Marshall Field and Company

Marshall Field & Company

"As Chicago as it gets." & "Give the lady what she wants."
Industry	Department store
Fate	Acquired by Macy's & Bloomingdale's
Successor	Macy's Bloomingdale's
Founded	1852
Defunct	2006
Headquarters	Chicago, Illinois, United States
Key people	Marshall Field, Levi Leiter, Potter Palmer, Harry Gordon Selfridge, John G. Shedd
Parent	Federated Department Stores (now Macy's, Inc.) (2005–2006) The May Department Stores Company (2004–2005) Target Corporation (1990–2004) Batus Inc. (1982–1990)
Subsidiaries	The Crescent Frederick & Nelson, Halle Bros.
Website	Archived official website at the Wayback Machine (archive index)

Marshall Field & Company, commonly known as Marshall Field's, was a department store in Chicago, Illinois, that grew to become a chain before being acquired by Macy's, Inc. in 2005.

The former flagship Marshall Field and Company Building location on State Street in the Loop of downtown Chicago was officially renamed Macy's on State Street in 2006 and is now one of four national Macy's flagship stores.

Marshall Field & Company traces its antecedents to a dry goods store opened at 137 Lake Street in Chicago, Illinois in 1852 by Potter Palmer, (1826–1902), eponymously named P. Palmer & Company. In 1856, 21-year-old Marshall Field(1834–1906) moved to the booming midwestern city of Chicago on the southwest shores of Lake Michigan from Pittsfield, Massachusetts and found work at the city’s then-largest dry goods firm – Cooley, Wadsworth & Company. Just prior to the American Civil War, in 1860, Field and bookkeeper Levi Z. Leiter, (1834–1904), became junior partners in the firm, then known as Cooley, Farwell & Company. In 1864, the firm, then led by senior partner John V. Farwell, Sr., (1825–1908), was renamed Farwell, Field & Company. only for Field and Leiter to soon withdraw from the partnership with Farwell when presented with the opportunity of a lifetime.

Potter Palmer, plagued by ailing health, was looking to dispose of his thriving business, so on January 4, 1865, Field and Leiter entered into partnership with him and his brother Milton Palmer. So the firm of P. Palmer & Company became Field, Palmer, Leiter & Company, with Palmer financing much of their initial capital as well as his own contribution. After Field and Leiter’s immediate success enabled them to pay him back, Palmer withdrew two years later from the partnership in 1867 to focus on his own growing real-estate interests on one of the burgeoning city's important thoroughfares, State Street. His brother, Milton Palmer, left at this time as well. The store was renamed Field, Leiter & Company, sometimes referred to as “Field & Leiter”.