Observed arrival · 2026-10-21
Yesterday’s Ledger: the price of the past, measured in work
A publication about everyday American prices from 1950–1999, comparing what things cost then with their cost in work hours and today’s prices.
○Open
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$Paid
†Ads
✦Pretty
●Pro
◎Niche
◉Human
⚑Risk
ƒJS
- For
- Readers curious about prices and everyday life in mid-century America
- Worth noticing
- The stated method compares prices in then-current dollars, CPI-adjusted dollars, and hours of work.
Field notes
The project frames each episode as a comparison across prices, purchasing power, and labor time, rather than relying on inflation-adjusted dollars alone. It names catalogs, newspapers, and government records as source material and says episode pages list citations. The homepage points to a Sears catalog episode and invites readers to suggest a store, job, or remembered price for future coverage.
Observed signals
Read the marks
Editorial observations of this landing page, not a rating.
○OpenPublic substance visible
✦PrettyNotable craft visible
●ProPolished or operationally mature
◎NicheUnusually specific use
One card from the complete issue