doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Huh??

From http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Abercrombie-amp%3B-Fitch-Co-Company-History1.html

The Early Years

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. was founded in 1892 in New York City by David T. Abercrombie and Ezra H. Fitch. Abercrombie, a former prospector, miner, trapper, and railroad surveyor or engineer, owned a small shop and factory producing camping equipment in lower Manhattan. Fitch, one of his customers, was a successful lawyer in Kingston, New York, but the outdoors was his chief interest.

The men opened a sporting goods store. Fitch was the visionary of the two, anticipating a clientele far broader than merely those who camped out in the course of earning a living. The partners proved ill-matched, and both men were hot-tempered. Following the latest of many long and violent arguments, Abercrombie resigned in 1907 to return to manufacturing camping equipment. Retaining the company name, Fitch continued with other partners. In 1909 he mailed out 50,000 copies of a 456-page catalogue. Since they cost a dollar each to produce, the catalogues almost bankrupted the company, but the subsequent flood of orders justified the expense. In 1917 Abercrombie & Fitch moved into a 12-story building on Madison Avenue at East 45th Street, a location the advertising department described as 'Where the Blazed Trail Crosses the Boulevard.' It included a luxuriously furnished log cabin that Fitch made his town house, with an adjoining casting pool.

By this time Abercrombie & Fitch's reputation as purveyor to the sporting elite already was well established. It had equipped Theodore Roosevelt for an African safari and also outfitted, or was soon going to outfit, polar expeditions led by Roald Amundsen and Admiral Richard Byrd and flights made by Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart. Ernest Hemingway was a customer. Every president from Roosevelt to Gerald Ford eventually would buy something from the store.

Roaring 1920s and Depression 1930s

Fitch retired in 1928, selling his interest in the company to his brother-in-law, James S. Cobb, who became president, and an employee, Otis L. Guernsey, who became vice-president. In his first year at the helm, Cobb acquired a similar New York business, Von Lengerke & Detmold, respected for its European-made sporting guns and fishing tackle, and Von Lengerke & Antoine, the Chicago branch, which became a subsidiary of Abercrombie & Fitch but continued until 1959 under its own name. In 1930 Cobb bought Griffin & Howe, a gunsmith shop. The merchandise that Von Lengerke & Detmold and Griffin & Howe had in stock was added to the Madison Avenue store.

Bob, I remember when I was a pup that you entered the main A&F gun room to get to the Griffin and Howe shop, the entrance located (do I remember?) in the rear left corner of the gun room facing from the elevator. It was not an entrance that welcomed visitors, unlike the main gun room that was inviting even to a thirteen year old with no adult escort. In all the times I was in that shop, I was only accompanied by my Dad the first time. Once he showed me the way, I was on my own. My most memorable visit to the seventh floor was one day when I was about 14 or 15 years old. The advertising people were there with models and a photo crew. Women were not a common sight in the gun room, so the models were comfortably dressing and undressing right out in the open between shoots. It was just another day for them, but for a teenager and the gun sales staff, it was a red letter day. Murphy

I remember the seventh floor gun room very well, I visited it almost every week for the fifteen months I worked in New York beginning in early 1970. I'm sure the staff hated to see me coming. I bought little - like some snap caps, etc. - but looked a bunch and they had to wipe the drool off of the guns after I left. I did see a couple or three interesting sales during my visits.