1908 Sears Roebuck Richard W Sears President Desk Stereoview Promo No 1 For Sale

Original1908 Sears, Roebuck & Co. promotional stereoview No. 1, titled“Mr. R. W. Sears, President Sears, Roebuck & Co., at His Desk.”The card shows company founder and presidentRichard Warren Searsseated in his Chicago office beside catalogs, correspondence and an early automatic telephone.

This is the opening view from the famous fifty-card promotional series generally known as“A Trip Through Sears, Roebuck & Co.”, created to give mail-order customers a virtual tour of the company’s immense Chicago operation. Unlike conventional photographic stereoviews made from separately mounted albumen or silver prints, this example is aprinted photomechanical / halftone stereoviewon relatively thin card stock, produced for large-scale Sears distribution.

1908is the most appropriate date for this issue. The stereoscopic series depicted Sears’ new West Side / North Lawndale Chicago complex, which came into operation in 1906, and the fifty-view set was promoted to customers through the Sears catalog in1908.

The reverse of this particular No. 1 card is especially useful for dating because it is written in the voice ofRichard W. Sears as company president. Sears retired from the presidency in November 1908, placing the promotional distribution squarely within that year or immediately before his departure.

The underlying office photograph was likely made slightly earlier, approximately1905–1906. Research on this exact image notes that the catalog visible on Sears’ desk appears consistent with the Fall 1905 edition, and the unusual automatic telephone beside him corresponds with equipment installed by Sears in 1905.

Richard Warren Sears (1863–1914)was the driving entrepreneurial force behind Sears, Roebuck & Co. He began in the mail-order watch trade while working for the railroad, then built Sears into one of the most important merchandising companies in American history.

By combining aggressive advertising, enormous catalogs, standardized pricing and direct shipment to customers—especially rural families far from major retail centers—Sears helped transform American consumer culture. By 1900 company sales had already exceeded $10 million, and the business continued expanding rapidly during the first decade of the 20th century.

This stereoview captures Sears near the end of his active leadership. He remained president through most of 1908, then retired, with Julius Rosenwald succeeding him. Sears died in 1914 at age 50.

The reverse explains the promotional purpose in remarkable detail. Sears tells the customer that this card is a complimentary sample from a special series offifty stereoscopic viewsshowing the company’s offices, storerooms, freight packing, outgoing freight departments, mailing and printing operations, train and railroad-track systems, engine rooms, buildings, grounds and employees.

The complete fifty-card set could be ordered asStereoscopic Set No. 20B2519 for 35 cents. Customers who also needed a stereoscope could order the fifty views plus a viewer for50 cents. Sears emphasized that the series was not being offered as a normal retail product, but rather as a special means of giving customers something close to a personal visit through the company.

The printed sales letter also states that Sears hadupwards of four million customers, underscoring the extraordinary national scale of the mail-order business by this period. The reverse ends with a facsimile signature ofRichard W. Searsand printer / promotional code243H.

At the left side of Sears’ desk is a distinctive early automatic telephone. Research on this exact view identifies it as a1905 Strowger Automatic “Potbelly” candlestick telephone, part of the automatic telephone equipment Sears installed in 1905. The apparatus is an excellent secondary subject in the image and adds interest for collectors of early communications technology and business-office history.

VG

Date:1908 promotional issue; underlying photograph circa 1905–1906

Subject:Richard W. Sears at his desk

Company:Sears, Roebuck & Co.

Location:Chicago, Illinois

Series:A Trip Through Sears, Roebuck & Co.

Series view:No. 1

Full-set order number:20B2519

Reverse code:243H

Format:Printed photomechanical / halftone stereoview on card stock

Notable object:Early Strowger automatic telephone

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