1921 Russell & Wait Glens Falls Receipt Berry Woodward Books Kodaks Victrola
$ 6.86
Description
1921 Russell & Wait Glens Falls Receipt Berry Woodward Books Kodaks Victrola. The handwritten entries, penned in a legible cursive script, record the sale of three books. A sales receipt from Russell & Wait, a purveyor of books, stationery, and wall paper, documents a transaction on February 28, 1921, with a customer named Berry Woodward in Glens Falls, New York. The printed letterhead, executed in a refined script typeface, announces the firm’s location at 122 Glen Street and its telephone number, 306-J, reflecting the early adoption of telephonic communication for commercial correspondence. The header further advertises the business’s ancillary departments, with the left column promoting “Kodaks and Photo Supplies” and the right column touting “Victrolas and Records,” situating Russell & Wait firmly within the consumer economy of the early 1920s, where photography and recorded music were becoming accessible to a broader public. The handwritten entries, penned in a legible cursive script, record the sale of three books. The first item listed is “Isle of Elcador,” priced at $1.50, followed by “age of Innocence” at $2.00, and “Jenny Essenden” also at $2.00. The abbreviation “P P” appears at the bottom of the list, likely indicating postage paid or a similar processing notation. The titles provide a glimpse into the reading habits of the era; “The Age of Innocence” is the celebrated novel by Edith Wharton, published in 1920 and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1921, making this receipt a contemporary record of its sale. The other two titles, while less canonical, represent the popular literary fiction of the day. The total for these three volumes, $5.50, represents a modest sum for the period, offering insight into the cost of books as consumer goods. The simple ruled form, filled out by hand, stands as an artifact of small-town retail commerce, capturing a precise moment in the commercial and cultural life of Glens Falls, the seat of Warren County, in the post-World War I era.
