Scope and arrangement
The DuVivier & Co. records date from 1851 to 1935 (bulk dates: 1870 to 1920) and document the business activities of the importer and distributor of wine and spirits. The collection consists of account ledgers, operations journals, salesmen journals, and administrative files with correspondence and legal documents. While the collection represents the full scope of DuVivier & Co.'s business activities, obvious gaps in the records reveal that this collection is only a portion of the company's original records.
The collection documents the processes related to the storage, distribution, and sale of goods; the effect of laws on the import and distribution of alcohol; and the market for wine, spirits, and specialty goods in the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th century. While DuVivier's sales are represented throughout the collection, materials in each series list sales in different manners. In account books and salesman journals, sales are listed by customer name, while in operations ledgers, sales are listed under individual casks or shipments of products. Researchers can trace a product from its import, storage, bottling, pricing, sale, and delivery by working across the series.
DuVivier & Co.'s liquidation of their inventory in anticipation of the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment is well documented in Series IV through correspondence and inventories, as well as research files exploring alternative products to legally sell during Prohibition.
There is a small amount of material from the early 1930s created by Charles S. DuVivier, the son of DuVivier & Co.'s last owner, regarding metal depositing processes. Charles S. DuVivier's research into metal depositing was likely another attempt to revive DuVivier & Co.'s operations in a different industry, though it does not appear to have been successful.
The collection is in English and French.
The DuVivier & Co. records are arranged in five series:
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Series I contains checkbooks, ledgers, receipts, invoices, and order memoranda that document DuVivier & Co.'s income and expenses throughout the company's existence.
Checkbooks track DuVivier & Co.'s expenditures from 1906 to 1916 and contain registers, posted checks, and account balances. Some checkbooks also contain deposit slips, invoices, correspondence, and bank statements pasted into the binding. The register provides the date, check number, amount withdrawn, and a memo detailing the transaction while the posted check provides additional information such as the recipient's name. Occasionally there are withdrawal slips or promissory notes for small loans.
Ledgers include account books and daybooks. Account books usually contain an index at the beginning of the volume with entries appearing alphabetically by account or customer name, while daybooks list expenses and income chronologically. One early account book originates from Brugiere & DuVivier, the firm's earlier name. The ledgers were used to balance DuVivier & Co.'s revenue and expenses and contain entries for assets like bank accounts, sales, and merchandise; and expenditures such as duties, consignment, loans, and sundry expenses. There is one sundry ledger that relates to small expenditures like telephone bills, office supplies, and advertisements, as well as two ledgers that list sales only.
Along with the ledgers, this series holds a financial memoranda book, detailing discounts offered to clients, merchandise placed in collateral, and outstanding checks. Two customer indexes list customer names and addresses with references to account books that do not appear to correlate with those held in this collection. A sales file contains receipts, invoices, and order memoranda documenting customer orders as well as warehouse and manufacturing supplies purchased for the business just prior to its dissolution.
Arranged alphabetically by document type, with checkbooks and ledgers arranged chronologically. When available, spine titles of ledgers are noted in quotation marks.
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Series II documents the import, storage, bottling, and distribution operations of DuVivier & Co. with mixing formulas, inventories, merchandise delivery records, and journals. Operations journals contain entries arranged by product vintage or spirit type and list inventories of spirits, wine, and beer, with less frequent entries for bitters, pickled fruits and vegetables, olives, sardines, olive oil, vinegar, and prepared foods like tomato and cucumber sauces. Each page in an operations journal records a particular shipment of a product, the delivery date, and the subsequent sales with customer names listed. Some journals also list the formulas used in mixing and the costs of duties, shipping, storage, bottling, and freight for each product, with calculations for sales prices. One operations journal, as well as files for formulas and general operations, identify mixing and bottling operations by a unique identification number rather than by product shipment.
Arranged alphabetically by document type or subject. Journals are arranged chronologically, with spine titles noted in quotation marks when available.
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Salesman Journals documented sales calls, solicitations, and reconnaissance visits to liquor stores, grocers, taverns, restaurants, druggists, and tobacconists, showing the unique characteristics of markets for alcohol and specialty goods in North America during the mid-to-late 19th century. Each journal corresponds to an individual city, state, or region, and contains alphabetical entries for each establishment visited. Entries primarily list date of visit, product name and quantities sold, and method of payment. More detailed entries include the salesman's narrative descriptions of the premises, the proprietor, and his perceived character. Most of the journals include an index of customers and the salesman's impressions of the city, including its key industries, appearance, character, and population.
The journals vary in completeness, and for some regions, only portions of the journal are extant. Salesman journals for Cincinnati, O.H.; Louisville, K.Y.; Memphis, T.N.; Richmond and Petersburg, V.A.; and Newburgh, Nyack, and Yonkers, N.Y. are particularly detailed. It is unclear as to how DuVivier & Co. collected journals from individual salesmen, or why the journals were retained.
Arranged alphabetically by state or country name. For some regions, multiple states are listed in one journal.
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Administrative Files contain correspondence, legal documents, insurance statements, and product research that document DuVivier's business activities, primarily from 1903, when Charles L. DuVivier assumed ownership of the firm, to its dissolution in 1922.
The correspondence, in both French and English, documents business transactions of the New York office, especially the liquidation of DuVivier & Co.'s inventory in anticipation of the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment. A letterpress copybook belonging to Charles L. DuVivier contains letters to his father and the home office during business trips to France. Correspondents include remote employees, primarily Victor Fisher in France and Fulgence Nolan in Guttenberg, N.J.; importers; and companies DuVivier contracted for goods and services, including bankers John Munroe & Co. and Meacham-Buxton, a collections agency.
Legal documents originate from lawsuits about ownership of the company and bankruptcy filings. Product and supply inventories and other asset listings that detail the value of the company immediately preceding Prohibition are contained within the bankruptcy documents, as the inventories and listings were created for the court proceedings.
Product research includes inquiries into alternatives to alcoholic beverages like tea, coffee, and chicory as well as other possible business ventures using chemical or mechanical processes. Reference publications were kept by office staff and provide documentation of the larger alcohol bottling and distribution industry. This series also contains sample labels for DuVivier-imported wines, and blank stationery from the lower Manhattan office.
Arranged alphabetically by subject or document type.
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Charles S. DuVivier was the son of the Charles L. DuVivier. His files include correspondence and research on a Swedish method for aluminizing metals, which may have been related to an unsuccessful attempt to revive DuVivier & Co.'s operations in a different industry, and also include undated geography homework.