The Transformation of Shopping: Department Stores, Social Change and Consumerism, 1830-1994

Explore the social and cultural history of department stores, changing consumer needs, workers’ rights, and societal shifts. Themes include:

  • domestic life
  • gender roles
  • consumerism
  • retail work and unionisation
  • business practices
  • fashion
  • race and ethnicity
  • class 

Content includes primary sources such as company archives, advertisement scrapbooks, posters and photographs, as well as store catalogues, workplace newsletters, journals and ephemera.