Mrs. John Doe.
[Finance]. Mrs. John Doe. A book wherein for the first time an attempt is made to determine woman’s share in the purchasing power of the nation. New York: The Butterick Publishing Company, (1918).
8vo.; 25 black and white illustrations; green paper-covered boards; tan cloth spine; printed label affixed to upper panel.
First edition of this financial “first,” divided into 18 chapters and illustrated with paintings, engravings, photographs, advertisements, and graphs. Inscribed on the front endpaper, in an unknown hand, potentially that of the author, in the year of publication: To Albert J. Foosr/June ’18.
In the first chapter titled, “The First Word,” the author explains,
This is a book about women. There is nothing exceptional in that, for many are the books that deal with the female…. This present book is an attempt to detect her position in the world of buying and selling, to analyze her effect on business, and then, brutally speaking, to point out how the manufacturer or merchant can best avail himself of her favorable influence.
While men produce goods, supply cash to buy goods, and, often, purchase goods, it is the woman’s choice that determines what will be bought for her family. “Man labors to earn the daily bread – but woman cuts the slices!” An informative book written with the layman in mind; filled with examples from daily life, recounted with warmth and wit.
Butterick Publishing Company changed the scope and content of women’s magazines after the end of the Civil War, mainly through innovative marketing and advertising techniques, targeting the female consumer. According to Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckerman, in her article, “Marketing the Women’s Journals, 1873-1900,”
The Butterick Company, Ltd. evolved from a pattern company into a major publisher over the decades of the late 19th century. It transformed one of its fashion catalogues, The Delineator, into a best-selling, general-interest woman’s magazine, changing the way it marketed the journal in the process. The development of the Butterick Company and the techniques used in marketing first its patterns, then its publication, typifies the path followed by other pattern manufacturers turned publishers.
In chapter six, titled, “A Day in the Home,” the author explains the importance of branding in relation to women’s choices for purchasing products for their homes by listing articles and items advertised in The Delineator. A typical issue would include advertisements for everything from bed springs, floor wax and soaps to more arcane-sounding items such as brooders, corn plasters, lisle hose and tooth powders.
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