Dry Goods/Mercantile Histories?

[jigadier brindle]

Folks,

This may be a long-shot, but has anyone ever run across a well documented, academic history of dry goods stores of the early to mid 19th century?

Studies specific to stores in particular communities and regions also interest me, so pass those along as well if you know of any!

Also, if anyone is aware of any great inventories of such stores available online I'd like to hear about that as well. I've run across a few bills of sale in academic repositories and scanned where possible but I've yet to see any store inventories or large digitized collections of bills of sale.

Much appreciated in advance,

[KathyBradford]

Re: Dry Goods/Mercantile Histories?

Contact Virginia Mescher of Ragged Soldier Sutlery here on the forum. She has done this exact thing, and it's fascinating.

[Jefferson Guards]

Re: Dry Goods/Mercantile Histories?

These would probably interest you:

http://www.raggedsoldier.com/aldridge.html

http://www.raggedsoldier.com/accounts.html

[Virginia Mescher]

Re: Dry Goods/Mercantile Histories?

Folks,

This may be a long-shot, but has anyone ever run across a well documented, academic history of dry goods stores of the early to mid 19th century?

Studies specific to stores in particular communities and regions also interest me, so pass those along as well if you know of any!

Also, if anyone is aware of any great inventories of such stores available online I'd like to hear about that as well. I've run across a few bills of sale in academic repositories and scanned where possible but I've yet to see any store inventories or large digitized collections of bills of sale.

Much appreciated in advance,

As others have pointed out, I have transcribed two complete store ledgers and put them on a CD and included an accompanying book (Historic Accounts) both of which are on our website in the Books, Modern section. With the Adkisson store ledger from Historic Accounts I transcribed the ledger in special collections in the library (it took almost three years done in bits and pieces), did a census profile of as many customers as I could find, and a detailed profile of the store owner and a description of the location of the store and surrounding area.

The Aldrich order book is in the Books, 19th Century Reproduction section. It is an order book and lists the available products that this company provides.

I have a number of other store ledgers dating from 1801 through 1870. I haven't had time to transcribe all of them but it is wonderful to be able to go through them. They are from ME, NH, NC, VA, NY, IN, CA, MT, PA, and states that are undetermined. I've purchased ledgers on ebay and antique stores and transcribed ledgers that I've found in special collections in many university libraries.

I have two books on dry goods stores in the 19th century: Pills, Petticoat and Plows The Southern Country Store by Thomas D. Clark and The Southern Country Store 1800-1860 by Lewis E. Atherton and there are several dissertations on rural stores and a librarian can help you find them.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

[jigadier brindle]

Re: Dry Goods/Mercantile Histories?

This is all great information.

Virginia, thank you for your kind reply. I will definitely look into several of the sources you have cited!

[Citizen_Soldier]

Re: Dry Goods/Mercantile Histories?

Nicholas,

I have some mercantile inventories in my files, drop me an email address via PM and I can put together a scanned copy in a pdf format.

I also have some material on the transporation of mercatile goods for the middle nineteenth century if you're interested. Let me do some digging and see what I can scrounge up, it's been a few years since it's seen the light of day. :)

Darrek Orwig

[Drygoods]

Re: Dry Goods/Mercantile Histories?

[QUOTE=jigadier brindle;143686]Folks,This may be a long-shot, but has anyone ever run across a well documented, academic history of dry goods stores of the early to mid 19th century?
Studies specific to stores in particular communities and regions also interest me, so pass those along as well if you know of any!QUOTE]

Well, speaking of early, 1846-55, and regional.....
California State Parks produced two books about Dry Goods Stores; A Goldrush Merchant's Manual which has sketches, plates, and daguerreotypes of original stores, and the second book, same title, but adds how to appear like a mid-19th Century Store in a 21st Century World has listings of goods sold from newspapers, manifests, price lists, and illustrations of furniture and layout of product display. Written by Mary Helmich and Pauline Spear, Office of Interpretive Services, 1989.


Sorry if it's another CA thing, that's just where I live and participate most.:wink_smil