R. G.
Dun & Co. July 1900
Courtesy
of Doug Buck, who loaned me the book.
(some of these images are up to 500 KB)
Founded in 1841 by Lewis Tappan, the Mercantile Agency - later known as R. G. Dun & Co. - was the first commercial reporting agency in America and dominated the field well into the twentieth century.
The sources of the company's evaluations were its local correspondents who prepared credit reports on businessmen and women. By the early 1850s, the firm employed 2,000 correspondents throughout the U.S. and Canada. At least twice a year, credit reports were sent to Dun's New York City office where they were entered in large ledger books, arranged by state and county.
R. G. Dun was incorporated by his grandson in 1859: employees included Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S Grant, Grover Cleveland and William McKinley. Its subscribers grew from 7,000 in the 1870s to 40,000 in the 1880s. By 1900 its reports covered over a million US businesses. In 1933 Dun merged with The Bradstreet Companies (a competitor founded in 1849).
We have posted the Nova Scotia section only
For a great map
of Nova Scotian Counties - visit http://www.gov.ns.ca/snsmr/muns/info/mapping/counties.stm
Click on the County of your
choice and the link will take you to a map of the County.
