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| Title | Wallin & Nordstrom shoe store interior showing company staff in a showroom corner, Seattle, ca. 1901 |
| Photographer | Unknown |
| Date | 1901 |
| Caption | John Nordstrom and Carl Wallin met in the Yukon, during the Klondike Gold Rush. In 1901, Wallin and Nordstrom their $5000 and opened their first store in downtown Seattle. The store, at Fourth Avenue and Pike Street, was only 20 feet wide.
Here, Carl Wallin (left) and John Nordstrom (second from right) stand in their store along with an aproned shoemaker and a clerk. Gas lights illumine the racks of shoes, and stacks of shoe boxes line the shelves.
By 1930, Wallin had left the firm and Nordstrom had passed it on to his three sons. Late in 1963, the company merged with Best's Apparel and, as Nordstrom Best's, moved into the department store business. In 1973, the company changed its name to Nordstrom. |
| Notes | Original photo copied by P-I staff photographer.
Handwritten on sleeve: SEATTLE, STORES, Nordstrom's, anniversary.
Date photograph was filed at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (date of photograph and file date may differ by a month or more): May 18, 1961.
Caption information from James Warren, King County and its Queen City, Seattle; John W. Nordstrom, The Immigrant in 1887, |
| Subjects | Shoe stores--Washington (State)--Seattle; Nordstrom (Firm)--Washington (State)--Seattle; Sales personnel--Washington (State)--Seattle; Business people--Washington (State)--Seattle; Shoe industry--Washington (State)--Seattle; Merchandise displays--Washington (State)--Seattle; Shoes--Washington (State)--Seattle |
| Personal Names | Wallin, Carl F.
Nordstrom, John W. |
| Places | United States--Washington (State)--Seattle |
| Digital Collection | Museum of History & Industry Photograph Collection |
| Image Number | 1986.5.12080.3 |
| Ordering Information | To order a reproduction or to inquire about permissions contact photos@mohai.org or phone us at 206-324-1126. Please refer to the Image Number and provide a brief description of the photograph. |
| Credit Line | Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection, Museum of History & Industry, Seattle; All Rights Reserved |
| Repository | Museum of History & Industry, Seattle (MOHAI) |
| Repository Collection | Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection |
| Type | Image |
| Physical Description | 1 acetate negative: b&w; 4 x 5 in. |
| Digital Reproduction Information | Scanned from original negative as a 3000 pixel TIFF image in 8-bit grayscale, resized to 640 pixels in the longest dimension and compressed into JPEG format using Photoshop 6.0 and its JPEG quality measurement 3. |
