[CLEVELAND] [RETAIL] The May Company's Christmas Greeting by [The May Company - corp. author] - 1900

[Cleveland]: The May Company, 1900. Sewn binding. Good. Quarto, unpaginated (about 30pp.), illustrated. In good condition in the publisher's printed sewn wrappers. Spine ends a bit frayed, and a faint stain to the top edge, affecting several leaves, but no text. A children's book (dedicated on the title page "to the children of Cleveland") with some Christmas- and Christian-themed religious tales and illustrations. The May Company (one of Cleveland's storied department stores alongside Higbee's and Halle's) was founded in 1898, and acquired its iconic building on Cleveland's Public Square in 1914. The rear wrap of this volume does not depict that building, so we can reasonably date this publication to ca. 1900-1914 (the style also points to this conclusion). We found no copies of this highly ephemeral publication in commerce or in libraries, though it's possible there are a few similar examples lying around in old Cleveland basements. A delightful relic of Cleveland on the cusp of its peak economic power and opulence.