Description: The caption reads: "Interior of Garver Bros Departments Store, Strassburg O. The "Worlds Largest Country Store.'" The store was started by Phillip A. Garver in 1866. It thrived under his sons, George Rudolph and Gustave Albert. From 1903 to 1970 it was known as the country's largest general store. They were able to compete with large retailers such as Sears and JCPenny. The store was closed in 1970. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B14F03_014_001
Subjects: Strasburg (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio); General stores
Places: Strasburg (Ohio); Tuscarawas (Ohio)
 

Description: "Mrs. Wagner's Rolling Store," photographed in 1953 by Joe Munroe, was a converted school bus that made trips to rural farms in Kentucky, bringing general merchandise that farmers could not produce themselves and were not able to pick up regularly. Farmers could buy goods or place orders for the next week's delivery. In the postwar years, not many farmers had cars, and lived too remotely to travel to town each week, so they relied on services like Mrs. Wagner's. Joe Munroe's career began in 1939 at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He served in the Air Force during World War II and then joined Cincinnati-based Farm Quarterly magazine. Though raised in Detroit, agriculture became an important subject of Joe's photographs. He moved to California in 1955 and free-lanced, taking magazine assignments and selling his own work. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: P400_B04_F14_001
Subjects: Joe Munroe; Farm life; General stores; Transportation
Places: Kentucky
 

Description: Taken by traveling photographer Albert J. Ewing, ca. 1896-1912, this photograph shows a group of people posing outside A.F. Wilcox & Son General Store, with two horse-drawn wagons parked in front. Like most of Ewing's work, it was likely taken in southeastern Ohio or central West Virginia. Born in 1870 in Washington County, Ohio, near Marietta, Ewing most likely began his photography career in the 1890s. The 1910 US Census and a 1912-1913 directory list him as a photographer. A negative signed "Ewing Brothers" and a picture with his younger brother, Frank, indicate that Frank may have joined the business. After 1916, directories list Albert as a salesman. He died in 1934. The Ewing Collection consists of 5,055 glass plate negatives, each individually housed and numbered. Additionally, the collection includes approximately 450 modern contact prints made from the glass plate negatives. Subjects include infants and young children, elderly people, families, school and religious groups, animals and rural scenes. In 1982, the Ohio Historical Society received the collection, still housed in the original dry plate negative boxes purchased by Albert J. Ewing. A selection of the original glass plate negatives were exhibited for the first time in 2013 at the Ohio Historical Center. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV71_b11_f635
Subjects: Ewing, Albert J. (1870-1934); Portrait photography--United States--History; Horse-drawn vehicles; General stores
Places: Ohio; West Virginia