classic era of automobile manufacturing and remains one of the most sought-after collector cars. The Packard Motor Car Company was in existence from 1899 to 1957, but the golden era of Packard cars came to a close in the late 1930s. The images featured in this book represent the early years at the Warren, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan factories. The first Packard was built in 1899, and the company then went on to build the fifth car to climb Mount Washington and some of the finest record-setting racecars in the history of automobile racing. Packard Motor Car Company contains rare images from the Larz Anderson Auto Museum that were saved from the Packard factory and the personal collection of James Ward Packard when the company closed.

Kaufmann's Department Store was a force in Pittsburgh retail from its humble beginnings in 1871 until its merger with Federated Department Stores in 2006.

The Big Store downtown was a landmark shopping emporium with 12 floors of everything from cosmetics and groceries to wedding gowns and lawn mowers. Under the leadership of Edgar J. Kaufmann and his wife, Liliane, the store became a forum for exhibitions of art, cutting-edge technology, and Parisian haute couture. Generations of Pittsburghers hold fond memories of meeting friends and family under the famous Kaufmann's clock to lunch at the Tic Toc Restaurant, pick up cookies at the Arcade Bakery, or peer into the store's enchanting Christmas window displays each December.

Join Letitia Stuart Savage on a journey to a time of leisurely shopping for the latest fashions complete with a side of Mile High Ice Cream Pie from the Tic Toc Restaurant.

In 1871, Jacob and Isaac Kaufmann created a classic Pittsburgh institution. The business grew from a small store on the South Side to a mammoth clothing house downtown that outfitted the community. The removal of the original freestanding clock upset customers, so Kaufmann's added its iconic version in 1913. A redesign of the store's first floor attracted national attention in the 1930s. While most Pittsburghers remember and celebrate the downtown store, others recall the suburban branches - miniatures of the expansive flagship store.

Among more than two hundred auto companies that tried their luck in the Motor City, just three remain: Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. But many of those lost to history have colorful stories worth telling.

J.J. Cole forgot to put brakes in his new auto, so he had to drive it in circles until it ran out of gas. Brothers John and Horace Dodge often trashed saloons during wild evenings but used their wealth to pay for the damage the next day. David D. Buick went from being the founder of his own leading auto company to working the information desk at the Detroit Board of Trade. Author Alan Naldrett explores these and more tales of automakers who ultimately failed but shaped the industry and designs today.

Pan American World Airways could be considered a corporate Cinderella—a rags-to-riches-and-back-again phenomenon.

From its founding in 1927 and its relatively obscure inauguration as a mail carrier on a 90-mile mail run from Florida's Key West to Cuba, Pan Am's route system grew to span the globe. The company that would eventually become famous for its blue-and-white-world logo grew into a conglomerate of hotels, airlines, business jets, real estate, a helicopter service, and even a guided missiles range division. But financial problems plagued Pan Am in its last two decades, and in 1991, Pan American World Airways ceased flying after 64 years of service. The story of Pan Am is as much the story of president Juan T. Trippe as it is an account of airplanes, pilots, flight attendants, and glamorous destinations. As the company moved throughout the world building airfields from jungles, crossing oceans, and forcing the development of new airplanes, it was Trippe's airline and his vision. A global pioneer, Pan Am was the first airline to use radio communications, to employ cabin attendants and serve meals aloft, and to complete an around-the-world flight. The company's achievements were legendary, but its failures, tragedies, and disasters were also part of a complex corporate life.

It's a conveinent-store giant in the Mid-Atlantic region today, but Wawa's history dates back to its days as an iron manufactuer over 200 years ago.

Founded in 1803 and incorporated in 1865, Wawa has roots in the manufacture of cast-iron water pipes and decorative lampposts. Using the resources and surplus water power from the iron business, the family opened a cotton mill and began producing cotton piece goods, including Red Star diapers. The first Wawa milk plant opened in 1902 and by the late 1950s, the Wawa Dairy had expanded its home delivery business to include over 145 routes. The first Wawa Food Market opened on April 16, 1964. Today, the company is familiar to many as a chain of 545 convenience stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia that offers a wide selection of fresh foods, coffee, and gasoline. Wawa contains vintage images documenting the evolution of the company as it adapted to changing economic and social conditions. From the early days of iron manufacture to the opening of the first store in Folsom, Pennsylvania, Wawa brings to life the many facets of one of America's top privately owned companies.

The General Motors Corporation opened over a century ago with humble beginnings to grow into the company that became the global business powerhouse it is today.

Established in 1908 by William C. Durant, General Motors was the end-product of combining the Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and Oakland companies. From the 1920s onwards, GM grew from a company that accounted for about 10% of new auto sales in the U.S. to becoming the largest producer of cars and trucks in the world. By the 1960s, due to a series of federal safety regulations and competetive challenges, General Motors' business would never be the same. Though they've suffered their fair share of setbacks, GM is still one of the biggest motor companies in the world, even today. General Motors: A Photographic History explores the growth of the company in a series of 200+ black-and-white images, from the first assembly line to post-WWII recovery, and takes the reader on an intriguing visual tour of a tremendously important piece of the industrialization of the U.S.

Experience the thriving industry and commerce of Richmond during the Gilded Age.

The Richmond Locomotive Works was born out of the ashes of the evacuation fires at the end of the Civil War. The company grew, despite numerous financial and personnel difficulties, to become one of the city’s single-largest employers, an industrial behemoth that provided livelihoods to thousands upon thousands of men over the course of its existence. Over a span of sixty years, the facility produced a myriad of industrial products, including thousands of steam locomotives that traversed rails throughout the United States and across the world.  

Historian Nathan Vernon Madison provides, for the first time since its closure in 1927, a thorough and complete history of this Richmond institution.

The most trusted and prominent knife makers in the US, the history and background of W.R. Case & Sons is examined here with personal stories and photographs

In 1905, John Russell Russ Case brought the fledgling W. R. Case & Sons Company to Bradford, and it dominated the knife industry for the next century. From kitchen, hunting, and pocket knives to the V-42 Stiletto carried by U.S. Army soldiers in World War II, Case knives have been not only a tool but also a trusted companion for generations. Still handcrafted in Bradford, Case knives are the most collected knives in the world. W. R. Case & Sons Cutlery Company contains photographs of Russ Case and his family, the factory, special knives, Case collector events, and even the Case car. Rare finds from the Case archives, employees, and family members help chronicle the company's incredible history.

Affectionately called Woodies by loyal Washingtonians, the beloved department store Woodward & Lothrop stood at the heart of downtown for over a century.

Crowds flocked to the flagship store on the F Street shopping corridor to find better service and the season's fashions. The store and its employees shared in the best moments in the lives of Washingtonians, from the elaborate holiday window displays to the Wedding Service department that helped countless brides choose their china patterns. For weary shoppers, the Bake Shop and seventh-floor Tea Room offered city favorites such as Wellesley Fudge Cupcakes and Chicken Pot Pie. Department store historian Michael J. Lisicky brings readers back to the store's golden age, chronicling the enterprise that made it a retail giant and the missteps that brought the store to its much lamented closing in 1995. Through interviews with store insiders, vintage images and a selection of recipes, Lisicky reveals the magic and the memories behind Woodward & Lothrop. With an introduction by Tim Gunn, American fashion icon and television personality.

Hess's Department Store was a unique department store that with a combination of style and showmanship became a shopping legend for almost 100 years.

Founded in 1897 in Allentown by brothers Max and Charles Hess as a dry goods store, it became the downtown heart of Pennsylvania's third-largest city for much of the 20th century. The Hess family was from Germany, and it was Max Hess Sr. who realized the Germans in Pennsylvania had limited access to quality dry goods; with his sons’ backgrounds in the retail industry, and a higher quality of merchandise, particularly Hess’s French Room, filled with the most in vogue fashions from France. The department store entered its golden age under by Max Hess's son, a showman for merchandising who embraced the life of a department store mogul, living in a giant mansion and rubbing shoulders with celebrities such as Bob Hope and Zsa Zsa Gabor. From the single store in Allentown to more than 80 by the 1990s, it seemed that Hess’s was unstoppable, but a national recession and increased retail competition would eventually sink the titan of Pennsylvania retail. Through a series of photographs, many from private collections and seldom seen, Hess's Department Storebrings the glory days of Hess's to life again.

The Morris Canal was not the longest canal in the world, but it did have one superlative to its credit—it climbed higher than any other canal ever built.

In its time, it was world famous, visited by tourists and technical people from as far away as Europe and Asia.For nearly 100 years, it crossed the hills of northern New Jersey, accomplishing that feat with 23 lift locks and 23 inclined planes.From Lake Hopatcong, the canal ran westward through the Musconetcong valley to Phillipsburg, on the Delaware River, and eastward through the valleys of the Rockaway and Passaic Rivers to tidewater at Newark and Jersey City—a little over 100 miles horizontally and a total rise and fall of nearly 1,700 feet vertically.The Morris Canal, once an important soldier in the American Industrial Revolution, has been gone for most of the 20th century, but its memory lives on in the many photographs, postcards, and other memorabilia that its unique presence inspired.

Unless you're from New England, you may not know the expression He's got a lot of moxie! came from a bittersweet patent medicine turned soda.

The expression is taken to mean that one has nerve, vigor, and grit. The soda pop originally called Moxie Nerve Food was guaranteed to cure nervous exhaustion and a host of associated ailments. First bottled in 1885, today it is the official soft drink of the state of Maine and still enjoyed by many. This book chronicles Moxie's rich history and brilliant marketing breakthroughs as well as some corporate misfortunes and rebounds along the way.

The name Waldorf Astoria conjures images of Gilded Age opulence for the elite and the personalities that illuminated the Gilded Age in New York. Visit the old location on Fifth and 33rd and the current day incarnation on Park Avenue.

Famed throughout the world, New York's Waldorf Astoria is quite simply the grandest of all grand hotels. Host to emperors, rajahs, potentates, and plutocrats—not to mention every US president since Grover Cleveland—its name has become synonymous with the epitome of glamour, luxury, and sophistication. The name Waldorf Astoria applied to two different but equally magnificent hotels. The first was the connecting Hotel Waldorf and Astoria Hotel operating at the corner of Fifth Avenue and West Thirty-third Street. It was a Gilded Age pleasure dome created by the Astor family for New York's social elite. The second and present Waldorf Astoria on Park Avenue is the ultimate expression of Gotham's Jazz Age extravagance. Vintage photographs herein record the architecture, decoration, and history of these two extraordinary establishments as well as the outsized personalities who created and dwelt within them.

A tender and meticulously compiled exploration of the Sandusky shopping experience as it once was

The Sandusky Mall was the iconic shopping hub for locals who grew up in the 1970s and '80s. Kids visited the Circus World toy store, shopped for local amusement park souvenirs at Cedar Point Gifts, and fawned over the kittens and puppies at Petland. Teens scarfed Scotto's Pizza or a tasty treat at Baskin Robbins before taking in the latest feature at the Mall Cinema. Many others pumped quarters into the games at Goldmine or browsed the collection at Musicland.

Gathering more than 200 images, the original floor map, and the history of every store at every location, author Chris Bores delivers a trip down memory lane as well as never-before-told stories of the scandals and struggles--and the triumphs--that made the Sandusky Mall the place to be.

The steel facility that helped advance the modern American West.

Through his record-busting construction career, Henry J. Kaiser continuously pulled off the impossible. When he announced his plans to enter the wartime shipbuilding business and to mass-produce steel in the small, agricultural town of Fontana, experts were shocked, but his determination made him a national figure. "Miracle Man Kaiser" built a steel plant in record time, and it churned out over a million tons of the invaluable metal for the 1940s war effort. In an industry rocked by disharmony, his company adopted the slogan 'Together We Build', and his skill in navigating labor relations made it a powerhouse.

Join author and historian Ric A. Dias as he highlights the successes, failures, and limits of this trailblazer's dreams.

A lively portrait of the “Steel City” and its millionaires and workers during the late nineteenth century.

Steel portrays the growth of iron and steel in smoke-filled Pittsburgh during America’s industrial age, and what it meant for the people who lived there.

This history shares the fast-paced saga of millionaire barons Andrew Carnegie, Ben Franklin Jones, Henry Clay Frick, Henry Phipps, and Charles Schwab, who often plotted and schemed against each other—as well as the story of the underpaid and undervalued immigrant workforce whose desire to unionize united their bosses against them.

Here, author Dale Richard Perelman recounts this dramatic struggle and the bloody battles it spawned throughout Western Pennsylvania’s plants, mines, and railroad yards.

For over a century, the J.L. Hudson's Department Store was more than just a store - it was a Detroit icon and a world-class cultural treasure.

At 25 stories, Hudson's was the world's tallest department store, and was at one time home to the most exceptional offerings in shopping, dining, services, and entertainment. The store prided itself on stocking everything from grand pianos to spools of thread. In addition to regular department store fare, the original Hudson's store featured an auditorium, a circulating library, dining rooms, barber shops, a photo studio, holiday exhibits, a magnificent place called Toytown, and the world's largest American flag. As a legendary symbol of urban and entrepreneurial American history, the J.L. Hudson's Department Store earned a permanent place in Detroit's collective memory. Although the big store no longer graces Woodward Avenue, its legacy lives on in the hearts and minds of generations, and in the remarkable photographs that preserve its reign.

From crop-dusting to the world's largest airlines, this pictorial history of Delta illustrates the people, places, and events that have shaped its history.

The history of Delta Air Lines can be traced back to 1924 and the start of an aerial crop dusting outfit, but it was in 1929 that scheduled passenger services began. From the small beginnings at Macon, Georgia and then Monroe, Louisiana and a small five-passenger plane, Delta has grown to become one of the world's leading airlines. This book celebrates a remarkable 75-year history in words and pictures, highlighting the men and women who have helped to make Delta a tour de force. Monumental growth and change occurred at Delta throughout the second half of the 20th century. By the start of the new millennium, Delta Air Lines was the world's largest airline in terms of passengers carried-120 million in 2000-and operating from the world's largest hub airport, Atlanta Hartsfield International. This volume uncovers the earliest days of Delta, from it first scheduled passenger service on June 17, 1929, through the myriad developments of the 20th century. Images culled from the Delta Air Transport Heritage Museum, Inc. and the author's personal collection are coupled with an engaging narrative in a collection sure to be treasured by Delta employees past and present, aviation enthusiasts, and the many who have flown with Delta over the years.

A full menu of unforgettable events and historical milestones.

Delve into the Rose City’s colorful and sometimes tumultuous past through the memories, meals and recipes that put these bygone restaurants on the map. From The Quality Pie, a favorite of Portlanders from all walks of life, to the River Queen, which enjoyed a long and storied life as a working vessel before becoming a stationary restaurant on the Willamette River, visitors and locals alike have enjoyed a unique variety of eateries. Celebrities once enjoyed steak dinners in the Barbary Coast’s Roaring 20’s Room while Café Lena offered simpler fare to poets and dreamers in search of a relaxed atmosphere.

Join author Theresa Griffin Kennedy for a sumptuous tour of Portland’s shuttered cafés, diners and grand dining rooms.

At its height, Cleveland was a center of industry. Nearly a million people called the city home, and all of them needed various assortments of goods, wares and sundries. To serve their desires, fabulous stores once graced the city. The names alone - Higbee's, Halle's, May Company, Taylor Son & Company, Sterling Linder and Bailey's - conjure a comforting memory of sophisticated style and lost glamour. At the heart of this consumer paradise stood Euclid Avenue, Cleveland's golden façade. With its dynamic retail stores, homes to countless millionaires, and elevated air, it was one of a trio of famous American retail promenades alongside New York's Fifth Avenue and State Street in Chicago.

Author of Lost Cleveland and Lost Grand Hotels of Cleveland, Mike DeAloia offers an illuminating chronicle of the city's golden age of prestige and elegance.

An amazing piece of Brainerd’s proud past

For over eighty years, the Northern Pacific Railroad Shops was the largest employer in the Brainerd area. After the Depression, the NP provided steady jobs for Brainerd railroad workers, whose paychecks contributed to the growth of Brainerd. The NP Shops built freight cars and conducted maintenance and disassembly of the NP’s rolling stock. The workforce of several trades called themselves “shop dogs.” Shop dogs built a workplace culture with its own jokes, stories, ethics, and nicknames – an unintended circumstance could result in a nickname, such as Scoop Swanson or the Soo Line Bull, that stuck to a shop dog for the rest of his life. After shop dogs retired and the NP shops closed, their nicknames and stories live on. Author Bob Roscoe gathers the stories from this vital piece of Brainerd history.

This comprehensive collection of historic photographs illustrates why “The Miracle City,” with its luscious pine forests, public-minded citizenry, rich tradition of innovation, and remarkable resilience is the fastest growing city in the United States.

Managing this enterprise is the features editor of the Courier of Montgomery County newspaper, Sondra Hernandez, working in concert with executive director of the Heritage Museum of Montgomery County and author Joy Montgomery. Rounding out the author team is Dr. Robin Montgomery, author of numerous books and articles and columnist for the Courier of Montgomery County, along with Larry Foerster, an author, chair of the Montgomery County Historical Commission, and former Montgomery County attorney and city attorney for multiple county cities.

Zippo has been owned and operated by the Blaisdell family for more than seventy years. Zippo Manufacturing Company contains photographs of the Blaisdells, the Zippo Riders, the Zippo ski slope, the Zippo car, special-edition lighters, and scenes from the town of Bradford. Zippo archives and private collections have yielded rare photographs of Zippo employees at work, company and collector events, and other highlights in the company's history.

Bomber Mountain's Namesake Tragedy

June 1943 saw forty-one heavy bombers lost within the continental United States, including a B-17 that went missing over Wyoming late during the night of June 28. That aircraft had ten young men on board destined for World War II. They had been ordered overseas to participate in the intense and constant bombing raids being conducted in Europe, but they never made it out of America. Two years later, area cowboys discovered the wreckage strewn across an otherwise picturesque landscape. U.S. Air Corps Captain Kenneth G. Hamm noted in his personal diary, “The plane was so completely demolished that we were almost on top of it before we saw it.” Author Sylvia A. Bruner shares the stories of the men who lost their lives deep in the Bighorn Mountains and recounts the events of the crash, search and U.S. Air Corps accident investigation.

Prolific inventor Thomas Edison and automobile pioneer Henry Ford shaped the modern world like few others in history.

The lives of these close friends intersected at their winter homes in southwest Florida. Edison first visited the tiny cattle-ranching community of Fort Myers in 1885, building a home and laboratory soon after. There, he wintered with his wife, Mina, and their children, Madeleine, Charles, and Theodore. Ford purchased the adjacent estate in 1916, wintering in the area with his wife, Clara, and son, Edsel. Here in southwest Florida, these famous neighbors relaxed and found time to explore new projects.

Shopping has always been big business. Learn all about the golden age of Cleveland's department stores by retail historian Christopher Faircloth.

Originating as simple storefront operations, Cleveland's department stores grew as population and industry in the region boomed throughout the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th. They moved into ever larger and elaborate structures in an attempt to woo the shopping dollars of blue-collar and genteel Clevelanders alike. Stores such as Halle's, Higbee's, May Company, Bailey Company, Sterling-Lindner-Davis, and others both competed with and complemented one another, all the while leaving an indelible mark on the culture of northeast Ohio and beyond. From the humble origins of Halle's horse-drawn delivery wagons to Christmas favorites like Mr. Jingeling and the massive Christmas tree at Sterling-Lindner-Davis - it is all here in crisp, black-and-white images, many of which have not been seen in print for decades.

Learn the exciting story of the rise and fall of Gimbels, one of America's most beloved department stores.

In 1842, Adam Gimbel opened a small storefront in Vincennes, Indiana and unknowingly set forth the groundwork for an American retail icon. His fair trade practices encouraged him to leave Vincennes and open up the largest store ever in 1887 in the city of Milwaukee. After getting his Milwaukee on firm ground, Adam Gimbel left for Philadelphia, his wife's hometown, with his seven sons and opened the world's largest store in 1894. Like every major department store, Gimbels began to follow its customer into the suburbs, and the family became less involved in the running of the store. With sales and profits falling, Gimbels was purchased by British-American Tobacco. The company struggled to right itself in the challenging and changing retailing world. It built a new controversial flagship store in Philadelphia but it failed to draw its traditional shopper. By June 1986, Gimbels was going out of business and the 36 Gimbels stores located from Philadelphia to Milwaukee permanently shut their doors

Chronicling the visual history of the design, construction and launch of the lunar module - one of the most historic machines in human history.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced his plans for landing a man on the moon by 1970 - despite the fact that the United States had a total of just 15 minutes of spaceflight experience up to that point. With that announcement, the space race had officially begun. In 1962, after a strenuous competition, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation of Bethpage, Long Island, had won the contract to build the lunar module - the spacecraft that would take Americans to the moon. This was the first and only vehicle designed to take humans from one world to another.

Although much has been written about the first men to set foot on the moon, those first hesitant steps would not have been possible without the efforts of the designers and technicians assigned to Project Apollo. Building Moonships: The Grumman Lunar Module tells the story of the people who built and tested the lunar modules that were deployed on missions as well as the modules that never saw the light of day.

The world’s one-and-only PEZ historian dispenses fun facts on the candy’s evolution from smoking substitute to childhood treat to pop culture collectible.

PEZ is an American classic and a staple of many childhood memories. Yet it originated in Austria, where PEZ began in 1927 as compressed peppermint tablets marketed as an alternative to smoking. Upon arrival in the United States in 1952, PEZ quickly took a new direction, adding fruit flavors and three-dimensional character heads to top the dispensers. Now produced in Orange, Connecticut, the iconic PEZ brand is available in over eighty countries, selling more than sixty-five million dispensers annually and inspiring collectors and fans worldwide.

Join the official PEZ historian, Shawn Peterson, on a journey of sweet proportions for an inside look at the world’s most cherished interactive candy.

Enjoy a cool book on a hot day about America's Oldest Brewery, Yuengling.

D. G. Yuengling & Son of Pottsville has been in continuous operation since 1829, and since its start, Yuengling has been prudently managed by the Yuengling family. Overcoming the 14 dry years of Prohibition, Yuengling persevered due in part to the ingenuity and creativity of its owners and loyalty of its consumers, finding particular success with ice cream products that would continue until 1985. Unlike many of the regional brewers who were forced to close their doors over time, Yuengling found a niche for itself beginning in the late 1980s. With the introduction of Yuengling Lager and Black & Tan, the brand became a sensation in and around Philadelphia. The popularity of their product has led to Yuengling being distributed in 14 states, making it not only the oldest, but the largest American-owned brewery.

Catering to all the folks

In business for more than a century, Kewpee is the second oldest hamburger chain in the United States. Beginning with the Kewpee Hotel in Flint, Michigan, founder Samuel “Old Man Kewpee” Blair soon opened his original hamburger stand. That location served the world’s first deluxe hamburger, crafted from fresh, never-frozen beef and topped with tomatoes, lettuce and mayo. By licensing the Kewpee name, Blair and Ohio Kewpee Hotel operator Edwin Adams expanded into a chain of hundreds of hamburger stands and restaurants, mainly in the Midwest. A small number of Kewpee locations survived competition and still serve Olive Burgers, fries, malts and pie to lucky customers.

Author Gary Flinn tells the full story of Kewpee, its many locations long gone and its spinoff, Halo Burger.

The story of the makeup artist who changed the film industry—and the world of modern cosmetics.

When Polish wigmaker and cosmetician Max Factor arrived in Los Angeles at the dawn of the motion picture industry, “make-up” had been associated only with stage performers and ladies of the oldest profession. Appalled by the garish paints worn by actors, Factor introduced the first “flexible” greasepaint for film in 1914.

With a few careful brush strokes, a lot of innovation, and the kind of luck that can happen only in Hollywood, Max Factor changed the meaning of glamour. His innovations can be experienced in every tube of lipstick, palette of eye shadow, and bottle of nail lacquer used today. 

Join author Erika Thomas as she reveals the makeup guru's expert beauty tips and the story of how he created the most iconic golden-era looks that are as relevant today as they were nearly a century ago.

Clarence Saunders’ vision for a better shopping experience for day-to-day needs has made Piggly Wiggly a staple of southern living for over 100 years.

The grocery business began as a complicated service industry. Random pricing, inconsistent quantities and prescriptive salesmen made grocery shopping burdensome. It took one brash Memphian with uncommon vision and unbridled ambition to change everything. Clarence Saunders worked his way out of poverty and obscurity to found Piggly Wiggly in 1916. With an unprecedented approach, he virtually invented the concept of the modern self-service grocery store. Stores flourished, franchises spread and Saunders made millions. Yet just as the final bricks of Pink Palace—his garish marble mansion—were being laid, Saunders went bankrupt, and he was forced to sell Piggly Wiggly. A variety of new ventures helped Saunders out of bankruptcy, but he never duplicated his prior success. Memphis historian Mike Freeman tracks the remarkable life of this retail visionary.

Remembering two palaces of retail

For generations, Scranton’s two big department stores, The Globe Store and Oppenheim’s Scranton Dry Goods Company, affectionately known as “the Dry,” dominated retail in the Electric City. Facing each other on Wyoming Avenue, they created special memories for those who walked their sales floors with attractive displays, special events, community service and elaborate Christmas decorations. Many fondly recall the steamship round of beef carved to order at The Globe’s Charl-Mont Restaurant or waving to customers passing by on the escalator from the Dry’s mezzanine Tea Room. Together, the two stores brought the best the world had to offer to Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Join Scranton-area native Daniel J. Packer Jr. and step through the iconic revolving doors into a bygone era of shopping in grand style.

Plainview–Old Bethpage presents an intriguing story of two vibrant Long Island communities that share a colorful 300-year-old history.

They were once quaint farming communities that almost overnight found themselves facing seismic cultural changes. In just 10 years, from 1950 to 1960, the combined population of Plainview and Old Bethpage soared from 2,000 to over 33,000. Plainview–Old Bethpage presents a journey back in time to the Native Americans, the settlers who followed, the farmers who worked the land, and the thousands who came to make a better life for their families. Discover why every town surrounding Plainview–Old Bethpage has a railroad station but it does not. Read about the resident who raised a Confederate flag during the Civil War and drew the ire of his neighbors. Ride along with race car drivers as they hurtle along dirt roads at breakneck speed. Learn about the deadly brawl on Election Day in 1890, the infamous Plainview kidnapper who got the electric chair, and a local company's role in molding a national memorial to Vietnam veterans.

Downtown Gary: Millrats, Politics, and US Steel provides a glimpse of the Gary of yesteryear when downtown was the social, cultural, and political center of the community.

Before the era of gigantic shopping malls, big-box stores, and online shopping, the commercial centers of major American cities were located in areas often referred to as downtown. From the 1920s through the 1960s, people from throughout the Calumet Region flocked to the Steel City's popular stores, theaters, and restaurants by car, bus, and the South Shore Railroad. For many, Gordon's, Lytton's, Sears, and Goldblatt's bring back memories of window-shopping, making layaway plans, visiting Santa, and being asked May I help you? by courteous employees. Downtown Gary: Millrats, Politics, and US Steel provides a look at the stores, politics, churches, schools, and of course, United States Steel Corporation and the millrats of forgotten Gary.

“Ye Olde Friendly Towne of Whittier” grew from a small colony of Quaker pioneers who arrived in 1887 into a center for the production of agriculture and oil around the time the city was incorporated in 1898, and not long after that into a commercial hub, college town, and flourishing Los Angeles suburb. Whittier’s beginnings also coincided with the so-called “Golden Age of Postcards,” when folks everywhere mailed and collected billions of the then new medium, and Whittier boosters and civic leaders published dozens that celebrated the things that made their Whittier one-of-a-kind—a trend that continued throughout the 20th century.

This book features many of these vintage postcards, selected by Whittier historians Erin Fletcher, Mike Garabedian, and Tracy Wittman from public archives and private collections. Described with an eye toward remembering the past—including long-gone landmarks—the book also charts Whittier’s trajectory through the unique features and places in town of which 20th-century Whittierites themselves were proudest.

For more than 50 years, there was no more iconic Florida tourist attraction than Silver Springs.

Its sheer popularity meant that the surrounding area—indeed, the entirety of Marion County—serviced the entertainment, gas, food, and lodging needs of millions of tourists annually. Visitors flocked to places like Ross Allen’s Reptile Institute, Tommy Bartlett’s Deer Ranch, and natural attractions like Rainbow Springs and Ocala Caverns. Sadly, as Florida tourism moved into the theme park era, scores of smaller attractions and their related businesses were abandoned. Author Tim Hollis revisits these once-thriving tourist spots and what happened when those tourists stopped coming.

This is the history of the supermarket where America grew up shopping, from the Hartford family's legacy to the generations of shoppers who depended on A&P for fair prices and quality food.

In 1859, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, known everywhere as A&P, began as a mail-order business located at 31 Vesey Street in downtown Manhattan. In 1925, A&P operated more than thirteen thousand grocery stores nationwide, with more than forty thousand employees. By 1950, approximately ten cents out of every dollar spent on food in the United States passed over A&P counters. A&P: The Story of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company tells the story of how cofounder George Huntington Hartford and his sons John and George brought A&P to a popularity with consumers that few companies have ever achieved. This stunning collection of vintage photographs shows such nostalgic scenes as the elegant early stores, their gleaming window displays, and the red horse-drawn delivery wagons with the A&P logo emblazoned on their sides. Shoppers choose from rows of colorful merchandise and fresh produce; uniformed storekeepers make change from ornate registers; and the founder's son tastes A&P's Eight O'Clock coffee. A&P is still an industry leader, and A&P: The Story of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company shows why.

Through photographs of people, events, and machines, Digital Equipment Corporation tells the story of the unassuming computer revolutionaries who reshaped the technological world.

From its inception in 1957, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), headquartered in Maynard, Massachusetts, carved itself a role in American business unlike any other company. Launched by Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineer Ken Olsen with a $70,000 investment from the country's first venture capital firm, DEC rapidly became a pioneer in computer technology. In its heyday, DEC had a valuation of more than $12 billion and employed approximately one hundred twenty thousand people worldwide, making it second only to IBM. Its people and technology contributed to making computers increasingly affordable, which led directly to the advent of the personal computer, the first computer games, and computer networks. DEC was also a leader in the Internet revolution, claiming the dubious distinction of launching the first spam mailing and registering one of the first commercial domain names. Through photographs of people, events, and machines, Digital Equipment Corporation tells the story of the unassuming computer revolutionaries who reshaped the technological world. It is written for anyone who is interested in how the present era of computing ubiquity has evolved since the 1940s, when IBM chairman Thomas Watson predicted that the whole world might need no more than five computers.

Craving a blast of nostalgia with a side of pecans? Pull over and explore Stuckey's, the Georgia highway staple.

Beginning as a single roadside stand selling pecans in Eastman, Georgia, by the 1950s, the name Stuckey's was synonymous throughout the South with candy, souvenirs, clean restrooms, and the other necessities of automobile travel. During the 1960s, the Stuckey's stores moved into the new frontier of the interstate highways, where quite often they sat alone at the exits like oases in the middle of a desert. Their bright aqua-colored rooftops were a welcome beacon for those who had been driving long distances. Travel has changed a lot since then, but Stuckey's can still be found along the nation's highways, still providing dozens of types of candy and nuts, plus the same mix of souvenirs, as always. Anyone need a rubber alligator or a pecan log?

Placer gold may have first attracted adventurers to Shasta County in the mid-19th century, but when valuable deposits of copper were discovered it led to the greatest period of prosperity in Shasta County’s history.

When copper deposits were noted soon after the discovery of gold in 1848, Copper production remained idle until the Mountain Copper Company acquired Iron Mountain in 1896. British and eastern financiers such as Guggenheim and Rothschild saw the potential in the unique combination of high-grade copper ore, a functioning railway, and vast quantities of limestone and quartz for flux, and they invested in major smelters to conquer the difficult sulfide ore. The decades that followed were the produced towns such as Coram, Keswick, Kennett, and Copper City and attracting thousands of hardworking miners and townspeople as well as new railroads such as the Sacramento Valley & Eastern, Quartz Hill, and Iron Mountain. While the boom ended in deforestation and erosion, the actions of the Bureau of Reclamation and the Shasta Dam brought prosperity to the area. Today, most of the copper towns rest under Lake Shasta.

Ron Jolliff has long been associated with numerous historical groups in Shasta County. Although the author has produced other local history books for the Shasta Historical Society, this is his first Images of America title with Arcadia. The Shasta Historical Society has focused on the preservation of local history since 1930 and now takes pride in assisting with the development of other organizations.

From watch catalog to international retail empire, revisit Sears's Windy City history with author Val Rendel and remember how good the “Good Life” once was.

In 1887, Richard W. Sears started a Chicago mail-order house that quickly outpaced its competitors, including Montgomery Ward. For millions of rural Americans over the next hundred years, Chicago was the place where dreams came from. Here, the “World’s Largest Store” opened its first retail buildings, debuted its WLS radio station and transformed the global marketplace from the Great Works headquarters complex. Today, Sears has faded from the city of its birth, but many marks of the once-great business remain, from repurposed iconic department store buildings to the Sears kit homes still scattered across the suburbs. The 110-story skyscraper that dominates the skyline will forever be known to locals as the Sears Tower. Sears greatest legacy, however, was the role it played in shaping the lives of generations of Chicagoans.

The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma on January 24, 1848, initiated one of the largest migrations in US history.

Between 1849 and 1855, hundreds of thousands of migrants arrived in Northern California hoping to find gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.The rapid population growth and economic prosperity led to boomtowns, banks, and railroads, making California eligible for statehood in 1850. An international cast of gold-seekers, merchants, and tradespeople arrived by land and through the port of San Francisco, which was transformed from a small village to a cosmopolitan metropolis. Jewish pioneers, many of whom had been merchants in Europe, opened stores and businesses in small towns and mining camps in and around the Mother Lode. They established benevolent societies and cemeteries, founded synagogues and companies, held public office and positions of influence, and contributed greatly to the multicultural fabric of the Gold Country.

Jonathan L. Friedmann, director of the Jewish Museum of the American West and president of the Western States Jewish History Association, brings together images from the association’s archives, exhibits from the museum, and articles from 50 years of the quarterly journal Western States Jewish History.

The story of John Larkin, Buffalo businessman, and his soap company that was one largest mail -order companies in America and left the legacy of Larkinville.

Born at 13 Clinton Street in Buffalo in 1845, John D. Larkin went on to become one of the most successful businessmen Buffalo has ever had. Developing from his experience in the soap industry with his brother-in-law Justus Weller in Buffalo and Chicago, the Larkin Company, established in 1875, became one of the dominant mail-order businesses in America. In 1885, Larkin and his wife's brother, Elbert Hubbard, promoted The Larkin Idea, which brought the business a national customer base through Factory to Family direct sales. At the height of the company, 90,000 Larkin Secretaries established clubs to bring Larkin soap and other products to women in their neighborhoods. This system of secretaries and clubs created an external promotional engine unlike any other previously known. The company closed in 1967, leaving its mammoth footprint in Buffalo's Hydraulic neighborhood, now aptly called Larkinville.

The formula for C.F. Martin & Co.'s success has always been an unparalleled commitment to precise handcraftsmanship blended with optimum tonewoods, innovation, and singular design.

This family business has persevered from the Civil War through the present and remains the oldest surviving maker of stringed instruments in the world. It is the largest and most respected producer of acoustic guitars in America. The images in this book trace the remarkable development of the acoustic guitar in the hands of six generations of Martin family members who have managed the business from 1833 to today. C.F. Martin & Co. captures the buildings, employees, musicians, and exquisite instruments that have contributed to a lasting legacy.

IBM is heir to all the ideas for innovative ciphering machines of the past.

From granite blocks used to tell time, to beads used for accounting purposes, to punch cards, to computer chips as small as a raindrop, all are the historical roots of this corporate legend. IBM began with a small group of visionaries whose first factory was in a dismal garret in Binghamton, New York. By the time the Bundy Manufacturing Company relocated to Endicott, New York, it was part of the greatest industrial revolution in the world: the birth of computing technology. IBM in Endicott illustrates the development of a corporation and the people and ideas that made IBM a household word. With the city of Endicott at the epicenter of progress, IBM grew from a small company named Bundy Manufacturing, incorporated in 1889, to the company known as International Business Machines. Pictured are just a few of the notable moments during some of the golden years of Big Blue.

Track the history of the Florida East Coast Railway from its beginning in 1885-present day.

The benchmark for US railroad operations, the Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway is often referred to by other American railroads as the best-maintained and -operated railroad in the country. The FEC Railway can trace its lineage back to December 31, 1885, the day Henry M. Flagler purchased the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Halifax River Railway. The FEC was known for its famous passenger trains, and the last scheduled FEC Railway passenger train ran on July 31, 1968, due to the work stoppage by the nonoperating unions that began on January 22, 1963. Although without passenger trains since 1968, the FEC's partner, All Aboard Florida, with its Brightline trains, will soon establish a new standard for privately operated rail passenger service in America. Today, caboose-less, the FEC operates numerous high-speed freight trains between Jacksonville and Miami.