Spiegel Catalog, Inc. (Spiegel), is one of the nation's leading direct marketers or catalog company. It started as a "wareroom" in downtown Chicago and is now a $3 billion international, tri-channel specialty retailer. Despite the challenges of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, two economic depressions, and two world wars, Spiegel kept going. Artists rendering of the fire, by John R Chapin, originally printed in Harpers Weekly The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from October 8 to October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying several square miles in Chicago, Illinois. ...

The company mailed out its first catalog in 1905. 20 years later, it had over 10 million customers.