Images(2)

Sign, Trade

Object number2012.122.55

Date1920-1990

MediumWood, paint

Credit LineGift of Joan and Steve Isack

DescriptionRectangular, blue painted sign with black lettering and a white line across the top and bottom edges. Underlined at the top is business name and below it message for viewers. Three holes across the top and bottom.Dimensions0.5 x 35.9369 x 44.5 in. (1.3 x 91.3 x 113 cm)
InscriptionsUnderlined at the top reads: "ILKUVITZ'S" and below it reads: "OPEN FOR / BUSINESS".

"WhAt About '93" ShAnnon Whooores" in pencil below "BUSINESS".
Historical NotesPart of a collection from the Ilkuvitz Clothing Store in Clairton, Pennsylvania. The store was founded by Edward J. Ilkuvitz, an Orthodox Jew who immigrated to the United States from Hungary in the early 1900s. He started out peddling to the mill community of Clairton, Pennsylvania, before finally opening a store in the 1920s. The store was located on Miller Avenue and Edward Ilkuvitz built the store and the apartment above it, which still bears the name on the building. Edward's son Norman took over the store and operated it into the 1990s. The last 10 to 20 years that the store operated, Norman did not order much inventory, and it was mainly a social spot for some of the older residents in Clairton. Norman kept merchandise from the 1940s on the shelves and it remained a time capsule of a typical 1940s/1950s general store in a mill community. The collection includes a sampling of records and inventory to represent the kinds of things people were purchasing and much of the records show who Edward and Norman were ordering from, stretching back to the early 1900s when Jewish wholesalers on Fifth Avenue were providing much of the merchandise to outlying general stores. The collection also includes a small sampling of items from the family's apartments above the store that represent their Jewish heritage.

Related institution Ilkuvitz Clothing Store

Related person Edward J. Ilkuvitz

Related person Norman Ilkuvitz

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