G. & C. Merriam Company archive

The G. & C. Merriam Company Archive consists of correspondence, documents, writings, printed material, and photographs documenting the history of the G. & C. Merriam Company. The collection spans the years 1797-1978, but most of the material dates from 1830 to 1892. The papers provide insight into the business practices of the nineteenth century publishing and bookselling trade, particularly in Massachusetts; and contain much material on lexicography, the development of American English, and the publishing history of Webster's Dictionary.

The Archive is housed in 155 boxes and is organized into four series: Historical File, Letterpress Copybooks, Ledgers, and Other Papers. Boxes 102-111 and 112-151 contain Volumes and Oversize material which could not be housed in sequence in the main files. Boxes 152-155 contain Restricted Fragile material.

Series I, Historical File , 1804-1977 (boxes 1-26), has been preserved largely as established by the Merriam Company, with the addition of a few loose items that had not yet been interfiled. The papers are organized into three subseries: Correspondence, Documents and Other Papers, and Other Correspondence and Documents. Many of the items in the Historical File were indexed by the Merriam Company; the card indexes may be found at the front of the series. The indexes contain synopses of the items, and are arranged both alphabetically (by author and subject), and chronologically. These indices provide the best access to material relating to a person or subject in the Historical File, as the filing practice for the materials themselves is idiosyncratic: material generated by a single author may be filed sometimes as many as three different ways: under the personal name, under the corporate name of the letterhead on which he wrote, and under the subject of the letter. Many of the items that have been indexed have slips of paper affixed to them listing the tracings referenced in the card catalog. Names of businesses were filed and indexed by last name of the business (e.g., J.S. & C. Adams filed under "A"); they have been re-filed according to the first letter of the corporate name, in keeping with library practice. There were a few instances in which correspondents had been misidentified; in those cases the card indexes have been corrected and the items refiled. In addition to original materials, the Historical File also includes photocopies and typed transcripts in lieu of originals; the card indexes have been annotated to indicate this. It is not known where many of the originals of the photocopies are located.

The correspondence in the Historical File consists primarily of incoming business letters concerning the Merriam Company's principal publications, the Webster dictionaries and Chitty's Pleadings. The File also contains a few drafts of outgoing letters; these occur particularly in the 1850's. (For most outgoing correspondence, see Series II, Letterpress Copybooks.) As one would expect, these files contain much information on the company's bookselling, publishing, and promotional ventures, their handling of copyright and other legal issues, which particularly involved the Webster heirs.

Principal correspondents include Merriam Company editors Chauncey Goodrich, Noah Porter, William G. Webster, and William A. Wheeler. Letters from Goodrich, the first Merriam dictionary editor, include early discussions of the layout of the dictionary, his compensation, and production schedule. Much of the correspondence with William A. Wheeler consists of drafts of letters from the Merriams. There are also seven folders of letters from H.O. Houghton & Co. about printing and production schedule details, particularly between 1872-1874, and 1877-1878.

The correspondence files also include many testimonials from well known authors and politicians: Grover Cleveland, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison, Rutherford B. Hayes, Washington Irving, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Tecumseh Sherman, Zachary Taylor, Daniel Webster, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Samuel Clemens (who wrote another letter on the origin of the word 'stateroom'). There is a large file of letters with suggestions for corrections and additions to the dictionaries; many of these were prompted by advertising which challenged readers to find words not in Webster's, with a promise of a free dictionary to those who did. Many of the correspondents in this file are experts in their fields, and some of the letters carry pencilled annotations by Merriam staff indicating the action taken.

Several engravers who provided services to the company also are represented: John Andrew & Son, Milton Bradley Co., and David Bogue. A letter from John Andrew & Son includes approximately fifty proofs of illustrations of reptiles and fish. Finally, there are a few pieces of personal correspondence: Noah Webster to his wife (dated February 16, 1831) and an early letter from William Merriam to his brothers in 1834.

Documents and Other Papers includes legal and financial records, writings and printed material. The filing order mirrors the correspondence subseries, and many of the same names and subjects appear in both. The legal documents and financial records include agreements with other publishers, indentures, contracts with agents and publishers, statements of account, deeds, powers of attorney, copyright certificates, statements of sales, opinions of lawyers concerning rights of Webster heirs and copyright issues, an apprenticeship agreement between G. & C. Merriam and Wm. W. Howland (1832), wholesale dealers licenses for G. & C. Merriam, a bill of sale from Ebenezer Merriam to George Merriam for one half of the business (1824), co-partnership agreements, receipts, and small volumes of accounts kept for H.O. Houghton & Co., and Case, Tiffany & Co. The William G. Webster file includes an 1847 contract with G. & C. Merriam, renewed in 1852, entitling the Merriams to all right, title and claim to the Webster Dictionary: related copyright documents are filed under "Webster Heirs." The printed material in the files consists of testimonial pamphlets and resolutions of state legislatures, and writings include Chauncey Goodrich's "Remarks on the Pronunciation of the English Language," as well as eight folders of autograph notes concerning suggested corrections and additions.

Series II, Letterpress Copybooks , 1851-1905 (boxes 27-89), consists of a numbered run of 62 volumes covering the years 1875-1905, followed by three unnumbered volumes dating from 1851 to 1905, with gaps. The 62 sequentially numbered copybooks lack seven volumes: number 1 (July 9, 1877 to February 12, 1878), and numbers 57-62 (September 25, 1890 to March 13, 1891). The volumes contain the Merriam Company's outgoing letters and complement the incoming correspondence found in Series I. The volumes document the firm's routine business affairs: dealings with editors, printers, and agents, filling orders, directing promotion, and contacting school superintendents and bookstore owners in various parts of the country. The numbered volumes are indexed, and beginning with letterbook six give the subject of letters to such principal correspondents as H.O. Houghton & Co.; Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co.; G.W. Borland & Co.; and editors Dorsey Gardner and L. J. Campbell.

Series III, Ledgers , 1818-1921 (boxes 90-92), is organized into six subseries: Account Books, Daybooks, Merchants Books, Order Books, Inventories, and Miscellaneous Ledgers. There are fifteen account books, dated 1818-1892, with a gap from 1850 to 1852. There are three ledgers, two daybooks, and one order book dated 1818-1832, the years of the early businesses E. Merriam & Co., E. & G. Merriam, and Merriam, Little & Co. These ledgers record bookselling and printing activities, as well as sales of shoes and other miscellaneous items. Early customers include printers and publishers Dorr & Howland, James Loring, Isaiah Thomas, Jr., and West, Richardson, and Lord. There are separately bound indexes to two early volumes; later account books include indexes bound in. In addition to the consecutive run of account books, there is a separately maintained booksellers account book for the period 1843-1848, and a copyright account book for 1854-1873. Miscellaneous Ledgers track such information as Sales of Webster Abridgements, the cost of publishing the Webster Dictionary, maintained from 1844-1847, and a volume of miscellaneous notes, including Houghton's prices for binding the 1864 edition, and the number of persons required to make one hundred Webster dictionaries per day.

Series IV, Other Papers , 1797-1978 (boxes 93-101), is organized into four subseries: Scrapbooks, Printed Ephemera, Writings, and Photographs and Postcards. Twelve scrapbooks kept by the Merriams, the earliest of which contains numerous bookseller labels on the front and back inside covers, carry examples of the firm's stationery, circulars, pamphlets, advertisements, and clippings. One scrapbook, dated 1866-1870, carries notes on publishers, booksellers, and paper companies in the United States, with personal information on owners, including estimates of worth, and credit ratings. Another scrapbook has clippings about the Webster-Worcester competition gathered into "controversial" and "non-controversial" categories. Printed Ephemera includes various forms of advertising ephemera, including circulars, clippings, and pamphlets, many of them Merriam Company advertisements, some of them about the Merriam Company, the Webster-Worcester competition, Noah Webster, the Merriams themselves, and also includes a leaf from Johnson's Dictionary (box 112, folder 732). There are also four boxes of proofs of illustrations for a dictionary, photoreproductions mounted on 5x7" index cards, with holograph notes on some of the card versos, dated 1953-1956. The Writings, a varied assortment, include three leaves from Noah Webster's holograph draft of the 1828 edition of the Unabridged Dictionary, as well as holograph revisions attributed to Noah Webster on a printed dictionary page. Also in Writings are lists of words not in Webster, and Homer Merriam's "Annals of the Merriam Family." There are only a few photographs, of Noah Webster's birthplace, his house, and the first printing office of the Merriams in West Brookfield, Massachusetts.

Volumes (boxes 102-111) contains material from series III and IV, and is arranged in series order. Oversize (boxes 112-151) contains material from series I-IV and is arranged in box order. The Restricted Fragile material in boxes 152-155 consists of originals for which preservation photocopies have been made.