Beschreibung:

MacPherson's Directory for the City and Suburbs of Philadelphia, Extending to Prime-street, Southward; Maiden-street, Northward; and from the River Delaware to Tenth-street, Westward … Containing, An Alphabetical List of the Names and Places of Abode of the Inhabitants.
Philadelphia: Francis Bailey: 1785. [2], 159 pp., 8vo (160 x 100 mm). Early pink paper wrappers, 19th century manuscript title on the front wrapper. Housed in a morocco backed clamshell box. Condition : terminal leaf in facsimile, lacks the front free endpaper, minor foxing and spotting; rebacked. Provenance : contemporary owner’s signature on title (illegible); John A. McAllister, Jr. (8 pp. autograph manuscript in the rear, listing each of the early Philadelphia Directories and discussing this one and White’s Directory). the first philadelphia directory and the first separately published directory in america. Advertised in the 16 November 1785 issue of the Philadelphia Freeman’s Journal as being “just published,” MacPherson’s Directory lists over 6500 residents in the city with their addresses (and a few with occupations). “Many well known names are listed such as Benj. Franklin, Francis Hopkinson Charles Willson Peale Robert Morris & David Rittenhouse” (Spear). This copy owned by John A. McAllister, Jr. (1822-96), the noted Philadelphia antiquary. His inscriptions in the rear in his distinctive hand list 62 directories published in Philadelphia between 1785 and 1856, providing what must be the earliest such bibliography. The short essay that follows compares MacPherson’s directory with that of Francis White. rare . Only the Laird U. Park copy has appeared at auction in the last quarter century (Sotheby’s New York, 29 November 2000, lot 278). Spear could locate but three institutional copies (Library of Congress, Philadelphia Historical Society and the Free Library). Evans 19067; Howes M183; Sabin 61601; Spear, p. 273.