Small Home Gazette, Summer 2024

Everything Old Is New Again

Many contemporary window treatment companies sell “Top Down Bottom Up” style shades, including these sold by SelectBlinds.com.

Have you seen those clever new window shades? The ones you can lower from the top of the window, or raise from the bottom—or even do both at the same time! They are often referred to as “Top Down Bottom Up” shades. Finally, something fresh and innovative in window treatments. Except that they are not new.

While flipping through some vintage magazines recently (looking for newsletter content, of course), we happened across the advertisement below. The ad is from the September 1920 issue of American Builder magazine, which was published for the building trades. That is why the pitch is directed at contractors and rental property owners instead of homeowners, and to men in particular, so that they can “…catch the eye and tickle the feminine fancy.”

According to the ad’s text, the shades are manipulated up and down on taut piano wires. Though the materials and construction might be different than the versions made today, the principle is certainly the same.

An early 1900s electric vehicle. Photo from the Museum of Innovation and Science.

Women making a call with a wireless telephone on a New York City sidewalk in 1922. Watch the video.

So, the next time you adjust your blinds from the top and bottom at the same time, or plug in your electric car, or make a call with your wireless phone; remember—it has all been done before, more than a century ago.