Manufacturers' trade catalogs are a source of much valuable and useful information for those interested in various decorative arts history, the history of design, and trends of various industries. Catalogs chronicle the development of different styles and tastes of the public and can be used to identify articles as well as to provide information on specifications, prices, and types of material used in construction. For the most part, however, trade catalogs have not fared well in libraries. Because of the catalogs' size and frequency of issue, many libraries are unable or reluctant to collect them. For those libraries that are interested, trade catalogs often are very difficult to obtain.
Fortunately, the Library of Congress has a representative collection of trade catalogs that are dispersed throughout the general collections. But because they are listed in the card catalog under many different headings, users interested in accessing them must resort to several strategies in order to find them.
Guide is here.
