Blair & Rives

A Register of Its Records in the Library of Congress

Prepared by Paul D. Ledvina

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

2006

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2007

Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms007079

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

Personal Names

Organiz,ations

Subjects

Locations

Administrative Information

Provenance:

Copyright Status:

Microfilm:

Preferred Citation:

Scope and Content Note

Arrangement of the Papers

Container List

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

Administrative Information

The records of Blair & Rives, a publishing firm founded in Washington, D.C., by Francis P. Blair (1791-1876) and John C. Rives (1795-1864), were purchased by the Library of Congress in 1921. Additional manuscripts were acquired through purchase and a gift, 1966-1968.

The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Blair & Rives is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).

A microfilm edition of these papers is available on three reels. Consult a reference librarian in the Manuscript Division concerning availability for purchase or interlibrary loan.

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Records of Blair & Rives, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Scope and Content Note

The records of Blair & Rives, Washington, D.C., publishers of the daily Washington, D.C., Globe and weekly Congressional Globe newspapers, span the years 1821-1905, with the bulk of the material from 1830 to 1848. The collection consists of general correspondence, 1821-1871, and miscellany, 1826-1905.

The general correspondence consists chiefly of the day-to-day business operations of the Globe. Many letters are readers' responses to issues discussed in the newspaper and usually concern national political topics, especially the rechartering of the Second Bank of the United States. There are also letters between Francis P. Blair (1791-1876) and John C. Rives about financial matters. Letters written from the period 1847-1855 by Andrew Jackson (1809-1865), Francis P. Blair, his son Frank P. Blair, and Godfrey M. Fogg, concern their efforts to protect President Andrew Jackson's homestead, the "Hermitage," from creditors. Other letters, 1828-1848, sent to Benjamin B. French, Henry S. Foote, and John E. Norris, the secretary of Washington's Jackson Democratic Association, concern that organization's activities. Correspondents also include Mark Alexander, Henry Baldwin, James L. Blair, Benjamin Gratz Brown, John R. Church, Warren R. Davis, Henry Dilworth Gilpin, Duff Green, William H. Haywood, Jr., John C. Harris, William A. Harris, John W. Hungerford, Ralph Isaac Ingersoll, Amos Kendall, Robert Mayo, Alfred O. P. Nicholson, David Settle Reid, Thomas Ritchie, Benjamin G. Shields, Lawrence Taliaferro, William Wirt, and Silas Wright, Jr.

The miscellany contains legal documents, bills and receipts, and printer's copy and proofs for government and private printing work produced in the Blair & Rives establishment. Also in the miscellany is genealogical material relating to the Arthur Donaldson, Franklin Rives, John Tree, and Hubell families, and research notes by Jeannie (Mrs. Franklin) Rives concerning the history of Washington, D.C., during the Civil War.

Arrangement of the Papers

This collection is arranged alphabetically by type of material.

Container List