Scope and arrangement
The Mercantile collection is arranged in two series:
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- Call number
- MssCol 24608
- Physical description
- 3.06 linear feet (7 boxes, 1 oversize folder)
- Language
- English; Includes items in Dutch, French, German, and Spanish.
- Preferred Citation
- Mercantile collection, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library
- Repository
- Manuscripts and Archives Division
- Access to materials
- Request an in-person research appointment.
The Mercantile Collection, 1726-1950, is a synthetic collection documenting mercantile and other business activities from the early-17th to the mid-20th centuries, especially in the northeastern United States. It consists of papers and records created by persons, firms, and companies engaged chiefly in trade, finance, insurance, mining, railroad management, shipping, and whaling. A few items pertain to manufacturing and real estate. Transatlantic commerce in the colonial and early-national period, and the early railroad industry in America, are strongly represented. Notable material includes the assorted papers of New York City and Philadelphia merchants, among them members of the Pemberton family of Philadelphia; Vice-Admiralty court proceedings; and the incomplete ledger of an 18th-century New York City druggist.
Administrative information
Source of acquisition
The Mercantile Collection was compiled over time from various purchases and donations made in the late-19th and 20th centuries, including transfers from the Duyckinck Collection, the Emmet Collection, the Ford Collection, the Sabin Collection and the Thomas J. Taylor Collection.
Revision History
Revised by Susan P. Waide (2018-07-11)
Processing information
The collection received an accession-level description in 1986. In 2017-2018 a number of small collections were removed for separate description and access, and the main finding aid was revised. The collection's original arrangement in two series was retained.
Key terms
Names
Subjects
- Banks and banking -- United States
- Insurance -- United States
- International trade
- Mercantile system
- Merchants -- Great Britain
- Merchants -- United States
- Mining corporations
- Pharmacy -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 18th century
- Privateering
- Prize law -- Great Britain
- Railroads -- Cuba
- Railroads -- United States
- Real property -- United States
- Shipping -- United States
- Whaling
Places
- New York (N.Y.) -- Commerce
- Philadelphia (Pa.) -- Commerce
- United States -- Commerce
- United States -- History -- 1783-1865
- United States -- History -- 1865-
- United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
- United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783
Occupations
Material types
Using the collection
Location
Manuscripts and Archives DivisionStephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328