William Appleton and Company records, 1840-1889 (inclusive) | WorldCat.org (original) (raw)

Summary:Bound volumes include two journals, 1841-1861; one ledger, 1841-1859; six invoice books, 1841-1865; nine letter books, 1841-1876; and checkbooks. The unbound papers are principally letters and accounts current from agents in various parts of the world: Augustine Heard & Company and Russell & Company, Canton; Wolcott, Bates & Company, Shanghai; Russell, Sturgis & Company and Peele, Hubble & Company, Manila; Martin Murray & Company, Bombay; and Baring Brothers, Liverpool and London. Cary & Company were their agents in New York, J. C. Burnham & Company represented them throughout the South, and Henry Mellus was agent for the company in California. The California trade runs back to the period before the Mexican War. The Company was represented by less well-known houses in Matanzas, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, and Antwerp. The firm was owner or part owner of many of the ships which it employed, and the accounts and letters of the captains of these ships form an appreciable portion of the papers. Sixteen volumes of diaries and letter books, 1813-1861, of William Appleton and other members of the Appleton-Lawrence family have been added to the collection