Online Retailers Owe Popularity and Tax Treatment to Mail Order Catalogs

If you're clicking through the internet today hoping to do a little shopping, you likely have Aaron Montgomery Ward to thank. On Aug. 18, 1872, Ward produced the first Montgomery Ward mail order catalog, largely thought to be the first mail order catalog meant for the general public (Tiffany claims that its Blue Book catalogue, first published in 1845, is the first mail order catalog, but I think we'd all agree that a collection of "exceedingly rare gems" wasn't meant for the general public). As a result, each year on August 18 is National Mail Order Catalog Day.