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Cage 15
Business Records, 1865-1925.

The miscellaneous account books which comprise this collection of business records were acquired by the Washington State University Library from various sources over a forty year period. Most items can be identified by type of business, place, or date, but the names of the small firms and proprietorships whose operations are recorded are not fully clear. Accordingly, the records cannot be treated in the same manner as most manuscript materials which arc identified by creator, but require description according to content.

To some degree, these items are more properly regarded an three-dimensional museum objects than as manuscripts. That is to say, their form is of more interest than their contents. Nevertheless the records are not simply surviving specimens of l9th century bookkeeping, but also contain documentation of historic matters. This documentation is not simply of the small businesses which created the records, but, in some cases, of the communities in which they were located. For instance, the records of an unidentified general merchant in Vancouver, Washington contains many accounts with military personnel and may give some idea of the way of life among the professional military in the 1870s. In another case, the records of a grain dealer on the Snake River in Southeastern Washington contain actual documentation of events in the wheat trade which are otherwise little documented, despite the easy availability of gross statistical data about this trade.

The material was processed by Lawrence Stark, February and March 1975.

ARRANGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION

The Business Record Collection consists of unidentified or partially identified journals, cash books, ledgers, inventories and other account books kept by general merchants, farmers, grain buyers, saloonkeepers, a hardware merchant, a hotel operator, a farm machinery dealer, and a laundry operator. These businesses were at various locations within the state of Washington, although some appear to be from locales outside this region.

CONTAINER LIST

Container	Description	# of Items
General Merchants
1	Ledger, 1865-1867. Place unknown, but suggestive of frontier south or west.	1 vol.
2-11	Journals and ledgers, 1868-1880. Vancouver, Washington.	11 vols.
	Sales Journal, 1896-1898. Lippitt Brothers, Colfax.	1 vol.
12	Inventory, 1891. Colfax.	1 vol.
Farmers
13	Personal accounts, 1877-1896. Pullman (includes records kept while working as teacher and laborer in Wisconsin, 1873-1879).	1 vol.
14-15	Journal and ledger/payroll, 1879; 1891-1895. Colfax.	2 vols.
Chain Buyer
16	Sales and consignment record, 1912-1913. Albion.	1 vol.
Grain Buyer / Farm Machinery Buyer
17-19	Journals, 1881-1885. Colfax, Moscow, and points on the Snake Liver (probably local manager for Knapp, Burrell & Co., Walla Walla).	3 vols.
Hardware Merchant
20	Journal, 1914-1915. Dayton.	1 vol.
Saloonkeepers
21-28	Ledgers (4), Journal (1), and Bar Tabs (3), 1900-1905. Spokane.	9 vols.
29	Ledger, 1884-1891. Vancouver, Washington (card parlor and billiard hall).	1 vol.
Hotel Operator
30-33	Journals, 1891-1694. Vancouver, Washington.	4 vols.
Laundry
34	Journal, 1924-1915. Dayton.	1 vol.