Two significant, historic Chicago businesses: Sears, Roebuck and Ebony magazine

Halloween costumes Sears Catalog Supplement
Originally uploaded by dragonflydesignstudio

Sears, Roebuck and Co was the Amazon.com of the first half of the century. The mail-order company, hugely successful, was founded in Chicago in 1893, says Wikipedia. Later the spread of Sears retail stores made them an institution something like Walmart.

From its mail order beginnings, the company grew to become the largest retailer in the United States by the mid-20th century, and its catalogs became famous. Ask your parents or grandparents about their favorite goods in the Sears catalog.

Ebony, a monthly magazine for the African American market, was founded by John H. Johnson and has published continuously since 1945. A digest-sized sister magazine, Jet, is also published by Johnson Publishing, says Wikipedia.

Johnson Publishing, headquartered in Chicago, is the largest African-American-owned publishing firm in the United States. It also publishes Jet magazine and operates a book division. In addition, Johnson Publishing produces a line of hair care products (Supreme Beauty) and cosmetics (Fashion Fair) marketed for African-American women, and each year it hosts the Ebony Fashion Fair, a traveling fashion show that raises money for scholarships and charities in cities across the US and Canada.