New Hampshire bookseller and printer’s ledger

This ledger was kept by bookseller and printer Tobias Ham Miller of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, between 1822 and 1828.

Although Miller was based in Portsmouth, he transacted with individuals and firms throughout southern New Hampshire, as well parties in Boston, Massachusetts, and Berwick, Maine. Many of the account holders in his ledger were other booksellers and printers, with whom he exchanged stock. For instance, Miller bought reward books and Biblical catechisms from Samuel T. Armstrong of Boston, Massachusetts, and paid him in both cash and a large quantity of arithmetic primers. Miller sold subscriptions to several newspapers, including The Evening Visitant, The Chronicle, and Zion’s Herald. He had a large selection of religious and educational publications, which he frequently sold to local academies, religious societies, and Sabbath schools. It also appears that he operated a lending library. In addition to cash, Miller’s customers paid him in foodstuffs, textiles, paper products, coopering, and other goods and services.

Miller printed a variety of documents, including voting ballots, funeral notices, business invoices, and bank certificates. He printed copies of the local fire laws for the town of Portsmouth and published reports from the New Hampshire State Congress. In 1825, he printed a large number of advertising bills for Richard Potter of Andover, New Hampshire, whom he identified in the ledger as a ventriloquist.

This volume is bound in brown leather with tooled decoration on the front and back cover and spine. A handwritten inscription on the front cover reads “T.H. Miller’s Ledger C” in black ink. An inscription on the spine reads “Ledger C.” On the first page of the ledger there is an inscription reading “T.H. Millers Ledger.” The volume contains 366 pages of lined laid paper with handwritten notations in black ink.