John Wanamaker was an American merchant and religious, civic and political figure, considered by some to be a proponent of advertising and a "pioneer in marketing".
36 Facts About John Wanamaker
2.
John Wanamaker was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and served as US Postmaster General during the term of US President Benjamin Harrison from 1889 to 1893.
3.
John Wanamaker's parents were John Nelson Wanamaker, a brickmaker and native of Kingwood, New Jersey, and Elizabeth Deshong Kochersperger, daughter of a farmer and innkeeper at Gray's Ferry.
4.
John Wanamaker's ancestors came from Rittershoffen in Alsace, France, and from Canton of Bern in Switzerland.
5.
John Wanamaker irritated his father by giving regular columns to radical intellectuals, such as single-taxer Henry George, Jr.
6.
The younger John Wanamaker began publishing a Sunday edition, which offended his father's sense of keeping the Sabbath holy.
7.
John Wanamaker is credited with creating a demand for French luxury goods in Philadelphia and the United States that persists to this day.
8.
John Wanamaker was a patron of fine music, organizing spectacular organ and orchestra concerts in the Wanamaker Philadelphia and New York stores under music director Alexander Russell.
9.
John Wanamaker opened his first store in 1861, in partnership with his brother in-law Nathan Brown, called "Oak Hall", at Sixth and Market Streets in Philadelphia, adjacent to the site of George Washington's Presidential home.
10.
The new store, The John Wanamaker Building, which still stands today, became a Philadelphia institution.
11.
The upper office tower was marketed as the John Wanamaker Office Building in 2018.
12.
John Wanamaker bought the organ in 1909 and had it transported from St Louis aboard 13 freight cars.
13.
John Wanamaker purchased a bronze bird sculpture by August Gaul, following the sculpture's exhibition in America in 1904 at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
14.
John Wanamaker expanded to New York City in 1896, continuing a mercantile business originally started by Alexander Turney Stewart.
15.
John Wanamaker expanded internationally with the Wanamaker European import houses in London and Paris.
16.
John Wanamaker was an innovator, creative in his work, a merchandising genius, and proponent of the power of advertising, though modest and with an enduring reputation for honesty.
17.
John Wanamaker started the "money-back guarantee" that is standard business practice.
18.
John Wanamaker provided his employees with free medical care, education, recreational facilities, pensions and profit-sharing plans before such benefits were considered standard.
19.
John Wanamaker was the first retailer to place a half-page newspaper ad and the first full-page ad.
20.
John Wanamaker initially wrote his own ad copy, but later hired the world's first full-time copywriter John Emory Powers.
21.
In 1889 John Wanamaker began the First Penny Savings Bank in order to encourage thrift.
22.
John Wanamaker was credited by his friends with introducing the first commemorative stamp and many efficiencies to the Postal Service.
23.
John Wanamaker was the first to make plans for free rural postal service in the United States, although the plan was not implemented until 1896.
24.
In 1890 John Wanamaker persuaded Congress to pass an act prohibiting the sale of lottery tickets through the mail, and then he aggressively pursued violators.
25.
John Wanamaker fired some 30,000 postal workers under the then common "spoils system" during his four-year term, as it was customary for a change in political administrations to lead to new appointments for their own supporters.
26.
In 1890 John Wanamaker commissioned a series of stamps that were derided in the national media as the poorest quality stamps ever issued, both for printing quality and materials.
27.
John Wanamaker retaliated by banning the book from the US Mail on grounds of obscenity.
28.
John Wanamaker was ridiculed for this action by many major US newspapers.
29.
John Wanamaker was the longest surviving member of President Benjamin Harrison's cabinet.
30.
John Wanamaker was known for his philanthropy to programs to aid the poor in Philadelphia.
31.
John Wanamaker co-founded Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission, a homeless shelter and soup kitchen, in 1878.
32.
John Wanamaker made several donations to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
33.
John Wanamaker's funeral was on December 14,1922, with a service at the Bethany Presbyterian Church.
34.
John Wanamaker was interred in the Wanamaker family tomb in the churchyard of the Church of St James the Less in Philadelphia.
35.
Rodman John Wanamaker is credited with founding the Professional Golfers' Association of America and the Millrose Games.
36.
John Wanamaker was the last surviving Cabinet member of the Harrison administration.