Goldsmith's, Memphis 1956

Goldsmith's was a department store founded in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1870 by German immigrant brothers Jacob and Isaac Goldsmith. Its famous cursive-script logo was designed by Margaret Grace, a Goldsmith's advertising employee, in October 1946. 

The brothers opened it as a dry goods store on Beale Street and then relocated in 1895 to a larger location in a Beaux-Arts building on Main Street, where it remained for most of the 20th century.

Memphis-born, Memphis-owned and Memphis-managed was the proud boast on the cover of this elegant and colorful mid-century menu for the in-store restaurant, dated 1956.

As you will see from the interior menu, shoppers had an extraordinary choice of things to eat, and minimum service was 25c per person.

‘Goldsmith’s Restaurant is proud to be the one and only eating place in any Memphis department store recommended by Duncan Hines,’ it says at the bottom of the food list.

Duncan Hines (1880 –1959) was an American author and food critic who produced restaurant ratings for travelers. A former traveling salesman, he began selling his paperback book Adventures in Good Eating in 1935, had a food column in newspapers across America three times a week and licensed his name as a brand that continues to this day.

Goldsmith’s grew into a department store chain and was an integral part of the Mid-South’s shopping history.

It was the first store in Memphis to install air-conditioning, wooden escalators and a mechanical credit system called Charga-Plate.

Generations of children flocked to see the store’s Enchanted Forest, an historic holiday attraction that originated as an elaborate window and floor display at Christmas time. Goldsmith's also started its Christmas Parade at least a decade earlier than Macy’s, which started in 1924.

Federated Department Stores acquired Goldsmith's in 1959, although the Goldsmith family continued to run it. In March 2005, the Goldsmith's nameplate was officially retired and replaced by Macy's.