Business in the Civil War Era

Selected References

Compiled by Ellen Terrell
Business Reference Services
2011

This guide was compiled to accompany an exhibit mounted in the Business Reference Alcove of the Science and Business Reading Room of the Library of Congress in 2011 to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the beginning of the Civil War.

It represents a selection of the many resources in the Library of Congress that may be useful for the study of business and economic conditions at the time of the U.S. Civil War. It also includes suggested subject headings which interested researchers may select to link directly to our online catalog in order to search for additional materials on this topic.

If you have additional questions about this topic, please Ask A Librarian.

Banking & Insurance

Bankers directory and special list of selected lawyers. Chicago & New York, The Credit Co. Began in 1845. Annual.
LC Call Number: HG2431 .B4
LC Catalog Record: 01031254

Banking in the American South from the Age of Jackson to Reconstruction, by Larry Schweikart. Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, c. 1987. 367 p.
LC Call Number: HG2604 .S39 1987
LC Catalog Record: 87012784

State banking before the Civil War, by Davis R. Dewey and The Safety Fund Banking system in New York, 1829-1866, by Robert E. Chaddock. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1910. 388 p.
LC Call Number: HG2581 .D5
LC Catalog Record: 10036029
Online from the HathiTrust

Prices & Trade

Value of a dollar: colonial era to the Civil War, 1600-1865. by Scott Derks and Tony Smith. 1st ed., Millerton, N.Y. : Grey House Pub., 2005. 436 p.
LC Call Number: HB235.U6 D47 2005 Ref Desk
LC Catalog Record: 2006275331

Value of a dollar: prices and incomes in the United States, 1860-2009 by Scott Derks. 4th ed. Amenia, NY : Grey House Pub., 2009. 690 p.
LC Call Number: HB235.U6 D47 2009 BRS Ref Desk
Catalog Record: 2010286212
Limited search available from HathiTrust

Wholesale commodity prices in the United States, 1700-1861. by Arthur Harrison Cole. Published under the auspices of the International Scientific Committee on Price History. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University, 1938. 187 p.
LC Call Number: HB235.U6 C56
LC Catalog Record: 38008363

Commerce and navigation of the United States. Washington, 18?? - 66. Annual.
LC Call Number: HF105 .A2
LC Catalog Record: ca05001110

Note: title varies: 1855/56-1860/61, Report of the secretary ... transmitting a report from the register ... 1861/62-1862/63, Report of the secretary ... on the commerce and navigation ... 1863/64-1864/65, Report of the secretary ... transmitting a report of the register. See the Catalog Record for more information.

Gold and debt; an American hand-book of finance ..., by W. L. Fawcett. Chicago, S. C. Griggs and company, 1877. 270 p.
LC Call Number: Microfilm 15666 HG (Request in Microfilm Reading Room)
LC Catalog Record: 06036853
Available online from the HathiTrust

Includes "eighty tables and diagrams illustrative of the following subjects: the dollar and other units; paper money in the United States and Europe; gold and silver in the United States and Europe; suspensions of specie payments; the era of gold; values of the precious metals; the era of debt; the rise and fall of prices; also, a digest of the monetary laws of the United States."

Transportation & Communication

A History of travel in America. Indianapolis. The Bobbs-Merrill Company. [c1915]. 4 v.
LC Call Number: HE203 .D77
Microfilm number: Microfilm 61696 HE
LC Catalog Record: 12031875
Online from the HathiTrust

Low's railway directory. New York, E.R. Bennet & Co. New York, E. R. Bennet & co. [18 ]. Annual.
LC Call Number: HE2721 .L8
LC Catalog Record: 09032472

Wiring a continent: the history of the telegraph industry in the United States, 1832-1866. Robert Luther Thompson. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1947. 544 p.
LC Call Number: HE7775 .T5
LC Catalog Record: 47012502

The International cable code for general business matters. New York, H. Harvey. [1878]. 228 p.
LC Call Number: HE7676 .H327
LC Catalog Record: ca07004480

Manufacturing, Industry, & Agriculture

1860 Census Information. Compiled from the 8th Census.
Online from the U.S. Bureau of the Census web site

Includes data on Population, Agriculture and Manufactures of the United States in 1860 compiled from the original returns of the Eighth Census

Agriculture of the United States in 1860, compiled from the original returns of the eighth Census, under the direction of the Secretary of Interior, by Joseph C. G. Kennedy, Superintendent of Census. Washington : GPO, 1864. 292 p.
LC Call Number: HA201 1860 .B3
LC Catalog Record: 06044894
Online from the HathiTrust. May also be downloaded from the U.S. Census Bureau web site.

A 1973 reprint by Scholarly Resources (Wilmington, Del.) may also be requested from offsite storage using Call Number: S441 .U55 1860b FT MEADE. See the Catalog Record 72089066 for additional information.

De Bow's review; agricultural, commercial, industrial progress & resources. New Orleans,[etc.], 1846 - 1880. Monthly.
LC Call Number: HF1 .D2
LC Catalog Record: 22024369

Gross farm income and indices of farm production and prices in the United States, 1869-1937, , by Frederick Strauss. Washington, D.C., United States Dept. of Agriculture, 1940. 154 p.

LC Call Number: HD1753 1940j
LC Catalog Record: agr41000022 Available online from the HathiTrust

Manufactures of the United States in 1860
U.S. Census Office. 8th Census. 1860. Washington, Gov't print. off.,1865.
LC Call Number: HA201 .B2
LC Catalog Record: 07019246
Online from from the U.S. Census Bureau web site

Census Sources

1860 Census Information. Compiled from the 8th Census.
Online from the U.S. Bureau of the Census web site

Includes data on Population, Agriculture and Manufactures of the United States in 1860 compiled from the original returns of the Eighth Census

Agriculture of the United States in 1860, compiled from the original returns of the eighth Census, under the direction of the Secretary of Interior, by Joseph C. G. Kennedy, Superintendent of Census. Washington : GPO, 1864. 292 p.
LC Call Number: HA201 1860 .B3
LC Catalog Record: 06044894
Online from the HathiTrust. May also be downloaded from the U.S. Census Bureau web site.

A 1973 reprint by Scholarly Resources (Wilmington, Del.) may also be requested from offsite storage using Call Number: S441 .U55 1860b FT MEADE. See the Catalog Record 72089066 for additional information.

Manufactures of the United States in 1860
U.S. Census Office. 8th Census. 1860. Washington, Gov't print. off.,1865.
LC Call Number: HA201 .B2
LC Catalog Record: 07019246
Online from from the U.S. Census Bureau web site

Population of the United States in 1860; compiled from the original returns of the eighth census U.S. Census Office.
LC Call Number: HA201 1860 .B1
LC Catalog Record: 06044891
Online from from the U.S. Census Bureau web site

Maps & Photographs

Civil War Maps, 1861-1865
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/civil_war_maps/

Includes reconnaissance, sketch, and theater-of-war maps from the collections of the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Library of Virginia, including maps taken from diaries, scrapbooks, and manuscripts.

Hotchkiss Map Collection
http://memorty.loc.gov/ammem/collections/maps/hotchkiss/

The collection is made up of sketchbooks, manuscripts, and annotated printed maps made by or used by Major Jedediah Hotchkiss (1828-1899), a topographic engineer in the Confederate Army, Includes battle maps as well as other post-war maps with information about railroads, minerals and mining, geology and history.

Railroad Maps
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/rrhtml/rrhome.html

Collection includes progress report surveys for individual railroad lines, official government surveys, promotional maps, maps showing land grants and rights-of-way, and route guides published by commercial firms, reflecting the growth of travel and settlement as well as the development of industry and agriculture in the United States.

Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.lilj
http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/sets/72157625520211184/

Ambrotype and tintype photographs of Union and Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War.

Brady-Handy Collection
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/brhc/

Primarily Civil War and post-Civil War portraits, along with a small collection of Washington views.

Civil War Glass Negatives & Related Prints
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/cwp/

Approximately 7,000 views and portraits made during or immediately after the American Civil War.

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