Account books collection

The Accounts Book Collection is an artificial collection of account books and financial volumes, 1680-1925, relating to such occupations as: farmers, merchants, traders, millers, blacksmiths, lawyers, manufacturers, laborers, physicians, shoemakers, carpenters, tailors, and cigar makers. Materials relating to private organizations and businesses are also included. The collection focuses upon Connecticut and the New England region. These volumes are a compilation of purchases and gifts for several years (ca. 1927-1958).

Volumes in SERIES I and II frequently relate to the same individual(s) and/or corporate body. Cross-references are provided to link appropriate volumes in each series.

SERIES I, VOLUMES, 1680-1911, and SERIES II, OVERSIZED VOLUMES, 1706-1903, contain business accounts and financial records in bound form, including account books, daybooks, ledgers, journals, and cashbooks. The daily financial transactions of individuals and businesses are recorded in these volumes. An individual or corporate body may be represented by a single volume or by several volumes from the type noted above.

Among the earliest volumes is one attributed to William Alley (1680) who commanded theExpectation, a ship of the East India Company. Many of the volumes record the financial transactions of Connecticut citizens in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Accounts of farmers frequently record purchases of supplies and equipment while also documenting various other activities including the sale of produce, animals, crops, and other goods. Related transactions including the rental and lease of land, the hauling and transport of goods, and the fees for services such as masonry work, shoemaking, daily labor, weaving, carpentry, and other tasks are included

The financial transcations of merchants and shopkeepers detail the inventories of general stores, druggists, and store owners, in addition to recording the expenditure and receipt of cash transactions. The sale of a wide variety of goods, including meat, groceries, cloth, dry goods, shoes, hides, farm produce, wood, leather products, buttons, hats, and other items is recorded.

Several volumes which relate entirely or in part to shoemaking are located in the collection. Volumes for Leverett Allen, D.S. Barlow and Son, Elisha Bradley, Joseph and Reuben Bunnel, Simeon Chittenden, Asahel Clark, Abraham Cooper, Benjamin and Japhet Curtiss, Chandler Fay, William Fitch, Joel Morehouse, and Joseph Peck all contain records of shoemaking or shoe repair work performed as a business or as a supplement to farm work.

The volumes are frequently in poor condition with entries written in the daily course of business transactions, and thus not always legible.