Spiegel was an American direct marketing retailer founded in 1865 by Joseph Spiegel. Spiegel published a catalog, like its competitors Sears and Montgomery Ward, which advertised various brands of apparel, accessories, and footwear, as well as housewares, toys, tools, firearms, and electronics. Their company brands included Newport News, Shape FX, and Old Kraftsman, among others. They also operated brick-and-mortar stores. Spiegel delivered its first mail order catalog in 1905 and by 1925, the retailer had 10 million customers. Spiegel's buyers, who went to Paris fashion shows, introduced American women to European fashion trends. After encountering financial difficulty in the early 2000s, the company was purchased by Patriarch Partners and focused on women's style and fashion products. The catalog was eventually discontinued in favor of digital marketing. In 2019, the company website was removed without notice and the company ceased to operate. History Early years For the first 100 years of its history, Spiegel was primarily a family business. The company was founded in 1865 by German-Jewish entrepreneur Joseph Spiegel, the son of a German Rabbi and younger brother of Union Army Colonel Marcus M. Spiegel. After spending the final few months of the Civil War in a Confederate prison camp, Joseph Spiegel settled in Chicago, where his brother-in-law, Henry Liebenstein, ran a furniture business. With Liebenstein's assistance, Joseph Spiegel opened J. Spiegel and Company, a small home furnishings retail operation located on Wabash Avenue in Chicago's loop. In 1871, however, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed most of the area's business district, including the Spiegel store. After the fire, Joseph Spiegel and a partner named Jacob Cahn rebuilt the business, and by 1874 the company was prospering again under the leadership of the two men. Cahn retired from the business in 1879. In 1885 Spiegel began running regular advertisements in several Chicago newspapers, and the following year the company moved to a larger building on State Street. Joseph Spiegel's two oldest sons, Modie Spiegel and Sidney Spiegel, were brought into the business during this time. Spiegel issued its first catalogs in 1888. The catalogs were made available to potential customers who lived outside the city. Because a mail order system did not yet exist, the catalogs served instead to lure people into the downtown store. By 1892, however, the business had taken a turn for the worse, as many customers were slow to pay for their purchases. With debts mounting, the