Nature and Scope


Independent Publishing in America explores the origins of the American book trade in the late eighteenth century through to the emergence of independent presses and specialist publishers in the second half of the twentieth century.

Collections from the American Antiquarian Society cover the earliest period of American publishing in this resource, with a focus on bookselling, the book trade, the creation of private and public libraries, and the dissemination of literature across the newly independent nation. Document types include library catalogs, auction and booksellers’ catalogs, business records of publishing companies, and canvassing books – specimen books used by subscription sales agents to market books in advance of publication. The Mathew Carey Papers, consisting of receipts, bills, invoices, correspondence and business papers, provide insight into the running of an eighteenth-century publishing company.

The other half of the resource has been reserved for independent presses, bookstores and publishing communities that served under-represented authors and readerships, many of whom were overlooked by mainstream publishing in the twentieth century. These organizations became central to the development of literary genres such as feminist and LGBTQ+ literature, as well as supporting the work of African American and Indigenous North American authors. The archives of independent presses and bookstores offer researchers a behind-the-scenes understanding of how books were commissioned, edited, printed, promoted and sold. Business and financial records offer research opportunities into the challenges and successes of running a press or bookstore.

For further information on the material selected for inclusion in this resource, visit the Selection Criteria and the Collections Guide.


Independent Publishing in America contains vital collections from local and national libraries and archives across the United States, including:

  • American Antiquarian Society
  • Gerth Archives and Special Collections, California State University Dominguez Hills
  • GLBT Historical Society
  • Sequoyah National Research Center, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
  • Special Collections Research Center, University of Michigan Library


Please note that, due to the period in which the primary sources in this resource were produced, some do contain language and terminology that is outdated, derogatory and offensive by modern standards. Learn more about our approach to terminology in this resource in the Language Statement.


The archival material in this resource consists of the following document types:

  • Advertisement
  • Broadside
  • Business Record
  • Canvassing or Sample Book
  • Catalog
  • Contract
  • Correspondence
  • Draft
  • Ephemera
  • Financial Record
  • Front Cover
  • Illustration
  • Interview
  • Leaflet
  • Legal Document
  • Newspaper Clipping
  • Notes
  • Pamphlet
  • Periodical
  • Photograph
  • Poetry
  • Poster
  • Printed Book
  • Speech


The following themes have been attributed to documents in Independent Publishing in America as metadata tags to enhance browsing functionality:

  • Activism
  • African American Publishing
  • Book Collecting
  • Book Design and Production
  • Book Marketing and Advertising
  • The Book Trade
  • Economics of Book Publishing
  • The Editorial Process
  • Feminist Publishing
  • Independent Bookstores
  • Indigenous North American Publishing
  • LGBTQ+ Publishing
  • Public and Private Libraries
  • Women in Publishing

Use the filters in Browse Documents to focus on documents relevant to your research, or see the Thematic Guides for more information about the themes and the types of documents they include. 


The metadata accompanying the documents in Independent Publishing in America has been drawn from library and archive catalogs, with additional data supplemented by the AM team to facilitate browsing and searching.

The metadata fields added by AM include:

  • Document Type
  • Theme

Metadata from the American Antiquarian Society is very comprehensive for individual documents. The following metadata fields have been completed predominantly using existing metadata from the archive catalog:

For all other archives and libraries represented in this resource, where catalog metadata is mostly at collection or series level, the above fields have been completed by the AM editorial team to aid consistency of browsing and searching.

In some cases, edits or additions have been made to metadata taken from the library and archive catalogs to improve searchability and to ensure that the language and terminology is aligned with our current editorial guidelines. This is true for the following metadata fields:

  • Title
  • Collection-Level Subject
  • Item-Level Subject
  • Publishing Company/Press
  • People
  • Author/Poet
  • Place(s)
  • Organization

Please note that the Collection Subject Headings contain terms relating to specific Indigenous communities. These tags are written wherever possible as "preferred term [historic term]", for example Kanien'kehà:ka [Mohawk]. Great care was taken to search for preferred terms for each nation, tribe, community and group from sources created, hosted and maintained by Indigenous Peoples. Attention was also taken to spell the preferred terms as the nation, tribe, community or group has presented themselves on websites, signage, maps, articles, blogs, vlogs, social media, research projects, dictionaries, orthographies, place name lists, histories, stories and artworks. Where possible, variations in spelling, dialect and orthography were included to deepen and broaden the scope of these terms as keyword search terms.

We recognize that self-description differs across communities and acknowledge the limitations of any term that seeks to homogenize the experience of individual Indigenous Peoples. For anywhere we have not been able to discern a preferred term, the historic name has been retained. We welcome feedback on how best to update these terms in future. For more information on language and terminology within this resource, please see our Language Statement.

The American Antiquarian Society have produced an index of over 6,000 names (individuals, businesses and ships) identified in the Mathew Carey Papers' financial records. These have been reproduced in AM’s metadata as linked search terms, to enable cross-searching of these people and businesses. The full list is available to browse in the Search Directories, and selecting a term or terms will return the documents in which that term appears. Alternatively, download the full index as a spreadsheet using the download button below. The spreadsheet lists each individual term alongside the relevant volume number and account number (which is written on the original page), and the URL of the associated digital document. Once in the correct document, either browse to locate the image with the relevant account number, or perform a search for the name you are interested in.

Download Mathew Carey Papers Index of Names [1.4MB]


Please note that some materials in this resource include personal information that has been redacted in order to protect the privacy of living individuals.


A variety of research tools provide further contextual information or guidance for teaching and research. From essays and video interviews to publisher profiles and thematic guides, explore the options under Research Tools or view the full list in Teaching Tools.