Book Shelf Revisited: The Development and Growth of City Directories

Christine's post earlier today about city directories reminded me of a century-old book on the subject I found on Google books last year. In its 152 pages A.V. Williams attempts to give a historical overview of city directories all over the world. In his introduction Mr. Williams states that he's "selected the oldest and most populous cities by which to show the progress made in the directory business." (Sadly San Diego didn't make the grade.)

[The development and growth of city directories, A. V. Williams. Williams directory Company, 1913.

Source: Google Books. Original from the New York Public Library] 

I'm including his section on Philadelphia's city directories in its entirety as a sample of his style. Because the Philadelphia lead the way, Mr Williams devotes more space to it than most other U.S. cities.

 

My original post is here; the book is available as a free e-book here.

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.