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Predecessors of the Commercial Drummer in the Old South
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012
Extract
The commercial drummer seems to have occupied an important place in English trade for some time before his services were widely employed in this country. An article in Hunt's Merchants' Magazine in 1839 called attention to this situation and suggested that American business men were missing a real opportunity in not adopting similar methods. English drummers who called on the country trade had already acquired the stock characteristics that Americans only at a later date recognized as belonging to the occupation — the sample case as a badge of identification, together with a thorough grasp of the latest scandal for the entertainment of customers.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1947
References
1 Stimson, A. L., “Commercial Travellers,” Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, vol. i (July, 1839), pp. 37–41Google Scholar.
A Guggenheim Fellowship and additional aid from the University of Missouri Research Council made possible the collection of the material for this article.
2 Jones, J. B. (pen name, Luke Shortfield), The Western Merchant (Philadelphia, 1849), p. 168Google Scholar. See also “Loss and Gain of Drumming for Trade,” Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, vol. xxxii (Mar., 1855), pp. 389–390Google Scholar.
3 The peddler has been discussed by the writer in Bulletin of the Business Historical Society, vol. xix, no. 2 (Apr., 1945), pp. 35–59Google Scholar.
4 Credit Rating Book of North Carolina Firms for trips made in 1846 and 1849, and letter of Jan. 13, 1850; Peter Mallett Papers, 1849–88 (Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina).
5 Letter of June 10, 1847, John W. Ellis Papers, 1842–61 (Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina).
6 Letter of May 23, 1834, John and Philip J. Winn Collection, 1780–1892 (Duke University Library).
7 Letter of Apr. 4, 1835, Letter Book, 1834–37, of William M. Shute (Alabama Department of Archives and History).
8 Letters of Oct. 22, Nov. 14, and Dec. 2, 1839, and Apr. 21, 1841, Crommelin Papers (Alabama Department of Archives and History).
9 A series of letters from 1836 through 1839 cover the history of this wholesale house, the Bryan Papers, 1704–1929 (Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina).
10 A series of letters cover this aspect of the firm's operation, in the Hildeburn & Woolworth Letter Book, 1815–18 (Historical Society of Pennsylvania).
11 Letters, Sept. through Nov., 1847, John W. Ellis Papers, 1842–61.
12 Letters, Dec. 1, 1834, and Jan. 16, 1836, Letterbook, 1834–37, of William M. Shute.
13 Letter of April 9, 1846, H. B. Eilers' Letter Book, 1846–50 (Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina).
14 “Plain Talk to Merchants,” article from Cotton Plant in Salisbury, North Carolina, Carolina Watchman, Apr. 14,1853.
15 Story from Potter's Spirit of the Times in Huntsville, Alabama, Southern Advocate, Mar. 5, 1857. The source of the story indicates a northern origin.
16 Alabama Journal, Dec. 21,1850.
17 Act of December 15, 1859, Acts of the General Assembly of Georgia for 1859.
18 The debate was reported in the New Orleans Daily Crescent, Mar. 5, 1860.