Introduction Credit in Pre-Industrial Society Credit and the Market Economy: The Rise of Credit Reporting Credit in a Consumer Society Research Links Manuscript Collections Printed Collections Visual Collections Secondary Resources Credits

Kress Collection of Business and Economics
Guide to Using the Collection
The Kress Collection contains dozens of rare books and pamphlets on pawn broking, money lending, banking, and other topics relating to credit. The collection is strongest in Western Europe and the United States from the fifteenth through1850. Thematic strengths are the history of political economy, economic philosophy, business theory, commerce, finance, taxation, money and banking, trades and manufactures, agriculture, transportation, labor, and socialis

Trade Catalog Collection
Baker Library’s collection of historical trade catalogs includes dozens advertising products that were commonly sold on credit, particularly furniture, pianos, farm equipment, and sewing machines. Many catalogs also include details of specific installment plans. Manufacturers produced trade catalogs to identify finished goods by name or stock number for sale either to retailers or directly to the consumer. The extensive holdings of trade catalogs at Baker Library range from the early nineteenth through the early twentieth century.

Additional items from the Trade Catalog Collection are available in the permanent online exhibition from 1999’s Marketing and the Modern Era: Trade Catalogs and the Rise of 19th-Century American Advertising

Baker Old Class Collection
Guide to Using the Collection
The Baker Old Class collection contains rare and ephemeral books, pamphlets, trade periodicals, and corporate publications relating to retail credit, credit rating, commercial credit, and financial services. The collection is a valuable resource for tracing the development and growth of business and industry in the United States and globally from the late nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century.