Effinger & Aiken account books, 1895-1920

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Summary

Creator:
Effinger & Aiken (Baltimore, Md.)
Abstract:
The wholesale firm of Effinger & Aiken, located in Baltimore, Maryland, supplied consumer goods to stores in cities and rural towns from Maryland to Florida during the early 1900s. The collection includes eight business account books of Effinger & Aiken together with roughly 350 related business correspondence and papers. The account books document the firm's sale and shipping of goods such as crockery, glassware, wooden items, hardware, tools, and building materials throughout the southern Atlantic states. Each of two leather-bound ledgers begins with an alphabetical index listing the customer and internal accounts recorded within the ledger and their corresponding page numbers. The related business correspondence and papers, which chiefly document the firm's difficulties with debt collection, are loosely inserted in these ledgers near the associated customer accounts. Four cloth-bound daybooks record customer names with itemized purchase and/or payment transactions each day. The daybook with entries from 1895 to 1896 most likely does not pertain to the transactions of Effinger & Aiken. One small, cloth-bound account book records, in tabular form, amounts "Collect," "Cash," "Credit," and "Wholesale" for each day of the month from June 1905 to July 1920; and another small, cloth-bound account book records daily collections from 1906 to 1907.
Extent:
3 Linear Feet
358 Items
Language:
Material in English
Collection ID:
RL.00354

Background

Scope and content:

The collection includes eight business account books of Effinger & Aiken, a wholesale firm located in Baltimore, Maryland, together with roughly 350 related business correspondence and papers. The account books document the firm's sale and shipping of goods such as crockery, glassware, wooden items, hardware, tools, and building materials throughout the southern Atlantic states. Each of two leather-bound ledgers begins with an alphabetical index listing the customer and internal accounts recorded within the ledger and their corresponding page numbers. The related business correspondence and papers, which chiefly document the firm's difficulties with debt collection, are loosely inserted in these ledgers near the associated customer accounts. Four cloth-bound daybooks record customer names with itemized purchase and/or payment transactions each day. The daybook with entries from 1895 to 1896 most likely does not pertain to the transactions of Effinger & Aiken. One small, cloth-bound account book records, in tabular form, amounts "Collect," "Cash," "Credit," and "Wholesale" for each day of the month from June 1905 to July 1920; and another small, cloth-bound account book records daily collections from 1906 to 1907.

Biographical / historical:

The wholesale firm of Effinger & Aiken (partners Charles H. Effinger and George B. Aiken), located in Baltimore, Maryland, supplied consumer goods to hundreds of hardware, grocery, drug, and general goods stores in cities and rural towns in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida during the early 1900s. Several traveling salesmen represented the firm; and goods such as cutlery, crockery, glassware, wooden items, hardware, tools, rope, saddles, guns and ammunition, fishing and hunting equipment, wagon wheels and axels, farm equipment, and building materials generally were shipped by railroad freight.

The firm's beginning and ending dates of operation are unclear. However, the R.L. Polk & Co's Baltimore City Directory for 1899 lists Effinger as a partner in Ramsey & Effinger, a firm specializing in china, glassware, and house furnishing goods; and the Federal Reporter, Volume 184 indicates that on February 9, 1909, the partnership of Effinger & Aiken and each partner individually were adjudicated bankrupts.

Acquisition information:
The Effinger Aiken Account Books were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a purchase in 2007.
Processing information:

Processed by Danielle Moore, July 2010

Encoded by Danielle Moore, July 2010

Accession 2007-0091 is described in this finding aid.

Physical location:
For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

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Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection.

All or portions of this collection may be housed off-site in Duke University's Library Service Center. The library may require up to 48 hours to retrieve these materials for research use.

Please contact Research Services staff before visiting the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library to use this collection.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Effinger & Aiken Account Books, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University