Publisher and Advertiser Extraordinary: The E. C. Allen Collection

Abstract

It is not often—perhaps fortunately—that Baker Library receives a collection totaling four tons. That was the approximate weight of material brought by moving van from Augusta, Maine, this past May. The four tons comprised the paper remains—apparently untouched since the early nineteen-hundreds—of the E. C. Allen mail-order and publishing house, which flourished in Augusta during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Of the four tons, approximately one and a half are represented by bound and unbound files of Home and Fireside, Sunshine, Golden Moments, and the dozen other farm and home magazines published by Allen and his associates. Another ton consists of the oleographs, or colored reproductions of oil paintings, distributed as premiums or as mail-order offerings. The remaining ton and a half is the measure of the business records, bound and unbound, with which we are here chiefly concerned. It is expected that the full story of the enterprise will be told later, possibly by someone working for a Ph.D. degree. But before describing the collection itself, and some of the incidents met in its arrangement, a brief account of E. C. Allen's activities will be helpful.