Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
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Edition area
Edition statement
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Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
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Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
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1914-1915 (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
6 items
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Administrative history
The Bradley-Garretson Company Limited originated in Philadephia, and was involved in subscription book publishing. The Canadian branch was established in Brantford in 1876 by D.R. Wilson. Some time before 1879, Thomas Samuel Linscott, who was born in Devonshire, England in 1846 and had emigrated to America for health reasons, became the company's manager. Ordained in 1875 as a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, Linscott retired from the ministry in 1879 and bought the Canadian interests of the company.
Based in Toronto and Brantford, Ontario, Bradley-Garretson ("The Book and Bible House") published books between 1879 and 1920. According to Warner and Beer's History of Brant County (1883), it employed at Brantford "from fifteen to twenty" clerks and assistants, using "all the modern appliances" and appointed "over one thousand agents" in 1882. The company was not officially incorporated until 1895, by which time Linscott's son, Thomas Henry Linscott, had become the main owner. In 1896 the company opened the Toronto office at 155 Bay Street. (A related operation, Linscott Publishing Co., was established in 1897). Many of Bradley-Garretson's publications were religious in nature, although the company also issued books related to politics and the domestic sciences. Several imprints of the company are life and work anthologies written about individuals such as Sir John Thompson, Dwight L. Moody and Rev. Charles Spurgeon.
Custodial history
Scope and content
Fonds consists of a recruitment letter dated 15 May 1915 looking for agents to sell and promote Bradley-Garretson publications. Along with the letter are the postmarked envelope and a return envelope, and three advertising supplements that accompanied the letter. One flyer promotes a publication detailing the sinking of the Lusitania. A second promotes a book entitled The World's Greatest War. The final large poster promotes the book Billy Sunday: The Man and His Message. These supplements were tools used by the agents to promote sales of these publications.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Fonds (11-2003) was donated by Morris Norman of Norman, Goldberg and Company.
Arrangement
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Script of material
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Restrictions on access
No access restrictions.
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Finding aids
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Accruals
No further accruals are expected.
