My mom ordered this from B&N for me.... The forward is written by Valerie Tripp. It does give a brief history of the company. Basically the images are stock images from past catalogs. If you, like me, save all of your catalogs you will find this a bit disappointing. If however you do not own ANY catalogs or the older ones, you will love this book! All in all it is well organized book with feature sections on historical dolls, modern dolls and GOTY. (Just like they do in the catalogs!) In all honesty I had anticipated something different. Something unique and new. It is a compilation of catalog stock images that any new collector will love and seasoned collectors will enjoy viewing again.