Scope and Contents The Brick Industry Collection contains booklets, photographs, certificates, and correspondence that provide insight on the manufacturing, distribution, and sale of bricks from the 1880s into the early 20th century. Many of the materials are from the local Hydraulic-Press Brick Company of St. Louis, a prominent business founded in 1868 and later owned by Henry W. Eliot, T.S. Eliot’s father. The company is known for its use and development of the hydraulic press, which allowed for the mass...

Scope and Contents

This collection contains 4 business letters from 1842 sent to Elisha Riggs, a prominent businessman and banker in New York known for founding the Riggs National Bank. The letters are sent from local St. Louis merchants, business agents, and attorneys communicating with Riggs on matters related to banking, credit, and business in the local area.

Scope and Contents The Fusz and Backer Collection contains correspondence, financial records, legal records, reports, and other company records for the Merrimac Silver Mining Company from the late 1870s until the early 20th century. The company operated in Tucson, Arizona, but was owned by Louis Fusz and George Backer of St. Louis, two prominent businessmen who were also heavily involved in the local flour business. Notable in the collection are the correspondence in the 1880s from William K. Meade, who acted...

Scope and Contents The collection contains over 80 letters, telegrams, bills and invoices from 1915-1917—primarily between the Ginocchio-Jones Fruit Company, a local Missouri produce company, and the George F. Johnston Company, a grape producer in California. The records provide insight into the day-to-day business exchanges concerning the quality and distribution of produce over long distances. Notable are the telegrams and railway documents, which reveal how the development of certain communication and...

Scope and Contents The six volumes in this collection contain hand-written "credit reports" compiled by St. Louis area correspondents or reporters for the R. G. Dun Company from the early 1840s to the mid 1880s. These correspondents would usually file a report twice a year about numerous individual businesses in St. Louis (and other cities) to record information on the condition of each business. The reports would also be sent to the Dun Company's office in New York City.  An entry on a particular business...