Looking Through Eaton's Windows

The Eaton's empire once spanned Canada and, by the time of the company's 1999 demise, it had attained a mythical place in the consciousness of many Canadians. For much of its 130-year history, the company was well aware of its substantive role in Canadian society, as evidenced by the formation of its own staffed archives where a wide range of company documents came to reside. This extraordinary collection is now part of the larger holdings of the Archives of Ontario and forms the basis for this exhibit.

A strong element of the T. Eaton Company collection is the photographic documentation of Eaton's window displays. Major department stores knew that to differentiate their goods from their competition, they had to project an image (and a set of values) for consumers to identify with. The sheer expanse of glassed-in ground floor window space that department stores made possible—taking up whole city blocks—offered an ideal medium for the seduction of the passerby.

The lofty social and economic status achieved by Eaton's of Canada is evidenced not only by the high standards of its window displays, but also in the superior quality of its documentation. Generally speaking, for much of Eaton's history the default visual recording medium was the large-format camera, producing detailed black and white negatives from 4 x 5 inches up to 8 x 10 inches in size. The postwar years brought the use of colour photography and smaller, more economical film formats.

The initial rounds of research for this exhibit resulted in the development of three broad but distinct thematic territories that encompass the window display subjects:  “The Magnificent, The Merry and The Mundane”. Respectively, they explore how the windows were used to promote a sense of Canadian identity motivated by the close ties of the Eaton family to British tradition, the not-so-subtle linking of Christmas to commerce, and how the art of display itself was used to make the often humble goods that were the mainstay of the Eaton's business attractive to consumers. These themes have been further sub-categorized by the exhibit's able writers.

“The Magnificent” focuses on the company's sense of occasion, and, in particular, its interest in British royal events such as coronations, deaths and visits to Canada. Reflecting the Eaton family's close sense of identification with the British upper classes (John Craig Eaton was knighted in 1915 by George V for his contributions during WWI), Eaton's always acknowledged these regal moments, as evidenced by the photographic records.

Hugely decorative and giddy outpourings of Anglo-centric patriotism swept up entire stores across Canada—interiors, exteriors and display windows—deploying enormous crowns, giant Union Jack flags, replicas of the Crown Jewels, life-sized gilded statues of kings, queens, dukes and duchesses, and even scale models of Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey. No expense was spared, up to and including the 1953 Coronation of Queen Elizabeth, the last major marking of the Royal Family's rites of passage.

A more sober side to the company's patriotism is seen in Eaton's window tributes to fallen soldiers, and in its support for the various war efforts.

If there is one memory that many Canadian city dwellers over a certain age have in common, it is of Eaton's Christmas windows, produced annually during the most intense shopping period of the year. These are highlighted in the section, “The Merry”. Eaton's devoted considerable resources to producing Christmas window displays featuring either religious or secular themes. Illustrating the Christmas story in serial form through the use of sequential windows was a common display strategy, as were themed children's fantasy windows.

As the 20th century went on, the latter became increasingly animated through sound and mechanization. The Toronto windows never failed to include signage that pointed kids and their parents to the 5th floor Toyland, and they often highlighted the date of the annual Santa Claus parade.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Eaton's seasonal windows helped set the tone for Christmas in many large cities and towns across Canada for decades.

“The Mundane” is as much about the art of display as it is about the types of products being displayed. The term “mundane” is less a value judgment than a reference to the everyday nature of the consumer goods that Eaton's depended upon for its commercial success, and that occupied the display windows for most of the year. These included items such as inexpensive clothing, socks, underwear, handkerchiefs, towels, textiles, scissors, sporting goods, camping equipment, toys, etc., some of which Eaton's produced in its own factories at one time.

These windows were meant to create an aura of uniqueness and desirability around ordinary things through imaginative and often highly sophisticated presentations. The exhibit's documentation photographs reveal how display styles themselves shifted over the years, from the densely crammed (but always symmetrical) early 20th century style to a more spare modernism by World War II.

In terms of pure design, the high point of Eaton's window displays may have been achieved in the 1920s.  A stunning series of window constructions devoted to its range of textiles appeared to echo avant-garde art of the time.

As photographs in the Archives of Ontario's holdings show, Eaton's regularly collected images of window displays from department stores all over North America and Europe, including those of its main rivals in Toronto. It is clear that Eaton's not only considered itself the leading national department store, but that it measured itself against the upper echelons of international retailing. The company's richly detailed photographic documentation of window displays that were by turns elegant, innovative, playful and even excessive, reveal something of the energy, resources and imagination put into achieving that goal.

Vid Ingelevics