Records of the Worshipful Company of Stationers
- Location: McKeldin Library
Location Code & Call Number: MCK PER M-FILM Z329.S79 S83 1985a - 1985 (115 microfilm reels)
Description
The Records of the Stationers' Company are well known as the single most important source for the history of the English book trade. Dating back to the sixteenth century, this remarkable archive has withstood the ravages of time, neglect, and war to provide a unique insight into the day-to-day workings of the printing and publishing world.
The entire archive spans from the 16th century to 1920, and is arranged into 12 Parts over 115 reels of microfilm:
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- Registers of printed books 'entry' and legal deposit 1554-1923
- Records relating to the membership of the company 1555-1922
- Minutes of the Court Assistants 1602: 1922
- Royal Charter of Incorporation: bylaws of the company: decreed & Ordinances 1557-1902
- Records relating to bequests, charities and pensions 1593-1920
- Records relating to the corporation's property 1674-1893
- Account book & records relating to the corporation's finances 1603-1920
- Stationer's school: charity committees 1858-1910
- The English Stick: 1603-1924
- Supplementary Material
- Books and Pamphlets
- Indexes
This microfilm edition of the entire archive up to 1920 supersedes an earlier microfilm of part of the Records to 1800. The expert editorship of the Company's archivist ensures that this will be the complete, definitive edition containing every document at Stationers' Hall that any researcher might want to see, properly organized and accompanied by a detailed and lucid guide. The edition is especially significant because of the extensive material it contains that has never been made generally available before including over 60 boxes of little-known unbound documents touching on every aspect of the Company's affairs fully sorted and indexed for the first time.
Also among the newly available material are:
- The nineteenth century volumes of the Entry Book of Copies recording permitted publication and copyright books and those legally deposited in copyright libraries
- The Company's grants and charters as well as their early bequest and pension lists
- The only known set of folio printed livery lists and the so-called Beadle's Book providing, along with other membership records, a wealth of biographical information on the printing and publishing community
Index/Guide
The print guide provides a general index which shows the arrangement of records, gives a reel-by-reel summary of available documents and an abbreviation guide. The start of a new reel is indicated in the Guide by the appearance in the margin of the symbol § followed by the appropriate reel number. In the case of items which have not been filmed this is noted in the description.A print guide is available detailing the materials and organization of each reel in MCKELDIN REFERENCE.
- MCK REF Z120.M94 1990 Guide
The Stationers' Company archive: an account of the records, 1554-1984
