ABSTRACT
From the late nineteenth century, show windows in leading American department stores became progressively sophisticated due to the imaginative techniques of their designers, the organizational framework of supportive fixtures, and the dynamism of modern technologies. In drawing attention to the development of the window dressing profession and the visual appeal and selling capacity of display in the American department store, this chapter focuses on the pioneering scholarship of William Leach, the illustrated window display compilation by Leonard Marcus, and the more recent research of William Bird and Louisa Iarocci. Window dressing earned recognition as a vocation due to the development of professional organizations, an education system comprised of both in-store training and independent schools and classes, and a literature of its own in which window dressers documented and shared their skills. The use of up-to-date technology earned a store a position of prominence in public opinion.
