Help please from vintage sleuth experts

[amandainvermont]

I know some of you have a wonderful technique for garnering vintage clothing historical information which I lack. This label is on a nice silk velvet opera coat. It has the NRA blue eagle label, which dates it from 1933-1935, but I wonder if anyone can find anything about this label.

 

[Vintagiality]

It was a Philadelphia department store that subsequently opened another location in Camden, NJ
I see lots of ads from the 20s and 30s. Will get you more tonight after work

 

[lkranieri]

Until I am done feeding cats...

And also from 1919...

 

[amandainvermont]

Lynne and Victoria

 

[Vintagiality]

One more tidbit during lunch break

 

[lkranieri]

I can't offer too much information about your label, but I will post here a few chronologically arranged posts with a bit of information about the label, to help you cobble together a history of the business, starting with the two 1919 blurbs posted earlier:

-- This is a 1920 article and the cover of the publication in which it was found

-- Just a small blurb about sale prices on items at Steckers, from 1920

 

[lkranieri]

And from 1921...

-- An advertisement for Steckers, with their Philadelphia address:

-- A 1921 article about remodeling the Steckers building:

 

[lkranieri]

And two articles about the new Stecker shop in 1922...

 

[lkranieri]

1939 article noted Stecker's had to close temporarily...

and in 1940 they added a lingerie department to the store...

 

[lkranieri]

Founder Louis Stecker died in 1945...

and I did not find any mention of that Philadelphia store after his death.

 

[Vintagiality]

I have some suspicion that it was acquired by JC Penny based on the change in owners of the building in Camden but I couldn’t find proof of that

@Ranch Queen Vintage maybe a good label to add for the department store project

 

[Ranch Queen Vintage]

I have some suspicion that it was acquired by JC Penny based on the change in owners of the building in Camden but I couldn’t find proof of that

@Ranch Queen Vintage maybe a good label to add for the department store project

Yes, definitely! What wonderful research!
Thank you, Lynne and Victoria!

 

[Vintagiality]

Oh I found it! It did sell to JC Penny but I don’t know the date because it’s from some woman’s obit

 

[Vintagiality]

What is strange is that I also found this from 1930

 

[lkranieri]

Oh I found it! It did sell to JC Penny but I don’t know the date because it’s from some woman’s obit
View attachment 164542

Good find! That was a 1942 obit for Elizabeth S Young.

 

[Vintagiality]

Good find! That was a 1942 obit for Elizabeth S Young.

Right but I don’t know when she stopped working there relative to when she died.

What I also found is that Stecker’s son Robert bought his father out of the Camden store in 1928 so I suspect the two stores had different history after that

 

[lkranieri]

...and I found this 1934 article about Robert and the Camden store...

 

[Vintagiality]

...and I found this 1934 article about Robert and the Camden store...
View attachment 164546

That’s an interesting connection. I had found a reference to a woman named Rose Gimbel Stecker so I was thinking that members of one and the other retailing families married

 

[Vintagiality]

Yes it looks like Rose Gimbel was Robert’s wife. Here is their divorce info

 

[poppysvintageclothing]

What a wealth of info!!!