Inventory of the Effinger & Aiken Account Books, 1895-1920

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.

Descriptive Summary

Repository: David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University
Creator: Effinger & Aiken (Baltimore, Md.)
Title: Effinger & Aiken Account Books, 1895-1920
Language of Material: English
Extent: 3 Linear Feet, 358 Items
Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

Series Quick Links

Effinger & Aiken Account Books, 1895-1920

Collection Overview

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.

Administrative Information

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Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

However, collection may contain materials to which the Acknowledgment of Legal Responsibilities and Privacy Rights form applies. Patrons must sign this form before using this collection.

Also, all or portions of this collection may be housed off-site in Duke University's Library Service Center. Consequently, there may be a 24-hour delay in obtaining these materials.

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

Use Restrictions

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.

Contents of the Collection

Browse List of Series

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Effinger & Aiken Account Books, 1895-1920

(5 boxes)

Ledger, 1906-1908

Box 1

Ledger, 1908-1911

Box 2

Daybook, 1895-1896

Box 3

Daybook, 1900

Box 3

Daybook, 1901-1902

Box 4

Daybook, 1902-1904

Box 5

Account book, 1905-1920

Box 5

Account book, 1906-1907

Box 5

Historical Note

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.