Derby & Bradley
Derby, Bradley & Co. was established in 1844 as wholesale and retail dealers in books on a wide variety of subjects, including law, medical, historical and theological topics. In addition their list included many school books. The firm has the reputation of having operated the largest and most elaborate bookstore in the West.
The firm’s founding partner was Henry Derby, who moved to Cincinnati in 1840 from Columbus where he was a bookseller. In Columbus Henry Derby was also famous for marrying a local girl in Trinity Church, the first church wedding ever held in that city, and a major local occasion. Derby took as his partner Charles F. Bradley, a 21 year old native of New Haven, Connecticut who had been learning the book and printing trade in New York city. The firm had a number of names over the years, including H. W. Derby & Co at inception and later operated as Derby & Bradley for the year 1846, the only year the Cincinnati city directories listed them under that name and in business at 113 Main Street.
Among the numerous printing projects they likely engaged in during 1846, it is known that they produced a number of ‘letter sheets’. Until much later in the nineteenth century, any person wishing to communicate with another not in their immediate vicinity had to do it in writing. For this reason the literate portion of the population often engaged in an extensive correspondence, both business and personal. Plain paper sufficed for many people and custom letterheads were used by prosperous businesses. For many purposes though, letter sheets were a popular option. These were folded sheets of paper with the top panel printed with patriotic or decorative motifs, among them city views. These city views were especially favored because the served the same purpose as modern day postcards – to let one’s correspondents know something about your location and situation. The firm of Derby & Bradley printed at least three versions of these letter sheets with views of Cincinnati. One was titled ‘Cincinnati’ (A view from Kentucky), which was a re-working of an earlier view drawn and engraved by Cincinnatians S. B. Munson and G. K. Stillman, who produced it as a letter sheet in the early 1840s. A second 1846 Derby & Bradly letter sheet view was titied ‘Cincinnati / from Mouth of Licking River Covington’. A third view was also titled ‘Cincinnati’ (a view from the Kentucky side of the Ohio with identifiable steamboats in the foreground.) It is not known who produced the original drawings for these engraved letter sheet views. They all were sized to fit the top panel (one three panels per sheet) of the letter sheet, approximately 4″ high by 7″ wide. (Incidentally, the most frequently encountered view of the city, titled “Birds-Eye View of Cincinnati / in 1856″, was produced by George Magnus of New York, the young nation’s leading publisher of letter sheets.)
The Derby firm published many of the books they sold, as well as printing many other types of materials including lithographs blank books and stationery products.
Perhaps their most famous publication was the seminal Historical Collections of Ohio by Henry Howe, which Derby, Bradley published in 1847/48. In addition their line of law books was unrivaled in the West. The firm increased its prosperity with the passage of the Ohio School Library law in 1853, which provided for a tax to support libraries throughout the state. Henry Derby has been active in promoting this bill and in securing its enactment. As a result the books for these collections were largely supplied by his firm either from their own catalogue or from larger eastern firms specializing in library materials.
Henry Derby sold his interests in the company to a new entity, Robert Clarke & Co. in 1858. The joint company dissolved in 1860 with Charles Bradley taking the stationery side of the business into a new firm known as Bradley & Anthony. They soon set-up in the printing and publishing business and enjoyed a very prosperous trade, eventually becoming known as the C. F. Bradley Co.
Reference note by p4A editorial staff, August 2011.