POSTCARD – CHICAGO – MARSHALL FIELD AND COMPANY DEPARTMENT STORE – READING AND WRITING AND REST ROOMS – THIRD FLOOR – “SEND LETTERS TELEGRAMS CABLES – CHECK TIME TABLES – BUY THEATER TICKETS AND TRAVEL CHEQUES” – c1930 – NOTE: THE BIG DEPARTMENT STORES IN THOSE DAYS WERE LIKE CITIES WITHIN A CITY – ALMOST ANY SERVICE YOU CAN THINK OF WAS AVAILABLE AT MARSHALL FIELD’S STORE FROM WATCH AND SHOE REPAIR TO PICTURE FRAMING – FOOD SERVICES INCLUDED LUXURY BAKED GOODS AND CANDY AND SOME WINES TO A RANGE OF RESTAURANTS FROM MODEST TO LUXURIOUS – ALL THAT IN ADDITION TO THE MAIN LINES OF GOODS SUCH AS CLOTHES SEWING NOTIONS SHOES TOYS FURNITURE CARPETS DISHES BOOKS JEWELRY DECORATIVE ITEMS FANCY GIFTS – THEY WERE AMAZING PLACES UP THROUGH THE 1960s – SEE READER COMMENT AND MY RESPONSE FOR MORE INFORMATION
CHUCKMAN'S PHOTOS ON WORDPRESS: CHICAGO NOSTALGIA AND MEMORABILIA 
Fields also had a stamp and coin collection department. They even had a catalog of stamps that were available for sale.
Yes, I recall that now. Thanks, Glenn.
It was a substantial operation.
Field’s was a magical urban place, like Chicago’s great movie palaces or the great ballrooms and grand hotels.
There was a sense of being somewhere special just in walking through the doors.
And with the regular changes in fashions and stocking of new interesting items for gifts and changing seasons, I used to enjoy just walking through the store periodically.
It was a big, beautiful, free, ever-changing museum.
It is the sense of all that I hope to capture for people who visit the site, itself a kind of big, online museum.
John,
I was lucky in that my paternal grandmother had been a Field’s employee for many years, starting in the 1930’s I believe. She worked in the women’s millinery department. In the 1950’s, when many stores were not open on Sundays, we got to visit with Santa in the store on a Sunday before Christmas. Made us kids feel very important that the store was open just for us. I do not remember what was available other than cookies but it was a special day, finished off by walking around the sidewalk outside looking at the Christmas displays.
I remember the stamp catalog because somehow I obtained a copy (probably by visiting the department) and in the late 1960’s checked off some stamps I wanted and my grandmother ordered them for me. I believe her employee discount was 20%.
Thank you for your site. I have saved many of your items because they relate to my family history. (My earliest ancestor who lived in Chicago was my maternal grandfather who left Poland in March 1907 and came to Chicago. I saved some of your items from that time to give me an idea of what Chicago must have looked like to him.)
Thanks, Glenn.
Yes, her employee discount would have been twenty percent.
I worked at Field’s part-time for a couple of years as a very young man, and that indeed was the discount.
I think I have an image of my employee discount card/booklet on another Chicago site, Chuckman’s Places.
Very generous and helpful for the whole family.
John Chuckman
Field’s also had an antiquarian book shop