City Directories  Tags: methodology sociology history education social_sciences anthropology geography  

The following is a list, taken from American Directories through 1860 by Dorothea Spear, of a selection of subjects available for study in directories:

Academies, schools, colleges

Advertising

Agricultural implements

Almanacs

Architecture (views)

Artists

Banks

Birth records

Books

Booksellers

Cemeteries

Census figures

Charitable societies

China

Churches

City Government officials

Clocks

Cloths

Coaches and Carriages

Coinage

Daguerreotypes

Death records

Dentists

Distilleries

Doctors

Drugs

Dry Goods

Duties on imports

Dye stuffs

Elections

Engines

Engravers

Events, historical

Exports

Expresses

Factories

Fashions

Fire Insurance Companies

Hair dressing

Hats

Historical sketches of towns

Hospitals

Hotels

Institutions

Iron fences, decoration, etc.

Jewelry

Libraries

Lithographers

Lotteries

Magazines

Mails

Maps

Masonic Lodges

Mills

Ministers

Museums

Musical instruments

Newspapers

Packets

Partnerships

Population

Portrait painters

Postal rates

Printers

Publishers

Railroads

Reading Rooms

Societies

Silverware

Spectacles

Stages

Steamboats

Stoves

Streets

Taxes

Toys

Turnpikes

Type foundries

Watches

Wharves

Temple University Libraries provide local access to a large number of city directories, either on microfilm or online through Early American Imprints. As local histories, they are invaluable in providing social and business information which cannot be found anywhere else. It is the purpose of this guide to introduce city directories to faculty and students as primary research tools: the first part gives a brief introduction to the directories; part two, provides instructions for locating the directories; part three, provides numerous examples of how the directories are used in doing research.

The first separately printed directory in the United States was published in Philadelphia in October of 1785 by John MacPherson, and contained "An Alphabetical List of the Names and Places of Abode of the Inhabitants....for the City and Suburbs of Philadelphia". The second separately printed directory, also printed in Philadelphia, followed a few months later, in November of the same year, by Francis White; like its predecessor, it contained the names of the citizens, and their places of abode, but also their occupations. Very soon after, directories were published in New York and other "progressives cities" throughout the country; within a period of about 75 years a little less that 1650 directories were being published.

For researchers today, city directories can serve as local histories, where often no other histories exist, for tracing social and commercial changes in successive generations.

According to Spear, "In the early days a small directory was a means of communication and an aid to commerce between distant localities, as well as for reference in one's own area. It showed which trades were being followed and by what method they were advertised. The use of old directories today can yield a surprising amount of curious and diverse information which is fact rather than fiction. We not only can find a man long since forgotten and untraceable in other sources, but we can also derive clues to the former way of life of our cities and towns. We can learn of the most popular trades..." An exploration of a file of directories over the years will show quite conclusively the span of a city's business, social, and topographical growth" (pp. 7-10).

Williams states that "the newspaper records the history of the world day by day; the city directory marks its progress year by year. Take a set of directories of a city, and you can notice its growth or its failure to grow. You can trace the business history of its citizens, as well as the development of its institutions and varied interests" (pp. 10-11).

The description provided by the vendor, Primary Source Media, states that city directories "may contain property use data...more precise and accurate than information found in census data or on Sanborn Maps", and much else "from occupational data to environmental use of property." They are "among the most comprehensive sources of historical and personal data available. Their emphasis on ordinary people and the common-place event make them important in the study of American History and culture."

Most directories contain the following:

Addresses:

In early directories, house numbers were not given so addresses tended to be "quite general". Some directories included the addresses of people who had moved to other cities during the previous year. See information for city residents below.

Advertising, often with illustrations:

Additional information about advertisers was often placed in a file, kept at a public library or business establishment for reference, which served as an index of the best business interests in the city.

City and county officers:

Often including the organization of city departments, post office branches, parcel post zones and rates, churches and ministers, societies and institutions with officers, state officers and departments, and courts.

City residents:

Usually addresses of all men 20 years old or over, women who had a business, and widows who were occupants of the property listed, whether or not they owned the property. Eventually, all men 18 years old or older began to be included. They were usually listed by surname, followed by personal name or initials, occupation, employer, and home address. Until the middle of the 20th century, usually only single, working women, or widows were listed in directories.

Firms, and names of those doing business in the city:

Usually arranged alphabetically by type of business. Often a separate Business Directory section was included listing all business houses, individuals in business for themselves and professional men. an index to advertisers is often included.

Heads of families:

Usually, only information about the occupant of a property considered to be the head of the household was included.

Map:

A map included in an early directories was often the only easily available map of a locality.

Occupations:

Usually a key to the abbreviations of occupations is included in the directory.

Street directories:

Usually a complete list of streets giving house numbers at intersections: or an alphabetical list of halls, blocks, and buildings from which could be determined the street and number for an address in which only the building name is mentioned.

Print resources:

Association of North American Directory Publishers. (1965). Catalog of City, County and State Directories published in North America. New York, N. Y.: Association of North American Directory Publishers.

Burton, Robert E. (1956). City Directories in the United States, 1784-1820: A Bibliography with Historical Notes.  M.S. thesis, University of Michigan.

Spear, D. N. (1961). Bibliography of American Directories Through 1860. Worcester, Mass: American Antiquarian Society.

Remington, Gordon L.. (2006). Directories. In Szucs, L. D. (Ed.). The source : a guidebook to American genealogy, pp. 325-352. Provo, UT: Ancestry.

Williams, A. V. (1913). The Development and Growth of City Directories. Cincinnati, Ohio: The Williams Directory Co. Print.

Internet resources:

Barrow, William C. A brief history of city directory maps of Cleveland, Ohio.

Hinckley, Kathleen W. Skillbuilding: Analyzing City Directories.

Paramenter, Baraber M. Visualizing Urban History Using GIS.

Primary Source Microfilm. City Directories of the United States.

The RISD Museum. Using City Directories.

Toronto Public Library. Primary Sources - Directories.

Wisconsin Historical Society. Using City Directories to Research Old Buildings.