Rand, Avery & Company

Map of The Boston, Concord, Montreal and White Mountains Railroad and its principal connections, 1882
Map and timetable for the Portland & Ogdensburg Railroad, 1879
Printed advertisement for the clipper ship Emily F. Whitney, circa 1879

Rand-Avery, also known as Rand, Avery, & Company, and as Geo. C. Rand & Avery, was a printing company in Boston during the 19th century.[1] The company went bankrupt in 1888.[2][3] Rand Avery Supply Co. was a successor firm and continued into the 20th century.[4]

History

George Curtis Rand (13 December 13, 1819 - December 30, 1878) established Rand, Avery & Company. He was related to William Rand, who was one of the founding members of Rand, McNally & Company, and Franklin Rand, publisher of the Zion's Herald.[5]

Promoter and controversial muckracker Tom Lawson (muckraker) took over the firm and liquidated it after losing a battle with its directors.[6]

The company occupied several buildings including 117 Franklin Street in Boston, Massachusetts.[6]

Publications

The firm printed sailing cards, travel and sightseeing guides for rail passengers, and area histories.

It published Harriet E. Wilson's novel Our Nig in 1959.[7]

In 1860, the firm was a printer for Walt Whitman.[8]

The firm printed the first edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin.[9]

It was one of the printers of Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper.[10] It also published Edwin M. Bacon's Dictionary of Boston in 1883 and included an advertisement insert with an engraved drawing of a printing operation.[11] It printed a herald for the Barnum and London Circus.[12]

The company printed documents for railroads including maps.[13]

Moses King worked at the firm before moving on to establish his own printing company.

References

  1. ^ "Publisher: Rand, Avery, & co. | Open Library".
  2. ^ "The Rand-Avery Failure". The New York Times. October 23, 1888.
  3. ^ "Atlantic Reporter". 1907.
  4. ^ http://emuseum.chs.org/emuseum/view/people/asitem/items$0040null:10015/0;jsessionid=DFD1C5C3E93A18E1C1363912C922CB70?t:state:flow=951ff3af-c54a-4358-b6f8-abd86c779d37 [dead link‍]
  5. ^ Rand, Florence Osgood (1898). A Genealogy of the Rand Family. Republic Press. pp. 68, 71, 72.
  6. ^ a b "Massachusetts Reports". 1883.
  7. ^ "Our Nig : or, Sketches from the life of a free black, in a two-story white house, North, showing that slavery's shadows fall even there / by "Our Nig" [i.e. Mrs. ..." HathiTrust. Retrieved 2022-06-19.
  8. ^ "Walt Whitman to Rand & Avery, 19 May 1882 (Correspondence) - The Walt Whitman Archive". whitmanarchive.org.
  9. ^ Obituary Notes, New York Times, January 1879)
  10. ^ Twain, Mark (1979-12-12). The Prince and the Pauper. ISBN 9780520906020.
  11. ^ "Rand, Avery & Company / Franklin Press | Sheaff : ephemera". www.sheaff-ephemera.com.
  12. ^ "CWi 6124 A-B - Barnum & London Circus". circus.pastperfectonline.com.
  13. ^ "Search - Digital Commonwealth".