How Do You Trace a Century of the Great Outdoors? Look at the Catalogs

Utah State University's Outdoor Recreation Archive (ORA) currently encompasses over 25,000 outdoor catalogs from around 440 companies, ranging from a 1905 Abercrombie & Fitch catalog to a 2020 Altra Running catalog. Created as a joint effort between Utah's State University's Special Collections & Archives and the Outdoor Product Development and Design undergraduate program, the ORA is, in simple terms, a research collection of outdoor recreation history. And yet the seemingly niche academic proj...