2022 Essays

Meddlesome Practices Landing Page Text for Federated Department Stores Project

Kratcha, Kae Bara

The catalog summary of the Federated Department Stores Project begins, “This project comprises a series of interviews with those who built the largest department store organization in the United States, Federated Department Stores.” Scholars interested in the history of retail business, business organizational structure, consumer taste as reflected in department stores, and other related topics related to merchandising in the United States will likely find relevant information in these recordings. In listening to interviews from the Federated collection, however, I found that the provenance of the collection is at the heart of the narratives held there. The provenance reads, simply, “Underwritten by the children of Fred Lazarus, Jr.”

Learn more about this collection in the Columbia Libraries Catalog (CLIO): https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog/4074565