Manuscript Resources on Business History
This guide describes collections documenting business history in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC) at LSU. It includes the business papers of merchants; manufacturers; planters; factors; commission brokers; and lawyers. It also contains business records of stores; companies; plantations and plantation stores; banks; hotels and inns; restaurants and taverns; and blacksmiths and livery stables. There are also materials on cotton and sugar; national and international trade; and shipping, often by steamboat. Finally, there are materials relating to labor including information about wages, contracts, and conditions.
Formats represented in these collections include account books and ledgers; bills and receipts; business correspondence; and advertising. Most of the collections are from Louisiana and Mississippi, but there are also materials from other areas of the Lower Mississippi Valley. Several collections deal with business relations between the South and the Northeast, and include records of New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Connecticut firms.
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Exxon Mobil Corporation. ExxonMobil Baton Rouge historic collection, 1924-2016 (bulk 1950-1999). 9 linear ft., 1 manuscript volume. Location: 76:1-8; 104:-105:; OS:E. The collection consists of printed materials (1924-2016) created by or about Exxon Baton Rouge, its predecessors or divisions, and the oil industry, and photographs (bulk 1950-1999) related to the production of Exxon Baton Rouge’s and its predecessors’ in-house print media, especially the Baton Rouge Record. Photographic materials are arranged as they arrived from the corporation in two large divisions-one identified by the publication in which the images were used and the other by topic. Mss. 5030. Referenced in Guides: Business, Baton Rouge
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A. Bell and Company. Papers, 1835, 1836. 2 items. Location: Misc.:B. Cotton broker of New York City. Letters from factors at Petersburg, Virginia, and Fayetteville, North Carolina, regarding the cotton market and amount of cotton expected from Tennessee and North Alabama. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 2356. Referenced in Guides: Plantations, Business
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A. C. Skiles Lumber Company. Records, 1895-1942. 5 linear ft., 38 volumes. Location: 1:24-31. Retail lumber dealer in Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. Business records consist chiefly of correspondence with suppliers and customers and include bills, receipts, and printed items. Manuscript volumes include a letterpress copy book, ledgers, sales books, journals, cash books, an index, and day books. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 3143. Referenced in Guides: Business
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A. F. Cochran & Co. Letter, 1848 Mar. 10. 1 letter. Location: MISC:A. A. F. Cochran & Co. of New Orleans, La., writes Messrs. Silas Peirce & Co. of Boston, Mass., regarding the sale of wine and fruit in New Orleans. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 4039. Referenced in Guides: New Orleans to 1861, Business
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A. Ledoux and Company. Record book, 1856-1857. 1 volume (110 pages). Location: W:53. Plantation record book kept by Samuel Leigh and Lewis F. Pulliam, overseers of the sugar plantation owned by A. Ledoux and Company, Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. Available on microfilm 5322: University Publications of America Records of Ante-bellum Southern Plantations Series I, Part 1, Reel 9. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 964. |
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A. M. & J. C. Dupont (Firm). Account books, 1887-1933. 78 vols. Location: L:16-20. Retail and wholesale merchants of Houma, Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. Directors of the firm included Albert M. Dupont, Sr., Ernest D. Dupont, Julius Dupont, and Lawrence H. Dupont. Records include daily accounts of sales; current and monthly customer accounts; records of purchases and other expenses; out-of-date and unpaid accounts; records of profits and losses; payroll records; and check book stubs and cancelled checks. Included in the miscellaneous volumes are minutes to meetings of the Parish Sunday School Association of Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 511. |
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Abadie, Joseph Ferdinand. Abstract, 1900-1938. 1 item (150 pages). Location: U:91. An abstract of the title of lands situated in St. John the Baptist Parish, La., belonging to Joseph Ferdinand Abadie. Information was taken from original parish records by Claude H. Levet and signed by him at Edgard, La. The abstract enumerates all financial instruments dealing with the sales and successions of the property for fifty-five years. Mss. 1. Referenced in Guides: Business
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Abe Mayer and Brother. Account books, 1876-1878. 2 vols. Location: G:1, Box. General merchants of Clinton, East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. Record of account of Mrs. M. A. Silliman with Abe Mayer and Brother. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 391, 1100. |
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Abraham Bell & Co. Letters and receipts, 1841-1844. 5 items. Location: Misc:A. Quaker-owned shipping merchant company of New York City, with business interests in New Orleans, Louisiana. Two receipts document cotton purchased in , for Abraham Bell & Co. One letter discusses American and English cotton and freight prices, and social matters. A bill of lading and a letter document the shipment of personal goods from New York. For further information, see online catalog. Mss. 4675. |
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Acadia Plantation records, 1809-2004 (bulk 1940-1979). 49 linear ft., 30 volumes, 8 rolls. Location: 93:7-30; J:4; 75:; MAP CAGE (UNNUMBERED CASE); 1 NORTH (ON TOP OF MICROFILM CABINET). A working sugar plantation, Acadia Plantation of Lafourche Parish, Louisiana is comprised of three major properties originally known as Acadia Plantation, St. Brigitte Plantation, and Evergreen Plantation. It was acquired in 1875 by Edward J. Gay, became the residence of Representative Andrew and Mrs. Anna Gay Price. Records are comprised of correspondence, financial and legal documents, printed items, volumes, maps, plats, and photographs. Papers document business and legal affairs of the plantation owners and operators, as well as plantation operations such as sugar cane farming, the crops of tenant farmers on the property, and the planning and development of the plantation lands throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Mss. 4906. Referenced in Guides: Sugar, Politics, Plantations, New Orleans to 1861, Transportation, Women, New Orleans 1866-, Business, Baton Rouge, Acadiana, African Americans, French, LSU
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