Young Couple Looking at a Catalogue (The Engagement)

In 1887, "Richard W. Sears moved his business from Minneapolis to Chicago and inserted a classified ad in The Chicago Daily News for a watchmaker. An Indiana lad, Alvah C. Roebuck, answered the ad...Here began the association of two men, both still in their twenties, that was to make their names famous. In 1893 the corporate name of their firm became Sears, Roebuck and Company. From that simple beginning emerged the greatest mail order company that the world has ever known...In 1927 Sears, Roebuck and Company chose Norman Rockwell to create a cover for their Spring-Summer catalogue. The result was the beautiful painting of a young couple reading the famous ad book while a typical Rockwell dog watches." (Dr. D.R. Stoltz, et al., The Advertising World of Norman Rockwell, New York, 1985, p. 176)