New Jersey Copyright Registrations, 1791-1870
2017.
Item #15076
FELCONE, JOSEPH J. New Jersey Copyright Registrations, 1791-1870. Princeton: Joseph J. Felcone Inc., 2017. 188 p. Cloth. New. Copyright registrations provide important information for local historians as well as bibliographers and book historians. Beginning about 1850 these records also offer valuable insight into regional manufacturing, popular music publishing, the production and advertising of patent medicines, and photography. The present book contains all the known New Jersey copyright records from the first registration in 1791 through the middle of 1870, when all copyright activities were removed from the individual states and consolidated in the Library of Congress. Preceding the chronological record of registrations is a very brief examination of the origin and history of copyright legislation in New Jersey and the mechanical requirements mandated by that legislation. A commentary on the editorial process completes the introductory text, and a comprehensive index concludes the volume. For the first fifty years of New Jersey copyright registrations, almost all applications were for books and pamphlets. The exceptions were generally maps and an occasional chart or single piece of music. Authors were New Jersey residents, and the printers and publishers were usually in New Jersey. After the mid-1840s, applications for music increased as popular interest in sheet music grew. In 1848 the first application for a package label was recorded. Over the next two decades, registrations of labels increased exponentially, particularly for patent medicines. By the final decade of New Jersey registrations, only one third of applications were for books and pamphlets, while a third were for labels and trademarks of New Jersey products, and the remaining third were for other forms of printed and graphic matter. The latter included sheet music; maps; charts and tables; photographs; engravings and lithographs; brochures and circulars; periodicals; and designs. The applications came from every county in the state, and from major cities as well as small towns like Smith's Landing, Atlantic County, and Pokeville, Warren County. They often record titles of books, pamphlets, and maps that either have not survived or were never published. The rapid development of the patent medicine industry in Newark, Trenton, and elsewhere in New Jer.
Price: $38.00