Collections of Billheads: Websites & Books

Websites:

The John Johnson Collection

Roscommon, Ireland

Rhode Island

Norfolk, Virginia

Chesapeake City, Maryland

Am Baile

Maryland

Sacramento

Glendale, Montana

Central Pacific RR

Books:
Ely Billheads
By Pamela Blakeman, Blakeman, Ely Society, Ely Society
Published by Ely Society, 1984

Bought of: Nineteenth-century Sheffield Through Its Billheads & Related Documents
By Mary Chesworth
Published by Sheffield City Libraries, 1984

The Signboards of Old London Shops: A Review of the Shop Signs Employed by the London Tradesmen During the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries
By Ambrose Heal
Published by B. T. Batsford, 1947

Some American Billheads from the Collection of Bella C. Landauer at the New-York Historical Society
By Bella Clara Landauer, New-York Historical Society, New-York Historical Society
Published by Priv. issued, 1949

Accounts Rendered: Some Pembrokeshire Merchants' and Shopkeepers' Billheads from the 19th and Earlier 20th Centuries
By Jim McBrearty
Published by Pembrokeshire Publicity Service, 1987

Pictorial Billheads: A Portfolio of Old St. Louis Buildings.
Published by Missouri Historical Society, 1949

Wm. Frost Mobley Presents a Visual History of Trades and Professions: A Unique Collection of Advertising Trade Cards, Broadsides, Business Stationery, Etc. Portraying the Social, Cultural, Commercial and Professional History of Society
By William Frost Mobley
Published by W.F. Mobley, 1981

Billheads & Broadsides: Job Printing in the 19th-century Seaport
By Stephen O. Saxe, N.Y. South Street Seaport Museum (New York, Irene Tichenor, Wendy Shadwell, Elliot Willensky, South Street Seaport Museum (New York, N.Y.), Ginna Johnson Scarry, Kate Gordon
Published by South Street Seaport Museum, 1985

The John Johnson Collection: Catalogue of an Exhibition
By Bodleian Library
Published by Bodleian Library, 1971

A Nation of Shopkeepers: Trade Ephemera from 1654 to the 1860s in the John Johnson Collection
By Bodleian Library Staff, Julie Anne Lambert
Published by Bodleian Library, 2001

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Baking Powder Billheads

In 1843 the first modern version of baking powder was discovered and manufactured by Alfred Bird, a British chemist. In 1846, Justus Von Liebig in Germany experiments with yeast made from sodium bicarbonate and hydrochloric acid with explosive results. In 1885, Eben Horsford and George Wilson manufacture chemicals which eventually became the Rumford Chemical Works. Horsford formulated and patented Rumford Baking Powder, the first calcium phopshate baking powder. In 1889, William Wright and chemist George Rew developed a double-action baking powder marketed under the name Calumet Baking Powder. Below find some examples of baking powder billheads.

Billhead of the Month: Schmit Bros trunks Oshkosh WI

I picked up this Schmit Brothers billhead recently in Eau Claire. I currently have it for sale on ebay right now. It is a nice triple graphic billhead. Here is my ebay write up: 1895 billhead for The Schmit Brothers Trunk Company manufacturers of trunks, traveling bags and valises of Oshkosh Wisconsin. Great header graphics with three images. Left side is the firm’s mill at Summit Lake, middle is the firm’s factory and left side is the firm’s warehouse. Billhead has creases. Peter Schmit was born in 1840 in Prussia. He emigrated to the U.S. in June 1854 and located inRacine WI. He was engaged in farming until 1861 when he enlisted in Company D, 6th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He engaged in the battles at Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, Mine Run, Bull Run, Gettysburg, Atlanta, Macon, and Savannah. He was mustered out in June 1865. He came back to Racine and kept a hotel until 1866 when he joined his brother Henry’s trunk business. Henry had established the bus...

Newest edition to my collection - Widdicomb Furniture Co.

Lately, I can't help but buy some U.S. letterheads and billheads. I have an affinity for billheads / letterheads / receipts from the 1870s. Here is a recent purchase for the Widdicomb Furniture Co. of Grand Rapids Michigan. For 145 years, the Widdicomb name has been recognized in the furniture world. The earliest Widdicomb company was organized in 1857, by George Widdicomb, a British trained cabinet maker, employing 12 men, plus his four sons Harry, William, George Jr., and John. Except during the Civil War, a Widdicomb furniture firm was run by the family until 1916. The John Widdicomb Co. was founded in 1897 when John left the parent company to form his own firm. Though he died in 1910, that firm continued under his name until the 1990’s, and purchased the title of the original company in the 1970’s.

THE EPHEMERA OF BUSINESS

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