Through The Shopping Glass
Posted by: Alan in Book Reviews, Books, Christmas, Photography
Today is my second of twelve Christmas book selections. Yesterday Bev blogged about going downtown to Christmas shop and recalled how it was a major event, warranting one’s best clothes and all the trappings of an occasion. I remember as a child how exciting it was at Christmas-time to go downtown and gawk for ages at the many and spectacular window displays at the D. H. Holmes and Maison Blanche department stores on Canal Street in New Orleans. Indeed if you lived in a city of any size, you probably got nearly as excited by the spectacular displays of your department store as any of the folks who queued up in New York City to gawk at the windows of their famous stores.
Sadly all of that is a thing of the past for most of us, but the past lives on in Through the Shopping Glass, a richly illustrated history of Christmas window displays in New York City. from 1900 through 2000. How comforting to sit in the comfort of my living room and get in one hundred years of gawking. In words and excellent historical photographs, Sheryll Bellman chronicles the department store window display. The huge crowds in the depression-era photos reminded me a great deal in their appearance of the depiction of window shopping in the film A Christmas Story. And many of the featured windows are quite spectacular. If you’ve ever been excited about going downtown to gawk at the windows, you will most surely enjoy spending an hour or so with this book. Highly Recommended
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