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.
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.
These materials are loosely organized according to what type of business they derive from.
This collection is open for research use.
[Item Description]. Cage 15, Business Records. Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
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 are identified by creator, but require description according to content.
This collection was processed by Lawrence Stark in February and March 1975.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.