I looked up asphalt roofing in my office's collection of Sears Roebuck
and Montgomery Ward catalogues, and the earliest I find rolled asphalt
roofing listed is 1910.  There are major gaps in our collection though;
we have catalogues from 1895, 1902, and 1910, so there's at least an
eight year gap that I can't account for.  Probably not much help, but
there you have it.


Kris Farmen
Northern Land Use Research, Inc.
Fairbanks, Alaska