Dear Folks,

I have added a transcription of merchant records from 1750-1865 to my web
site presentation, to provide data that some of you may find useful for
comparative analysis purposes.

As part of my dissertation study, entitled "Consuming Mosaics: Mass-
Produced Goods and Contours of Choice in the Upper Potomac Region," I
examined local store records for purchases of housewares, including
imported and domestically-produced ceramics. A lengthy collection of
transcriptions provides a sample of merchant’s accounts, as recorded in
daybooks, ledgers, and account books for stores located in the Upper
Potomac and northern Shenandoah region in the period of 1750-1865. For the
purpose of this study, I defined this region as the area currently
encompassed by: Berkeley, Hampshire, Hardy, Jefferson and Morgan counties
in West Virginia; Clarke, Fauquier, Frederick, Loudoun, Prince William,
Shenandoah, and Warren counties in Virginia; and Allegany and Washington
counties in western Maryland.

Relevant sales transactions from these records involving housewares are
itemized in this transcription, and are set forth in a manner that closely
approximates the way the store clerks wrote them down.  These relevant
housewares include ceramic food wares (e.g., crocks, cups, mugs, saucers,
plates, and dishes), glass wares (e.g., tumblers, bottles, and wine
glasses), tea sets and kettles, coffee sets and pots, sets of table
utensils (knives, forks and spoons), and ceramic housewares (e.g., chamber
pots).  Each customer listed likely purchased other items, such as
groceries, fabrics or hardware, along with these housewares, but those
other goods are not itemized in my transcription.

I examined a total of approximately 5,592 pages of daybooks, ledgers and
account books for 20 stores that were located in the region of my survey
at some point during the period of 1750-1865.  These accounting records
contained an approximate total of 2,182 sales transactions specifically
involving housewares (as defined above), out of approximately 124,791
total sales transactions of all types.  I define a "sales transaction" for
this purpose as each one-line entry in a daybook or ledger that reflected
the purchase of one or more products by a customer.

A link to these transciptions (which are in Adobe Acrobat format) is
available under the heading of "Consuming Mosaics: Transcriptions of Store
Records" at:

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/users/fennell/highland/harper/loudoun.html

So, if you're into this sort of thing, happy reading. If you are not,
well, run the other way.

Best wishes,
Chris Fennell