Marshall Field pioneered the department store model during a time of rising consumer optimism. He began his retail career in 1865 when he opened a dry-goods business with well-known Chicago giants Levi Leiter and Potter Palmer. Palmer sold his part of the company in 1867 and Leiter retired in 1881, leaving Field in charge of the company and its future.

Over the next few decades, Field worked with John Shedd and Harry Selfridge to turn his dry goods business into a modern department store. Field and Co. grew quickly and by the turn of the century was one of Chicago's largest companies, employing thousands of people (a huge number of whom were women) at its retail and wholesale buildings.

For consumers a trip to Field and Co. was more than a quick stop—it was a half-day long excursion, complete with food, entertainment, art galleries, and, of course, the opportunity to purchase home goods. Department stores like Field and Co. emerged at a time when the middle class was expanding at an unprecedented rate. The average American family had more discretionary income than ever before—income department stores convinced them to spend on consumer goods. They directed much of their advertising at women, who were typically the household members responsible for purchasing food, home goods, and other domestic items. Field and Co.'s motto, "Give the lady what she wants,” reflects the women-centric nature of consumerism at the time.

Shedd took over the company when Field died in 1906. Field and Co. opened a new flagship retail store on State Street the following year. By the 1920s, the department store model had become so successful that Field and Co. opened several new retail locations elsewhere in the Chicagoland area, as well as one in Seattle.

The Great Depression forced the closure of the wholesale arm of Field and Co., but the company remained stable through World War II and began to expand to other cities in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. Between the early 1980s and the early 2000s, Field and Co. was bought and sold by a few different companies before ending up with the May Company, which converted the flagship Marshall Field's store into a Macy's in 2006.

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