PUBLISHER : John Wanamaker, 1861-1995.
ABOUT John Wanamaker (1838-1922) was born in Philadelphia. In 1861, with his brother-in-law Nathan Brown, he founded a men's clothing store in Philadelphia called Oak Hall. Brown died in 1868 and Wanamaker carried on the business alone, in 1876 buying the empty Pennsylvania Railroad station for a retail location. He renovated the terminal into a "Grand Depot" similar to London's Royal Exchange or Paris's Les Halles, forerunners of the modern department store.
By 1877, the interior of Wanamaker's was refurbished and expanded to include not only men's clothing, but women's clothing and dry goods as well. This was Philadelphia's first modern-day department store, and one of the earliest founded in America. A circular counter was placed at the center of the building, and concentric circles radiated around it with 129 counters of goods. This was Philadelphia's first modern-day department store, and one of the earliest founded in America. In 1911 it was rebuilt in a large new building at 13th and Market and, lasting through mergers and acquisitons, remained in name until 1995.
The Great Depot about 1876.
:
LUCILE’s ISSUED BY Wanamaker's:--From time to time Wanamaker's offered some variety of books book for direct sale in the store and by mail, often buying reprints of classics and adding its own, usually undated, title page. This copy is to date the only known copy of a Lucile with Wanamaker's imprint.
Owen Meredith. Lucile. Columbine Library. John Wanamaker. Philadelphia, New York: no date. Title page is tipped in; a front flylead and very likely a frontispiece have been removed. The tex block is printed from electroplates used by Richard Worthington and later by Rand, McNally & Co.. 130x193mm, 337 pages. Maroon cloth boards with blind-tooled design on front cover that extends over spine. The design seems more similar to Rand, McNally bindings than Worthington's; Worthington dissolved in 1894 and Rand, McNally began business in 1895. "Mildred Evans" who signed the title page (and also a rear fly leaf) is very likely a younger member of an Evans family re-settled in Virginia from Paoli, Penna., in 1865. They brought with them a large library, "primarily from the Great Valley Library in the Paoli area" that Henry Hurt, Shade Tree Rare Books, Chatham, Virginia, purchased in 1999.
Last revised: 7 September 2025