Hartman Furniture & Carpet Co.

Here are two advertising postcards Copyright 1913 by Hartman Furniture & Carpet Co. Chicago. The first shows "Mr. Cornell and his wife" with their baby, enjoying their home furnished with furniture they bought from Hartman's. A facsimile of a letter they reportedly wrote to the company tells how pleased they were with their furniture:

Dear Sirs:
My wife and I want to give evidence of how your credit plan has made us happy and comfortable; and I am herewith sending you a photograph of our home so that you can see how beautiful it looks with the furnishings we bought from your catalogue. We are delighted with the goods and we figure that we have saved about 50% on the prices charged by other firms. Show this picture to others whom we hope will deal with you, too.
As ever your customers
Mr. & Mrs Frank Cornell
221 W Nebraska Ave.
Peoria, Ill.

(Note: There is an online real estate listing for an old house built in 1917 at that address!)

Hartman had a large mail order catalog as well as a number of stores. The company was established in 1855 and had 22 stores in 1913. The postcard below shows the cover of their "420-page catalog of 8000 Home Furnishing Bargains." They used the slogan "Let Hartman Feather Your Nest" in their advertising. I have some other Hartman advertising postcards on my blog here that were clearly targeted at newlyweds.

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Man-Bird & His Bride Going to "Feather Their Nest"

 

Hartman Furniture & Carpet Co. used the slogan "Let Hartman Feather Your Nest" in their advertising. They had a large mail order catalog and also had stores in many cities. There is a copy of a 1916 Hartman catalog online here. Another post with a Hartman advertising postcard featuring bride and groom birds is here.

This postcard was mailed from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Lidgerwood, North Dakota. The year in the postmark is unclear, but it looks most like 1910 or 1916. The message:

Dear Folks

I thought I wrote last so was waiting for a card from you. Ida was here from Hankinson last week she only stayed one day will write more next time.  by by . . .

PFF - Hartman Furniture and Carpet Company

Hartman Furniture and Carpet Co. was a Chicago company in business during the early 1900's. They used the bride and groom and bird theme and the "feather the nest" slogan on some other advertising postcards also. Even the back of the postcard has bird nest imagery.

The back also has something I didn't notice until I scanned it. Look closely at that heavy blue line under the Post Card heading. The blue line hides the words "NOTHING BUT ADDRESS ON THIS SIDE." That would have been true before messages were allowed on the back and the back was divided into spaces for the address and a message. Divided backs were first allowed on March 1, 1907.

Hartman had a large catalog as well as a number of stores. According to this ad from a 1913 Popular Mechanics magazine, they were the "Largest, oldest and best known home furnishing concern in the world." They were established in 1855 and had 22 stores in 1913.