The trade papers, 1854 and 1858

Houses of Charleston, 1854–1858

179 businesses, from 194 advertisements and notices in two Southern commercial papers — each with its trade, its address and, for many, its partners, as the firm itself had them printed.

178cards and notices, 1854
16cards, 1858
63naming the partners
8found in both years

A listing proves a year, not a span. A house in the 1854 book and the 1858 Review was there in 1854 and in 1858. The years between are not evidenced here, and nothing on this page should be read as saying the firm traded through them.

The sources

1854. The Southern Business Directory and General Commercial Advertiser — Charleston: printed by James, Williams & Gitsinger, 1854. A commercial gazetteer of the Southern states, sold by the page to advertisers. Its Charleston chapter (pp. 323–374) is display advertising: a card gives the firm, its trade, its address and often its partners. Fifty-two pages name Charleston.

1858. De Bow's Review — New Orleans: J. D. B. De Bow, 1858. A monthly of Southern commerce and politics. A Charleston business appears where it bought a card in the Review's business directory or is named as a firm's local agent; the same card recurs issue to issue.

How these were read. By hand, page by page, from the scanned text; every firm was then checked back against the page it cites, and a card whose wording could not be found on its own page was not kept. Where the scanner plainly dropped a letter — G. S. OOK for the daguerreotypist Cook — the reading is given and the printed form shown beside it.

Found in both 1854 and 1858

All houses, A to Z