Working Catalog, 1858 - 1862

This catalog was implemented sometime in the fall of 1858 as an “amendment” to the catalog of 1856 and was likely expanded on an ongoing basis up to the Civil War. Since the 1856 catalog was presumably still in use by subscribers, the two contain largely the same information apart from three key differences. Firstly, the 1858 added accretions to the book collection, extending the book numbers from 4,473 to 5,063. The second difference is that it lists the books by number, to assist the librarians in managing the books, rather than by author and title, which in the 1856 catalog assisted subscribers in finding them. Lastly, it should be noted that titles in both catalogs are abbreviated in different ways.

Despite the overlap and differences of organization, a person looking up a number in the circulation records between February 1857 and 17 September 1859 may still find it easier to consult a searchable online version of the catalog and reserve use of the 1858 for its last 600 numbers. Starting on 27 September 1859, titles began to appear in the circulation records alongside the numbers, making either catalog usable for numbers below 4,474, although due to unpredictable title abbreviations numerical catalogs remained more reliable.

The catalog was signed by a number of librarians of the company inside the front and back covers, sometimes more than once. This includes a listing made in 1871 which is notable for the presence of names not associated with the title “librarian” by the minutes.