ma170 G. & C. Merriam Company Collection Finding Aid Finding aid prepared by Zoe Kiefer, AC 2005. Amherst College Archives and Special Collections

Amherst, MA

Finding aid encoded in NoteTab Pro. Encoded by Peter A. Nelson, Assistant Archivist. 2007-08-27 Finding aid written in English Amherst College Archives and Special Collections G. & C. Merriam Company Collection Finding Aid Zoe Kiefer, AC 2005, Student Assistant 2004 Jul Finding aid prepared by: Zoe Kiefer, AC 2005, Student Assistant Mariah Sakrejda-Leavitt, Archives Assistant Processed: 2004 July; 2006 April By: Zoe Kiefer, AC 2005, Student Assistant Mariah Sakrejda-Leavitt, Archives Assistant Edited by: Barbara Trippel Simmons, Processing Archivist Listed by: Mariah Sakrejda-Leavitt, Archives Assistant

Collection Overview G. & C. Merriam Company G. & C. Merriam Company Collection 1833-1852 1 half archives box (0.25 linear ft.) English Amherst College Archives and Special Collections Business correspondence (30 items) written to George and Charles Merriam, booksellers in Springfield, Mass., 1833-1852, from people associated with Amherst College and the town of Amherst. Historical Note

Booksellers in Springfield, Massachusetts, George and Charles Merriam owned and operated a successful press that sold a variety of publications. The most well-known and popular of these was Webster's Dictionary, on which the Merriam brothers bought the copyright in 1845 from the firm J. S. & C. Adams, which had purchased it after Webster's death in 1843. Today the Company exists as Merriam-Webster; it continues to publish editions of Merriam-Webster's Dictionary.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The collection consists of 30 business letters written to George and Charles Merriam from 1833-1852. Letters are from people associated with Amherst College and the town of Amherst: J. L. H. Adams; Amherst College, Committee for the Sophomore Class; W. H. Beaman; Rev. L. Coleman; Simeon Colton; Edward Dickinson; N. S. Dickinson; George H. Gould; William S. Howland; William W. Hunt; H. B. Nims; William Randall Palmer; E. N. Stores; Martin A. Tinker; W. W. Whipple; and Samuel N. White.

Arrangement of the Collection

The collection is arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent.

Information on Use Terms of Access and Use

There is no restriction on access to the collection for research use. Particularly fragile items are restricted for preservation purposes.

Requests for permission to publish material from the collection should be directed to the Archives and Special Collections. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights.

Preferred Citation

Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:

[Identification of item], in G. & C. Merriam Co. Collection (Box #, Folder #), Amherst College Archives and Special Collections, Amherst College Library.

Additional Information Other Institutions Holding Related Material G. & C. Merriam Company Archives, General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Arts of the Book Collection, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Contains original woodcuts and engravings, microfilms, and photocopies of a set of proofs of the original dictionary illustrations. The G. & C. Merriam Company Manuscript Collection (1835-77) at the Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Connecticut. 1 1 Incoming Correspondence, A - C 1833 - 45 1 2 Incoming Correspondence, D - H 1836 - 52 1 3 Incoming Correspondence, N - P 1847 - 48 1 4 Incoming Correspondence, T - W 1839 - 45