Location:

Near Wilmington, Delaware, off Route 100 N., east on Buck Road to entrance gates. Manuscript Archives: Soda House on the lower grounds of the estate

Contact Person:

Marjorie McNinch, Reference Librarian at the Soda House

Hours:

Mon-Fri., except major holidays, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and second Saturday of each month, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Please note that you must call for manuscripts on the Friday before each Saturday opening)

Overview:

The Hagley

and manuscript collections, established in 1957 at the site of the DuPont company's original powder mills, and merged with the Longwood Library and its collections of American business archives, began with the core collections of the DuPont company. The company was founded in 1802 by Pierre S. du Pont de Nemours, who brought with him from France a substantial collection of pamphlets, political tracts, Physiocratic documents, and correspondence with political economists in France. The DuPont collections are extensive and diverse, a treasure trove for early American business, labor, financial, and social history. Over the years, Hagley has become a premier repository for records on mid-Atlantic mills, manufactures, foundries and forges, transportation, commerce, banking, and technology in the nineteenth century.

I.          Records of the E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Company:

These are an extensive, in-depth portrait of the company's business beginning in the early nineteenth century, starting with the organization of the company in Paris in 1801.  Financial and business negotiations, relationships with prominent developers and political leaders in America, construction of early powder mills, contracts and work relations with mechanics, methods of production, labor relations and marketing strategies, and much more are documented in great detail.

The original collection of du Pont materials was housed at the Longwood Library, at Longwood Gardens, near Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, and are not designated the Longwood Manuscripts at Hagley.  Another collection of papers, many dating from pre-American generations of du Pont family affairs and business and especially rich with regard to the history of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) and his deep connections to French physiocrats and statesmen, are designated the Henry Francis du Pont Collection of Winterthur Manuscripts.  A third collection, reaching nearly half a million items, was deposited with the Hagley Museum in 1954, and is largely the E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Company Records.   These three collections do not comprise all of Hagley's holdings of du Pont materials, but within them are the overwhelming majority of materials for the pre-1860 period.

A.        The Longwood Manuscripts, 1438-1954 (1,065 linear ft.)

Group 1 contains the records of Pierre Samuel de Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) and describes the evolution of the firm from du Pont de Nemours, Père Fils & Co. to E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co.  The Group also contains various lists of stockholders.

Group 2 contains the personal correspondence of Victor du Pont (1767-1827), son of Pierre.  While much of the group consists of personal letters, the collection also describes the firm Victor du Pont & Co. and its financial problems.  The series also contains business papers concerning the financial establishment of the woolen factory, Du Pont, Bauduy & Co, which became Victor and Charles I. du Pont and then Charles I. du Pont & Co (1810-1856). (See below)  Some correspondence concerning the administration of the Farmers’ Bank of the State of Delaware is also included.  There is also a block of correspondence on Victor’s bankruptcy and the settlement of his debts.

Group 3 contains the personal papers of Eleuthere Irenee du Pont (1771-1834).  Letters discuss the family’s Paris printing operations, the financial affairs of Victor du Pont, as well as ancillary leather, cotton, and woolen manufacturing enterprises on the Brandywine river.  There are significantly detailed records concerning the purchase of Merino sheep for the woolen venture in association with the Du Pont, Bauduy & Co woolen factory. (see below)  Some records concerning the purchase of goods in New York and their transportation to Delaware on the schooner Betzy .  Also included are E. I. du Pont’s involvement as a director of the Bank of the Unite States (1822), his resignation from the Board of the Farmer’s Bank of Delaware (1822), his involvement in the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal, and his investment in the Wilmington bridge.  Papers for 1785-1838 contain legal agreements for a Merino sheep venture, du Pont’s shares in the Wilmington & Philadelphia Turnpike Co., and the Philadelphia & Wilmington Steam Boat Co. (1829).  There are also three ledgers of household accounts, and discussion concerning the difficulty of using state bank notes (1815).

Group 5 contains records of E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co collected by P. S. du Pont.  Series A includes correspondence (1802-1819) (two-thirds of it concerns 1802-1815) with over 500 firms and individuals including customers, suppliers, sales agents, shippers and merchants; also included are Accounts (1800-1894). During the War of 1812, Du Pont became a major supplier of gunpowder for the U.S. government as its total sales exceeded 500,000 pounds.  After the war the company expanded rapidly as it began selling large quantities of powder to coal mine operators and railroad entrepreneurs. The largest block of letters are to and from Anthony Girard in New York concerning the distribution of powder, acquisition of supplies and discounting of notes.  By 1813, William Cornell became du Pont’s most frequent corespondent in New York City.  Series B records cover sales and production of powder and wool, supplying the mills, construction of the mills, and payroll and real estate concerns for both the powder mill and the woolen factory, Du Pont, Bauduy & Company (see below).  Series B also contains creditors’ statements and financial statements prepared by du Pont de Nemours & Co. for European stockholders.  The letters between E. I. Du Pont and Peter Bauduy (an early partner) detail the early progress of the company, as well as the importation of Merino sheep and the formation of Du Pont, Bauduy & Company. (see below)  Of note are documents about trade with John Warner in Havana, Cuba.   Series B also contains creditors’ statements and financial statements prepared by the company for European stockholders. Many bills have been marked to distinguish which apply to the powder factory, the woolen mills, or individual accounts.  The most detailed statements of accounts are the inventories prepared in 1809 and 1814 when Bauduy renewed his partnership and then withdrew, respectively.

Group 5 Series C has papers concerning lawsuits concerning contract and land disputes.  

Group 6 (4 boxes)

Miscellaneous papers relating to the development of manufacturing enterprises such as leather tanning and the production of woolen and cotton cloth and yarn in the Wilmington area.  Firms discussed include: the Du Pont, Bauduy & Co. and its successor Victor and Charles Du Pont & Co. (1827-1856) as well as C. I. du Pont & Co.  Also, the Brandywine Mill Seat Co. (1798-1854); the A. Cardon & Co (1825-33); as well as the Rockland Manufacturing Co (1825, 1843-56).  (All of these companies are detailed further in separate entries in this survey.)

This collection contains a significant amount of material discussing the woolen factory ventures, the Du Pont, Bauduy & Co. and its successor Victor and Charles Du Pont & Co. as well as C. I. du Pont & Co.  These records discuss partners, employees, the acquisition of supplies, sales and distribution.  (See below)

Also included is the correspondence and business records of Duplanty, McCall & Co., a cotton factory in which E. I. du Pont was a principal stockholder, 1813-1837,  and of its successor, the Henry Clay Mill, 1843-1844.  Correspondence reveals sources of raw cotton supply as well as orders for spinning machinery and sale of finished cotton yarn and cloth.  Accounts and contracts for the mill are also included in the collection.  (See separate entry for additional company records)

Group 9 contains a description of imports in France (1769-1782) prepared for the du Pont company in America.

B.         The Winterthur Manuscripts Collection, 1588-1955 (156 linear feet) contains                            additional papers, largely correspondence, relating to the formation and management of E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co.

Group 2 contains the personal papers of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours.  The correspondence spans his entire career and his involvement with the Physiocrats.  Of particular note, the collection of the business records of the firm of Du Pont de Nemours, Père et Fils & Co., as well as records pertaining to the Du Pont print and record shop in Paris that he had with his sons E. I. and Victor.  There are also papers reflecting efforts to develop Franco-American trade and investment, and in promoting military forces in he West Indies.

Group 4 includes Du Pont, Bauduy & Co. materials.  See Charles I. du Pont, below.

C.        The E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company Records, 1800-1905 (324 linear ft.)

detail the business activities of one of the Mid-Atlantic’s most successful early manufacturing companies.  Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1827), son of French physiocrat and statesman Pierre Samuel du Pont, emigrated to the United States in 1800 and established a black powder manufactory on the Brandywine River just north of Wilmington, Delaware.  The collection consists of correspondence, general accounts, purchasing and receiving records, sales records, production records, the founding of the company, the building and management of mills.  Supplies from around the world -- saltpeter from India, sodium nitrate from Chile, etc. -- as well as immigrant Irish labor, hours worked, and wages are recorded.

                        Supplementing this large collection is the E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Company

General Accounts, 1800-1903 (70 linear feet), which  contain E. I. du Pont & Co. financial records for the period 1800-1902 including Ledgers (1801-1902) and Cashbooks (1801-1902), as well as Accounts Payable and Receivable (1810-1887).  These accounts indicate sales to more than 375 firms and individuals.  Also included in this collection are the petit ledgers (1812-1902) (64 volumes) that list all employees at the company, wages, hours worked, taxes paid, boarding charges, and purchases at company store.  

The Eleuthera Bradford du Pont Collection, 1799-1834 (6.3 linear feet) contains correspondence

reflecting financial and organization difficulties in the first years of the powder mills; documents about explosions; capital loans and raw materials expenses; relations with the cotton factory under Du Planty, McCall & Co.; and business related to the woolen factory of Du Pont, Bauduy & Co.  Finally, the P. S. du Pont Office Collection, 1749-1939 (14.3 linear feet) contains letters sent (1804-1901) and received (1803-1923) by E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. as well as patent records and  war correspondence about government contracts.

The E. I. du Pont Papers, 1771-1922 (8 linear feet).  Series A contains correspondence describing the founding and early operation of the powder mills on the Brandywine.  Series B includes his household accounts, bills, receipts and promissory notes.  Series D shows the company's connections to the U.S. Navy Board of Ordnance and the Frankford, Washington, and Harper’s ferry arsenals, and its government contracts that enabled the company to profit so highly in the first half of the nineteenth century.  In 1837 Henry du Pont, E.I. du Pont's son, took over the management of the company and began to rationalize the company's managerial practices.  During the Civil War the company became the largest supplier of powder to the Union Army and in the late 1860s it used its wartime profits to purchase control of many of its competitors.  This collection also contains correspondence relating to the company’s efforts to raise capital in order to expand.   

The Eleuthère Irénée Du Pont Ledger, 1814-1818 (1 vol.) shows household accounts, and efforts to raise Merino sheep, and operation of the Merino farm.  The ledger also records purchases from, and sales to, local businesses.

The Eleuthere Irenee Du Pont Papers, 1782-1838 (1.7 linear ft.) contain largely personal correspondence to his wife, father, and brother, but scholars will find valuable references to starting up leather, cotton, woolen and other manufactures on the Brandywine, as well as reflections about tariffs, agricultural improvements, and the progress of the Brandywine grist mills.  Material is useful with the records of the du Pont cotton and woolen factory operations.

While continuing to produce black powder on the Brandywine, E. I. du Pont also became involved in more diverse manufacturing.  E. I. du Pont and the company encouraged manufacturing enterprises such as leather tanning and the production of woolen and cotton cloth and yarn in the Wilmington area, including promotional efforts with the Society of the State of Delaware for the Promotion of American Manufacturers.  In association with the Du Pont, Bauduy & Co woolen factory, E. I. du Pont imported Merino sheep to Delaware and established a woolen mill on the Brandywine.  See below.

The P. S. du Pont Office Collection, 1749-1939 (14.3 linear feet) contains incorporation papers and partnership agreements for associated textile and leather operations.  While these business letters and correspondence are quite limited, they do reveal the development of industry on the nineteenth century Brandywine River, and the number of endeavors in which E. I. du Pont became involved.  

All of E. I. du Pont’s ventures were not successful, however.  Du Pont supplied the capital and site for the firm Duplanty, McCall & Co. to establish a cotton manufactory on the Brandywine River in 1813.  The manufactory prospered at first as du Pont has secured the U. S. Army as its main customer.  However, with the end of the War of 1812, a flood of cheap British textiles and the Panic of 1819 caused a shutdown in 1819.  Accounts and contracts for the mill, letters documenting construction of the mill as well as correspondence that reveals sources of raw cotton supply as well as orders for spinning machinery and sale of finished cotton yarn and cloth are included in the Du Planty, McCall & Company.  Records, 1813-1844 (0.5 linear feet).  Also included are letters documenting the employment of bleachers and dyers including an employee list giving occupations and wages.  Additional records of this company are located in Group 6 of The Longwood Manuscripts, 1438-1954.  The Weaver’s books for the years 1817-1819 are included in the P. S. du Pont Office Collection, 1749-1939 (14.3 linear feet).

            E. I. du Pont’s business activities extended to transportation and financial ventures (see Group 3 of The Longwood Manuscripts).  E. I. du Pont became an investor with the Wilmington & Philadelphia Turnpike Co., the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal, the Wilmington bridge, and the Philadelphia & Wilmington Steam Boat Co (1829).  E. I. du Pont’s 1822 appointment as a director of the Bank of the United States confirmed his status as both a leading businessman, industrialist and public figure until his death in 1834.

D.        Charles I. du Pont (1797-1869) was the eldest son of Victor Marie du Pont,

nephew of E. I. du Pont.  After graduating from Mt. Airy College, he joined his father, Victor, in one of the first woolen manufactories in the Delaware River Valley: DuPont, Bauduy & Co.  Victor de Pont, E. I. du Pont, Peter Bauduy organized the firm of Du Pont, Bauduy & Company, and Raphael Du Planty as partners in 1810 to manufacture woolen cloth.  They built a mill at Louviers, Delaware on the Brandywine River.  The mill produced high quality wool using the Merino sheep that E. I. du Pont had imported beginning in 1801.  The company was involved in a series of financial disputes and dissolved itself to form partnership of Victor & Charles du Pont & Co on February 25, 1815.

The Du Pont, Bauduy & Company, Records, 1809-1815 (.25 linear feet) consists of letters written by the partners and employees relating to the price of sheep and wool, sales of merinos, sources of funds, labor supplies and sales of cloth.  And the role of the factory in the development of the woolen mill.  Also, information on employees—such as dyers and apprentices, as well as on credit production of raw wool.  Victor & Charles du Pont & Co. continued until the death of Victor du Pont in 1827, when the firm became Charles I. du Pont & Co.  The Charles I. du Pont & Company, Records, 1810-1856 (8 linear feet) detail the firms efforts to produce wool at both the Louviers mill and at another Brandywine mill acquired in 1839, Rokeby.  This collection includes correspondence from commission agents, suppliers of wool, dyes and machinery as well as information regarding factory employees.  The collection also contains correspondence that concerns military contracts obtained by the company to supply blankets.  Finally, general accounts, journals, daybooks, ledger and bills payable are included as well as sales and production records.

Four other collections contain material about Charles I. du Pont & Co. or one of its earlier incarnates.  The Charles I. du Pont Papers 1807-1892 (.66 linear feet), contain correspondence, accounts, notes, a list of employees and the details of a subscription drive for a fund to aid a fellow worker.  The Victor du Pont Papers, 1753-1847 (3 linear feet), contain some of the business records for Du Pont Bauduy & Co. and its successor Victor & Charles I. du Pont & Co.  The Victor Du Pont, Papers 1778-1827 (.5 linear feet) consists of the contracts and apprenticeship papers for Victor and Charles I. du Pont, cloth manufacturers.  And in The Longwood Manuscripts, Group 2, are business papers on Du Pont, Bauduy & Co, and its successors Victor and Charles I. du Pont and then Charles I. du Pont & Co.

Not only was Du Pont an active businessman, like many successfully nineteenth century entrepreneurs, he was active in civic and political affairs as well as remaining a lifelong businessman.  He was a trustee of the Brandywine Manufacturers' Sunday School, beginning in 1817, he was elected a director of the Farmers Bank of the State of Delaware, at Wilmington, in 1830 and served as president of the bank from 1865 to 1868.  Additionally, he served two terms in the Delaware Senate, 1841-45 and 1853-57.

While serving as a civic and political leader, Charles du Pont continued to engage in business, including founding the New Castle Manufacturing Co. (1833) which manufactured cotton, woolen, and metal goods.  In 1853 he incorporated and then served as director for the Delaware Railroad Company.  Exhibit of the affairs of the Delaware Railroad Company, November, 1854 (1 book) summarizes the Railroad’s affairs.  Later in life, he was also a director of the Columbia Insurance Co. of Philadelphia, and of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, & Baltimore Railroad Co., as well as a vice president of the Delaware Improvement Association.

                        The Charles I. Du Pont & Company Records, 1810-1856, representing the

company that succeeded Du Pont, Bauduy & Co., and then succeeded Victory & Charles du Pont & Co. (1815-1827) until Victor's death in the latter year, detail production of wool at the Louviers mill after 1827 and at the Rokeby mill after 1839. This collection includes correspondence from commission agents, suppliers of wool, dyes and machinery as well as information regarding factory employees.  The collection also contains correspondence about military contracts obtained by the company to supply blankets.  Finally, general accounts, journals, daybooks, ledger and bills payable are included as well as sales and production records.

II.         COMMERCE

Among prominent merchants in Philadelphia in the first post-Revolutionary generation were Etienne (later Stephen) Dutilh and John Godfried Wachsmuth.  Dutilh haled from a far-flung family of merchants stretching through Holland, England, the West Indies, and southern Europe.  While Dutilh travelled and kept the European portions of their trading empire together, Wachsmuch extended connections in America.  The Dutilh & Wachsmuth Records, 1772-1875 (5 linear ft.), document the activities of this partnership, which operated from 1790 to 1799, and the subsequent partnership of Wachsmuth with John Soullier, a correspondent of Dutilh, until 1814.  These records are a compilation of numerous earlier accessions.  

Accessions 95, 1003, and 1144 contain the Business Papers, 1783-1814 (21 vols., plus 6 loose items), including Letterbooks 1794-1814, with correspondence to merchants in numerous countries throughout the Atlantic world who traded in coffee, indigo, flour, cotton wool, silk, logwood, butter, lard, glassware, china, drugs, and implements; Foreign Accounts, 1783-1801, with invoices to and from Rotterdam, Hamburg, Nantes, Bordeaux, London, Part-au-Prince, Lisbon, and other ports regarding trade in cheese, coffee, wine, glassware, hides, earthenware, and other dry goods, plus sugar, indigo, and rice from southern and Caribbean ports; and Philadelphia Account Books, 1788-1808 (6 vols.); and numerous Checkbooks, Notes, Drafts, 1789-1811, which document orders for payment, drawback on trade, Bank of the United States business, customs declarations, and other affairs.   

Accession 656, Dutilh & Wachsmuth, Miscellaneous Papers, 1780-1811 (141 items) contains bills, receipts for purchases, bills for ship supplies, drafts on Philadelphia and foreign merchants, and other business papers.

Accession 470 contains the partners' bankbook with the First Bank of the U.S.   

Accession 706, Miscellaneous Papers, 1778-1818 (392 items), contains bills, receipts, orders, invoices, and other commercial accounts of  the different partnerships with a number of foreign firms.  

Accession 720, Miscellaneous Papers, 1772-1846 (500 items), contains invoices, bills of exchange, orders, insurance papers, and much correspondence with French, Caribbean, and Dutch merchants.  

Accession 470 is the Dutilh & Wachsmuth Bank Book, 1797-1800 (1 vol.) with the Bank of the United States branch in Philadelphia.

Accession 1120 contains insurance policies with West Indian merchants for 1788 to 1799.  

Accession 1215 consists of legal papers related to the case of the "Eliza," and Dutilh's charges that his supercargo took contraband coffee out of Cuba and violated his orders.

Accession 1220 contains letters and accounts related to Amsterdam and Haitian trade, an account of the Spanish massacre of French islanders in 1794, and the dissolution of Dutilh's branch in Santo Domingo in 1793.  

Accessions 1247 and 1369 cover various years of  1783 to 1806 matters of provisioning ships, repairs, cargo lists, wage payments, insurance papers, and port fees.   In all, these materials represent a treasure trove about commerce in the early republic, and include business relations with dozens of the most prominent partnerships and firms in the Atlantic world during the 1790s.  Researchers will find additional documents related to Dutilh & Wachsmuth at HSP, LC, NYHS, the Clements Library, and the Wisconsin Historical Society.  Please note that most materials are in French, and some are in German and Spanish.

Another prominent, long-term partnership was that of Samuel Massey (1734-1793) and Benjamin Mifflin (1718-1787).  The Mifflin and Massey Records, 1751-1863 (.6 linear ft.) show extensive commercial activity starting in the 1750s between Samuel Massey with Jonathan Mifflin, including Account Books for 1751-1755, 1760-1761, 1756, 1757, 1759, detailing imports of coffee, flour, sugar, corn, rum, tea, chocolate, rice and other coastwise trade commodities.  Numerous additional accounts with Philadelphia retailers and wholesalers are also in the collection, and of special interest are the joint ventures to export flour, cloth, salt, clothing, rice, brandy, coffee, spices, cotton, and other goods to the West Indies and coastal North American ports.  A summary of partners' balances for 1766-1766 is in this collection as well.  The partnership agreement of 1760 is included, as well as insurance papers for trips to Europe and the West Indies, and a few notations dating from 1778 about Continental currency troubles.  

Andrew Clow & Company, Records, 1784-1835, (420 items) contain a variety of papers which document the business activities of the Philadelphia mercantile firm of Andrew Clow & Company of which Andrew Clow and David Cay were partners.  This firm, active beginning with the close of the Revolutionary War, conducted trade with merchants in great Britain, France, Germany, Spain and the West Indies as well as with a variety of American ports.  A variety of accounts, bills, orders, receipts, and correspondence reveal that the Company exported or re-exported flour, grain, sugar, coffee, mahogany, and tobacco while importing a variety of textiles, wine and other luxury goods from Europe.  These documents, in turn, show the firms connections to merchants throughout the West Indies and Europe.  Also included among the records are several insurance documents relating to policies the company took out on ships and their cargo.  Correspondence also includes observations on market conditions, data on trade in wine and brandy with France and a discussion with James Matthews (1790) concerning the proper type of barrel in which to ship flour.  A selection of eighteenth century bank notes from various American cities, including the First Bank of the United States, may be of particular interest to scholars of early monetary history.  Clow and Cay both died in Philadelphia’s great yellow fever epidemic in 1793 and much of the documents in this collection pertain to the settling of their estates.  See also the District Court of Pennsylvania, Eastern District Equity Docket and Case Files, 1790-1847 (23 reels microf.).

During the first post-Revolutionary decade, immigrant merchants with connections at numerous foreign ports were able to rise quickly in American cities.  Lynch & Stoughton Ledger, 1783-1788 (New York City) (1 vol.) demonstrates how Dominick Lynch, Sr., an Irish merchant immigrant, and Thomas Stoughton, Spanish consul in the city, expanded quickly to embrace the commerce of Spain, Portugal, Havana, Florida, Ireland, the Low Countries, and even China.  They exported flour, grain, timber products, tobacco, ginseng, flax seed, potash, and numerous local products of New York; imports included wine, linen, sugar, molasses, brandy, and textiles.

The Joshua Gilpin Letters, 1798-1803 contain a report on market conditions and prices at Philadelphia during 1803 for ports around the world.  The Joshua Gilpin Journals and Notebooks, 1790-1833 (3 reels microf.) record the progression of a merchant into paper manufacturing (see "Manufactures").  Joshua Gilpin, born in Philadelphia in 1765, inherited his father Thomas's flour mills in Maryland and Delaware (see "Milling") during the American Revolution. In 1787 he established his first paper mill near Wilmington with his brother Thomas, Jr. (1776-1853) and other relatives.  There is little explicitly about commerce in these records, but the assiduous scholar will find valuable details about trade in France and England, prices, and market conditions abroad while Joshua was travelling in 1795 to 1801.

            Another prominent family of Philadelphia merchants in the late-colonial and early national era were the Phillips.  The Phillips Family Business Records, 1793-1838 (6 vols.) detail commercial activities of William Phillips (1771-1845), a third-generation head of this prominent merchant family.  Phillips’s grandfather John (1702-1762) and father John, Jr. (1739-1806) ran a prosperous ropewalk, and William clerked for George Meade before entering the import business on his own account.  William Phillips traded to France and the West Indies primarily, but expanded to include southern Europe and the "spice islands" of the Far East.  His exports were largely wheat and flour, and smaller quantities of agricultural semi-processed foods.  His son and grandson moved out of commerce and became manufacturers, sugar refiners,  and cotton mill operators (see "Manufacturers" below)  One of his four account books in this collection detail ventures to the Caribbean, Canton, Dunkirk, Morocco, and Calcutta (1793-1807); another involves household accounts for payments to servants and farm laborers, including names, days worked, wages paid, etc. (1808-1818), and an account of  a voyage to London and Guernsey in 1795-1796.  A third, the Riverside Farm Accounts (1821-1830), document production and sales of butter, port, cider, eggs, and sales of manure, livestock, and cordwood that may have been delivers to Phillips.  The fourth account book is that of William Phillips in retirement as a gentleman farmer (1826-1838).  

            In the Phillips Family Business Records there is a Receipt Book of Francis Coppinger (1795-1796) that shows involvement in the wine, sugar, and cotton importing business, and part-ownership of brigs.  Coppinger was primarily a wine importer in Philadelphia.

            Manuel Eyre Business Papers, 1796-1815 (332 items) include the shipping records of this important Philadelphia Quaker merchant.  Manuel Eyre, Sr. (1736-1805), father of the main subject in the documents, was a shipwright in Philadelphia.  The son, Manuel Eyre, Jr. (1777-1845) clerked for Henry Pratt, Charles Massey, Jr., and Abraham Kintzing; in 1803 he formed the partnership Eyre & Massey that lasted until his death.  The partners owned over 20 barques, sloops, and ships; their trade spanned to Europe, the Caribbean, South America, China, Indian, and the Far East.  Most of this collection consists of letters, ship manifests, records of voyages, bills of lading, and bills of sales for vessels.  See also records of the Schuylkill Navigation Company and the Second Bank of the United States.

            In a related collection the Manuel Eyre Shipping Papers, 1801-1803 (322 items), letters and ship manifests document additional voyages of the partnership's vessels, including balance sheets, cargo lists, outfitting lists, contracts with captains, correspondence with foreign agents and supercargoes, and the like.  Eyre & Massey imported primarily cotton, sugar, coffee, hardware, textiles, hides, wine, rum, Windsor chairs, and rice; they exported mainly flour, butter, cheese, and gunpowder.  In a third collection, Manuel Eyre Business Papers, 1796-1834 (5 items), additional evidence of Caribbean voyages and Eyre's shipments of coffee are documented.  A fourth collection Manuel Eyre Business Papers, 1796-1837 (43 items) supplements these kinds of voyages, including correspondence with West Indies agents, accounts payable in 1803, promissory notes, bank drafts, bills of lading and other shipping papers.  Finally, the Manuel Eyre Business Papers, 1801-1823 (10 items) are shipping papers, bills of lading, and customs house lists of imports.  

            The Irving Warner Papers, 1794-1964 (5.8 linear ft.) include important information about one line of sloops and barques that moved coal, lime, and sand out of Pennsylvania to Wilmington and ports beyond, and the importing of Portland cement from Europe during the era covered by this survey.  The papers include mainly retrospective and historical accounts of the original family members involved in this trade.

            Hagley has a microform copy of Thomas Pim Cope, Diaries, 1800-1851 (1 reel, 10 vols.), made from the originals held by Haverford College Library (see Haverford entries).

            Within the very large collection of the Morris Family Papers, 1684-1935 (10.5 linear ft.) are numerous materials of Samuel Morris (1734-1812), a fourth-generation descendant of Anthony Morris, who arrived in Philadelphia in about 1685.   Although most generations of Morris's maintained prosperous breweries in the city and land investments in the hinterlands (see "Manufacturing"), Samuel Morris turned to commerce before the American Revolution, served in political posts during the war and as the Commissary General of the Middle District.  Hagley holds numerous account books, bank books, correspondence with merchants in New York, bills, war accounts for hospital and provisioning duties, papers related to commerce during the Revolution with his brother Israel Morris and the firm of Morris & Miercken, merchants and sugar refiners.  Researchers will find accounts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania physicians during the war, as well as records of slave sales in Trenton, New Jersey in 1781, and loans Samuel Morris made to the Batsto Iron Works.   See related materials at HSP.

            A single Sweetman & Rudolph, Account Book, 1788-1796 (1 vol.) covers the flour business of the important Philadelphia merchants, Richard Sweetman and John Rudolph, who were connected in business to Willing, Morris & Swanwick during these years.  

            Joseph Donath & Company, Letter Books, 1801-1806 (2 vols.) document a Philadelphia merchant firm's correspondence in the first generation after the Revolution with dozens of  Americans and Europeans who traded in glassware, textiles, flour, brandy, tobacco, earthenware, hardware, and provisions.  Interests in rebellious Santo Domingo and exotic China are also documented, as well as trips to Puerto Rico, Havana, Baltimore, Liverpool, Bordeaux, and other Atlantic ports.  

            The Joseph Shipley Papers, 1741-1898 (1.2 linear ft.) supplement the extensive family records of the Shipleys of Wilmington, Delaware.  Joseph was the grandson of  the prominent Brandywine miller, Thomas Shipley (see "Milling"), and great-grandson of William Shipley, who established the family in Philadelphia beginning in 1725.  Joseph began his career in 1813 as a clerk in his cousin, Samuel Canby, Jr.'s business in Philadelphia.  By 1822, Joseph had removed to Liverpool, where he served in Shipley, Welsh & Company as a agent to ship cotton and arrange credit for his partner John Welsh in Philadelphia.  In 1826 Joseph became a partner in the famous William & James Brown and Company banking firm (a branch of Alexander Brown & Sons of Baltimore).  By 1836 Joseph was a partner in all four banking branches.  (see "Panic of 1837")  Hagley holds an extensive correspondence sent to Joseph while he lived in Liverpool, including numerous letters about milling in the early 1800s from his father and brother on the Brandywine River, and an equally large number of letters from Richard Price and Thomas S. Newlin, merchants in Philadelphia, about exporting and the approaching financial crisis of 1837.  A substantial number of letters from the various Brown banking offices are within the collection as well.  Specific commercial accounts include an Account Book (1819-1820) for a trip to Maryland and Virginia; financial records covering a trip to france; Ledger, Shipley, Welsh & Co. (1825-1826); Accounts, John Welsh (1819-1826), including shipments of cotton and flour to Europe; Balance Sheet (1827); Brown & Sons, annual losses and gains (1815-1831); Private Balance Sheet  (1836, 1849); Accounts, Brown, Shipley & Co. (1843-1849, 1853-1862), Accounts, Brown Bros. & Co. (1843-1849, 1853-1861); statement on the American cotton crop (1839); miscellaneous insurance premiums, bills of exchange, and receipts.  From Joseph's father, Joseph Shipley Sr., there is a volume of Household Accounts (1824-1829), and his will.  Further activities of Joseph Shipley are document in the Brown Brothers, Harriman & Co. Records, NYHS.

            Masters & Markoe Records, 1800-1855 (5.5 linear ft.) provide a valuable portrait of the West Indies trade of New York merchants in the new nation.  Thomas Masters formed a partnership with his brother-in-law Francis Markoe in 1810, but they suffered serious setbacks during the War of 1812 and dissolved the business in 1814.  The partnership resumed in New York from about 1825 to 1836, when the firm became Masters, Markoe & Co., and included at various times their sons, Samuel Caldwell Masters and Francis Markoe, Jr., and a son-in-law of Masters, Jeremiah Wilbur, staying in business until it transformed once again in 1846.  Partners imported primarily sugar from St. Croix (Santa Cruz), and rum, coffee, mahogany, logwood, molasses, and cotton wool from various islands; they exported flour and West Indies goods to Germany and France.  Most of the documents are loose letters.  See also Masters & Markoe, HSP.

            The Karthaus Family Records, 1794-1966 (1.3 linear ft.) give valuable insights into the rise of Baltimore in the early republic.  Peter A. Karthaus, Sr. (1765-1840) came from Hamburg to Baltimore in roughly 1806 and establish commerce with Germany, Holland, France, and the West Indies. Unlike many merchants who suffered during the War of 1812, Karthaus operated a dozen or so privateers to West Indies ports.  Karthaus also expanded into real estate purchases and coal extraction from southwestern Pennsylvania before the war's end.  Shipping Invoices (1806-1814) link Karthaus to imports and reexports of coffee, cotton, sugar, and tobacco from Baltimore to Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Bremen, Havana, and Puerto Rico.  A business diary written by Frederick Focke, son-in-law of Karthaus, explains details of a trading venture to Holland and England in 1847-1849, including statistics of the tobacco trade, and an attached schedule of tobacco exports from the U.S. for 1843-1847.  See also Peter A. Karthaus & Company Account Books, Maryland Hall of Records, Annapolis, Maryland.

            Andrews and Meredith Records, 1780-1832 (34 items) comprise the correspondence and legal papers of merchants Robert Andrews and David Meredith between 1794 and 1802.  Especially important are the shipping records during the early years of the French Revolution, including trade with France and Portugal in such items as wine, brandy, cotton, sugar, indigo, spices, and cotton wool.  Details of a 1794-1795 voyage, including cargoes sent, problems encountered, and the ensnaring debts that resulted is included.  See also Jonathan Meredith ("Other Manufactures"), David's father in Philadelphia.  See also Andrews & Meredith, HSP.

            It is rare that scholars can glimpse the relations between farmers, small merchants of lesser towns, and the great merchants of port cities.  The Stockley Family Papers, 1811-1913 (5.5 linear ft.) offer such a glimpse.  Ayres Stockley formed a partnership in 1823 with Samuel  J. Rowland in Smyrna, Delaware, which continued under various names until 1836.  Account books record the acquisition of wheat, barley, and hides, and their shipment from Delaware to Philadelphia; the travels of their sloop the "William Penn," (1829-1832), and payments to workers (1826-1831). Starting in the 1870s there are additional "grain dealer" records, diaries, and rent ledgers.

            In the Stockley Family Papers there are other items of commercial significance for these years.  See the Account Book of Lewis Fields for labor, groceries, and sundries (1824-1826); the Ledger of William Fields (1813-1833); Day Book (1825-1830); Debts Due (1830-1833); Ledger of lumber accounts of William Daniel of Smyrna (1853-1859); Receipt Book of Daniel (1875-1886); Accounts of William A. Cloud, Smyrna for ship repairs (1859-1862).

            The George Bowen & Company Records, 1829-1898 (1.75 linear ft.) give important perspectives on both retail and wholesale trade.  Bowen, a ship chandler in Newport, Rhode Island from 1829, expanded to transshiping coal from Pennsylvania and cordwood from around New Jersey and Pennsylvania by the 1850s.  He took on commission trade with homeowners, merchants, and shopkeepers from New York to Philadelphia; his vessels carried rope, bar iron, turpentine, white lead, tar, oil, pork, flour, oats, coffee, cloth, and other farm items, as well as large shipments of coal.  There are sixteen volumes of account books in this collection.

Joseph Bancroft, textile manufacturer, corresponded with Pitcher & Brown, Pawtucket, MA, among others; their correspondence appears in Joseph Bancroft, Letterbook, 1833-1839 (1 vol).

Henry S. Leverich Checkbook, 1830-1837 (New York) (1 vol.), records the arrivals of shipments of sugar and other West Indies and New Orleans goods, as well as loans, bank deposits, brokering fees involving numerous prominent merchants in New York, minus the years 1832 to 1835, and dealings with the Philadelphia butter merchant Israel Cook.  Leverich, and his brothers, were prominent directors of the Bank of New York by the 1840s.   

In the Wright Family Papers, 1785-1902 (16.67 linear ft.) are numerous letters and reports related to Wright's trade between 1817 and 1842.  Although progressively more an ironmaster and gentleman farmer, Samuel Gardiner Wright (1809-1845) began his career in commerce and sustained links to it by shipping Merino sheep, cordwood, sea salt, furs, and iron products from his Pennsylvania and New Jersey mining and farming operations to correspondents in Arkansas, Ohio, New York, Illinois, and backcountry Pennsylvania.  (See "Iron Works")         

Elisha Copeland was a commission merchant at Boston, Massachusetts. With P. Degrand, Copeland traded with Europe, the West Indies, and the du Ponts of the Brandywine.  The single Account Book, 1824-1825 contains entries for imports of wine, brandy, sulphur, cocoa, spices, coffee, cigars, horsehair, tobacco, hides, cotton, textiles, sugar, alum, saltpeter, gunpowder, and other goods.

Thomas Brooks, Account Book, 1859-1861 (1 vol.), recounts the drygoods trade of this merchant, especially for Calicoes, flannels, muslins, undergarments, cloaks, shawls, tablecloths, and other textiles.  Brooks hired tailors, seamstresses, possibly piece-workers, and delivery workers.      

The James J. Shryock Business Papers, 1856-1863 (.16 linear ft.) contain important information about the discovery and transhipment of petroleum from the interior of Pennsylvania to ports such as New York, Philadelphia, Bristol, London, and European cities.  Shryock began as a general merchant during the 1850s, but soon moved into railroad promotion (see "Transportation") through the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad Company of Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio.  During construction, crude oil was discovered, and soon organizing its marketing to potential buyers in America and abroad -- including the overland hauling from oil fields by rail to port cities -- became Shryock's main activity.   A Letterbook (1856-1862) details his merchant activities; a Journal (1861-1862) lists quantities of oil shipped, hiring of carters, and returns from his partners.  

            The Philadelphia merchant John Brown, who had received his training as a clerk in Robert Morris’s mercantile house in the 1760s, traded throughout the young republic as well as with Europe and the West Indies.  The John Brown, Papers, 1781-1784 (33 items) contain correspondence documenting sales of calicoes and linens to J. Nesbitt & Co. of Nantes, France, among others. Brown shipped Windsor chairs and other goods to Havana in 1783.  There are also several items of correspondence relating to his duties as Secretary of the Pennsylvania Board of War and Secretary of the Marine Committee and Board of Admiralty. (See also Andrew Clow & Company, Records, 1784-1835)  For the cotton trade, see also records of Joseph Shipley, Manuel Eyre, Mifflin & Massey, Phillips, Dutilh & Wachsmuth, Wetherill, among others.

            Scattered throughout Hagley’s collections there is correspondence written by merchant Archibald McCall (1767-1843), who was involved in the East India trade before 1800, became a director of the First Bank of the United States, and exported Du Pont powder after 1804.  He operated the Glasgow Forge near Pottstown. (See "Iron Works")   See Du Planty, McCall & Company Records, 1813-1844   (.5 linear ft.) (see "Cotton Mills"); E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Correspondence, 1805-1901, Eleuthera Bradford du Pont Collection, 1799-1834, Joseph Donath & Co., Letterbooks, 1801-1806 (2 volumes), Victor du Pont, Papers, 1753-1847 (3 linear feet), Eleuthère Irénée, Papers, 1782-1838, and Wright Family, Papers, 1785-1902 (16.67 linear feet), all detailed elsewhere.

            The William & James Prichett Records, 1816-1873 (2.2 linear ft.) document one of the most far-flung fur trading businesses in North America down to the 1830s.  From their Philadelphia shop the brothers imported from Spain, Germany, Buenos Aires, Pernambuco, Honduras, Rio de Janeiro, La Guira, and other foreign ports, as well as from the American interior to the North and South.  Their Day Books (1825-1826, 1825-1831), Journals (1829-1830, 1829-1830), Cash Books (1832-1835), Hide Accounts (1828-1829), Receipts and Sales (1824-1827, 1830)  show imports of both raw hides and finished leather.  Agents went on long buying trips for the company.  The company folded in 1835, and one of the Prichetts became involved in the grain and flour trade to Britain from roughly 1845 to 1862.  Prichett, Baugh & Company, founded in 1845, shipped wheat, flour, and clover seed to British ports, and petroleum to Liverpool in 1862, cotton, meat, hides, and flour to various ports during the 1850s.  

            The Jacob Barge Record Book, 1767-1792 (1 vol.) shows business of this Philadelphia merchant with area stores and farmers, and his supplying activities with merchant re-exporters.  The Anguera & Curren Receipt Book, 1835-1837 (1 vol.) details this shipping firm's payments for repair, towing and wharfage fees, supplies, wages, and other related services at Philadelphia.  Lesser merchant Joseph Dugan, Receipt Book, 1822-1838 (1 vol.) covers household expenses for imported furniture and wine, fuel, home repairs, and articles of consumption.  

            Most of the major millers and manufacturers in the Brandywine valley engaged in commerce, some very energetically.  For example, the Joseph Shipley Papers, 1741-1898 (1.2 linear ft.) (see "Milling") document the early career of Shipley as a merchant's clerk in London, and his subsequent activities arranging shipments of grain and flour, and then cotton and banking credit.  These papers are a deep source for understanding the connections among merchants and the relationships of credit, reputation, and profit.

            For additional information about commerce, especially its relationship to the wider activities of milling, manufacturing, and finance, see entries for "DuPlanty, McCall & Company," The Lea Mills Collection,  William Lea & Sons Records, Sweetman & Rudolph Account Book, Thomas Lea & Son Account Books, Haldeman Family Papers, elsewhere in this survey.

            For West Indies commerce, particularly Santo Domingo and Cuba, see the records of Bauduy, Dutilh & Wachsmuth, the du Ponts, Mifflin & Massey; Masters & Markoe; the Karthaus Family Records; Manuel Eyre Shipping Papers; Stevens Family Papers; Joseph Donath & Co.; Elisha Copeland Account Book; Thomas Lea & Son Account Books.  For more about the coffee trade, see the Eyre paper, Beorge Bowen & Company records, Dutilh & Wachsmuch papers, and Phillips Family Records.  For tea, see the "Catalogue of Teas," 1825, J. & W. Lippincott and Company, Auctioneers, Philadelphia (3 p.).  For sugar, see "Statistical Tables of the Consumption of Sugar in the United States," covering 1835 to 1840 (2 p.).

            Prices current lists may be found in Mercantile Miscellany, 1784-1804 (23 items) for Amsterdam and Marseilles covering 1804, and advertising circulars of a few prominent Philadelphia firms; and for a lengthy report on market conditions and prices in Philadelphia in 1803, see the Joshua Gilpin Letters (1798-1803).  Prices are also give in the C.J. Fell & Brother (Philadelphia) records, the prominent spice and chocolate importer, for 1868 and 1873.  The Philadelphia Commercial List and Price Current for 1875 is also held at Hagley, as is the "Prices Current to Druggists of wall, window, and shelf furniture," of the John M. Maris Company, 1806.

            For treatises on bookkeeping and wholesaling, see especially "A Treatise of Book-Keeping, or, Merchant Accounts," by Alexander Malcolm (1685-1763), reprinted in 1986 (148 p.); and "Course of Book-Keeping, According to the Method of Single Entry," by Charles Hutton (1737-1823), published in 1801.  See also, " Preston's Treatise on Book-Keeping: A Common-Sense Guide to a Common-Sense Mind," by Lyman Preston (1795-?), published in 1853, 1854 (224 p.).

            Numerous publications and collections on themes related to merchants' activities can be found at Hagley.  Among these are reports about the tumultuous conditions of the West Indies during the 1780s and 1790s, the embargoes of 1807-1809; the introduction of new technologies and business methods, the debates about banking and institutions to aid in internal development, debates about slavery and wage labor -- and many other topics that can be researched through the Hagley card catalogue of printed works available in the library.   In addition, scholars will find many cross-referenced names and topics throughout this collection survey.

III.       MANUFACTURING

Hagley's holdings on early manufacturing may be clustered according to the institution's primary strengths in collecting over the years.

A.                 Cotton and Woolen Mills

The earliest holdings related to textiles manufacturing at Hagley include those of Philadelphia promoters and investors during the first post-Revolutionary generation.  Taken together with related materials at the HSP and Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania, Hagley's Soda House contains a number of key collections on the formation of early cotton and woolen production.

 The Samuel Wetherill Miscellaneous Papers, 1775-1803 (7 items) comprise a small, but rare early view of one of the new nation's most tenacious promoter-manufacturers.  Hagley's holdings include Wetherill's accounts as a founding official of the United Company of Philadelphia for Promoting American Manufactures (1775), and records of the Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures and the Useful Arts, begun in 1787 in Philadelphia by prominent merchants and developers, attracted over 800 subscribers of small sums to begin spinning and weaving operations.   Records in this collection include Wetherill's reports as chairman and treasurer of the Pennsylvania Society, especially related building the cotton factory; a report on the advantages of home manufactures and putting out; receipts of subscribers to the Society; a report about the cost of cotton factory machinery dated 1793; and a letter from Tench Coxe to Wetherill about the Manufacturing Fund of 1803.

There are two other important volumes in the Hagley records:  (1) a Manufacturing Fund Ledger, 1788-1801, which portrays the capital-raising, construction, and employment records of the putting-out operations and factory production of handkerchiefs, cotton, canvas, dimity, shawls, calico, corduroy, and other fabrics.  Records are strongest for 1788-1789; included with the 1801 materials are a list of trustees and members, as well a settlement of accounts related to the Company's failures in 1789.  (2)  A Weaver's Ledger, 1788-1790 (1 vol.) details work with about 30 outwork and factory handloom weavers, including wages, costs of materials, and levels of output for piecework.  See also the Mendenhall and Cope business records for commercial ties of Wetherill.  See also related materials at HSP and the Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania.

 Late in 1787 Samuel Wetherill, a prominent Revolutionary-era merchant in Philadelphia, began a putting-out system of flax and wool spinning, and within a few months began a cotton factory operation with between 40 and 80 spindles and 26 handlooms, employing 200 to 300 women.  Conflicts between home production and the factory complicated the Society's operations, and a fire in 1790 destroyed Wetherill's Market Street factory.  Wartime commerce revived merchant interests in shipbuilding and trade, and deterred further efforts at manufacturing.  However, Wetherill and others founded the Manufacturing Fund in 1803.  Hagley holds a few business letters and reports on the condition of home manufacturing and cotton production that emerged from Wetherill's entrepreneurship.  

Other Wetherill records also contain Pamphlets (1780) addressed to the public to promote factory production in the 1780s.  Some individual papers of Wetherill include connections to Tench Coxe, John Nicholson, and others identified with the Society, as well as early national economic development generally.  The records detail subscription activities, reports on labor recruitment, costs and types of factory equipment, a few spottier documents on company finances.  See also Metals and Mining, for Wetherill's early national involvement in white lead production.  The Wetherill  records also detail the work of weavers and outworkers.

During the early 1800s, the number of textile mills in the Delaware River Valley grew rapidly, as did their expansion as business enterprises absorbing available capital and labor, employment of immigrants and natively-born workers, and significance overall as economies of scale.  Hagley holds a number of complementary collections in textiles manufacturing that can be used most effectively together.  The most important of these are:

William Whitaker & Sons, Business Records and Accounts, 1809-1970 (22 linear ft.) document one Philadelphia's oldest textile mills.  Henry Whitaker, an immigrant from England, founded a mill first in England in 1796, then on the Hudson river in 1809, and finally in 1813 he set up the Cedar Grove mills on the Tacony Creek.  After his two sons, Robert and William, ran the operations for a few years, they sold out to a cousin, William Whitaker, who continued the business as William Whitaker & Sons from 1822 until 1878; the business continued in the family until 1946.  The Cedar Grove mills specialized in producting  mattress ticking by the 1840s, and woolen blankets for the army during the Civil War; thereafter, the company expanded into carpet manufacturing and purchased the Tremont Carpet Mills in Frankford.

Joseph Bancroft, Papers [size and years] is a smaller collection, but portrays company business at the Rockdale, Delaware cotton manufacturing works near Wilmington from 1831 to 1865, when Bancroft formed a partnership with his sons that continued for the next century.  The Joseph Bancroft, Letterbook, 1833-1839, covers various aspects of equipment purchases and installation, importation of cotton and shipments of finished bales of cotton to customers.  Inbound Letters, 1832-1851, and Day Books, covering years to the Civil War, outline the extent of cloth orders from Philadelphia and New York markets, and the growth of the firm during the Civil War. [For post-war manufacturing see Eddystone Manufacturing Company, Records, 1877-1959]

The Du Planty, McCall & Company Records, 1813-1844 (.5 linear ft.)  show how merchants, manufacturers, and financiers came together in the cotton spinning and weaving business during the War of 1812; their contracts with the army; their stiff competition with cheaper British imports of textiles; and their subsequent bankruptcy in the Panic of 1819.  The collection includes orders for machinery and yarn; documents about the construction of the mill, employment of bleachers and dyers; recruitment of French workers; room and board payments of workers (1815 only); and lists of occupations and wages for work done in the mill.  This mill was leased in 1843 to A. W. Adams & Company, and became known as the Henry Clay Mill thereafter.  See "Commerce" and "Eleuthera Bradford Du Pont Collection, 1799-1834".

Antietam Woolen Manufacturing Company, 1814-1843 (mostly 1814-1828), of Funkstown and Hagerstown, Maryland, contains bills, orders, accounts, and inventories, wages and work rules, and reflections on British competition.  There is not a continuous run of daybooks and record books for the firm, but a valuable picture of starting up business during the War of 1812, when blockades and embargoes gave an impetus to domestic manufacturing, is included in this collection.  Shareholders were probably local farmers who wished to fund mills and markets for their wool.  See also Hagley's holdings for Fisher & Gougher.

The Simpson & Eddyston records include accounts with farmers, factory day books, and memo books on factory production of cotton during the 1820s to 1850s.

Blockley Cotton Factory, 1819-1848 (mostly 1819-1837, when the Panic hit) [size]was established in West Philadelphia.  Researchers should supplement the materials with the more extensive holdings of Manuel Eyre, the factory's founder, housed at Hagley, HSP, and the Atheneum.     The Granite Manufacturing Company of Maryland, Minute Book, 1844-1861 shows the operations of a cotton factory on the Patapsco River across from the famous Ellicott flour mills.  The Granite Company lasted until a fire destroyed the buildings in 1868.

Prominent among early cotton manufacturers was the Phillips family, originally wholesalers in Philadelphia during the early and mid-eighteenth century.  The Phillips Family Business Records, 1793-1838 (6 vols.) are a mixture of commecial and manufacturing history over five generations.  (see “Commerce” above)  Fourth Generation John smith Phillips (1800-1876) formed various partnerships to refine suger, operate a putting out business in cotton manufacturing, and with his brother-in-law, David Lewis, and a cotton-weaving mill in 1825.  As Lewis Phillips & Co., the mill grew to 200 power looms.  A Day Book of Lewis, Phillips, and Co. (1825-1830), shows work at the cotton-weaving mill at Rockdale, Pennsylvania, and refers on occasion to the cotton mill held in Holmesburg that Lewis owned prior to the partnership with Phillips.  Included are documents about the construction of the mill, purchases of raw materials, shipment of finished cloth (sheeting, tick, calico, shirting, and other fabrics).   See also "Commerce" for the more extensive details of Phillips family trade and manufactures.  Related to the Phillips Family Business Records are the John Smith Phillips, Records, 1800-1856  cover operations of a cotton weaving mill in Holmesburg, Pennsylvania.  In 1835 the company moved operations to the Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia.  

The Rockland Manufacturing Company Records, 1825-1856 (440 items) detail the operations of a cotton and woolen cloth making enterprise north of Wilmington, Delaware, especially the hiring and payment of wages to scores of men and women in 1848, and the lists of stockholders and creditors to the company.  Put under the direction of Alfred V. du Pont in 1846, the company then went bankrupt in 1848-49, and subsequently was sold to paper manufacturers associated with the du Ponts.

            Scholars will want to examine the accounts and correspondence of commission merchants and retailers [see Commerce above] for related themes of cotton and sheep importation, perceptions about the effects of manufactures on commerce, links to other American regions and foreign ports, methods of brokering and transporting southern cotton (e.g., J. W. Bacon & Co., Records), and for West Indies cotton and textiles trade.  Many commercial records (e.g., Joseph Shipley, Papers; Masters & Markoe, Records, 1793-1807; William Phillips, Account Book; Lewis, Phillips, & Co., Day Book, 1825-1830, for the Rockdale cotton factory) illustrate important connections to the cotton trade with Europe and perceptions about the Delaware River Valley's sectional relationship with southern cotton trade during the 1830s.   The John Brown Papers, 1781-1784, illustrate the trade in calicoes and linen between Philadelphia and France in the immediate post-Revolutionary years.   The Andrew Clow & Company, 1784-1835 materials, as well as those of Thomas Astley and David Cay, both linked to Clow, contain hundreds of items demonstrating the importation of calico, chintz, sheeting, worsted, and other fabrics from a variety of foreign ports.   See also references to cotton shipments and manufacture in the Du Planty & McCall Records, and the Jaret Pratt & Son Records [detailed elsewhere].

The Manuel Eyre, Business Papers, 1796-1815 (332 items), and Shipping Papers, 1801-1803 (322 items), and Business Papers, 1796-1837 (58 items), show that the varied activities of a prominent Philadelphia Quaker merchant after the Revolution had shipping interests in textiles to far-flung ports.  Eyre's papers are scattered in ten separately filed boxes and files at Hagley, all of which are indexed in the manuscript reading room guides.  Additional materials are located at HSP and the Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania.

See also Agriculture and Mills for further connections.

            Holdings related to textiles manufacturing include numerous pamphlets and government documents that are listed in the card catalogues at both the Soda House and the Library.  Numerous sources on Jefferson's embargoes of 1807-09, the role of banks in the Delaware River Valley, economic up- and downturns, the fortunes of individual entrepreneurs and failures of others, legal and real estate transactions resulting from transformed or failed manufactures, promotional appeals to legislatures, and tracts about technological and livestock improvement yield fruitful connections to the manuscript materials.

Researchers investigating textiles will want to peruse the many dozens of illustrated catalogues of antebellum manufacturers and retailers, as well as the early nineteenth-century engravings held at Hagley.  Speeches and legislative enactments regarding cotton, hemp, sugar, and numerous other commodities related to early manufacturing, scores of which are housed at Hagley, also link the manscript records to a wider context.

B.                 Flour Mills

            Of the many kinds of mills that farmers and entrepreneurs established in the region, grist mills dominate in the records, as they did the late-colonial and early national landscape.  

            The Thomas Lea family developed one of the greatest flour milling concerns in the Brandywine River