A.C. McClurg & Co.

A.C. McClurg & Co.

A.C. McClurg & Co., a book publishing house and the first stationery business in Chicago, began in 1844 as W.W. Barlow & Co. Within five years of its establishment, the company underwent several transitions in ownership and partnership, with its name changing to S.C. Griggs & Co. and then to Griggs, Bross & Co. In 1859, Alexander C. McClurg (1832–1901) was hired as a clerk. McClurg was born in Philadelphia and moved to Pittsburg with his family. He attended the University of Western Pennsylvania and graduated from Miami University in 1853 with a degree in law. He passed the bar but never pursued a profession in law. After inquiring about employment via letter, McClurg moved to Chicago and began working at S.C. Griggs & Co.

In 1861, McClurg enlisted as a private soldier in the Union Army. He encountered action early in his military career. Based on his meritorious services, he was promoted Captain of the Eighty-Eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and, by the end of the war, he had achieved the status of Lieutenant General. Leaving the service with honors, McClurg returned to his appointment at S.C Griggs & Co. 

In 1868, a blaze destroyed the entire inventory of S.C. Griggs. In 1871, a second disaster—the Great Chicago Fire—once again annihilated the store. After McClurg, E.L. Jansen, and F.B. Smith purchased S.C. Griggs’s shares, the company became known as Jansen, McClurg & Co. until Jansen’s retirement in 1886. Thereafter, it presumed its longest-lasting name: A.C. McClurg & Co. 

In 1876, McClurg married Eleanor Wheeler (1847–1905), an heiress and niece of Chicago mayor William B. Ogden. The retail business S.A. Maxwell & Co. sold their wholesale and retail book business and stationery business to A.C. McClurg & Co. in 1890. McClurg went on to expand the business, making his company a staple in midwestern publishing and a dominant presence on a national scale. McClurg paid special attention to the book departments, often traveling abroad to find rare books for the company and bookstore. He published the popular monthly literary magazine The Dial from 1880 to 1892. Charles Wilder Davis managed the publishing department until his death in 1898. In addition to its publishing house, the firm supplied general stores with top-of-the-line stationery and writing instruments, for which wholesale department head John B. Fay traveled to Europe to procure. Serving as a wholesaler to retailers in the Midwest and western United States, A.C. McClurg & Co. also supplied toiletry goods such as toothbrushes, hair combs, and druggists’ items.

The business succumbed to yet another fire on February 12, 1899, this time at its five-story red brick building on Wabash Avenue and Madison Street, which McClurg & Co. had occupied for sixteen years. As the Chicago Daily Tribune news story noted, “Bibliophiles all over the country will feel a sense of personal loss in the destruction of ‘Saints and Sinners Corner,’ the southwestern corner of the ground floor of the McClurg Building, which was given up to George M. Millard and rare literary treasures. The department was established in 1874, and Mr. Millard has managed it ever since.” Following this misfortune, McClurg announced he would retire from the business and focus on his literary interests. When the company was reorganized, he distributed some stock to his employees and offered shares to them at a reasonable rate. He died in 1901 from Bright’s disease and was buried at Graceland Cemetery, where a sixteen-foot granite Celtic cross marks his family plot.

Built after the fire in 1899 and located in the Loop, the McClurg Stationers and Booksellers Building was designed by the Chicago School architectural firm Holabird & Roche. The historic nine-story skyscraper entered the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. As Joseph J. Korom, Jr. describes in The American Skyscraper, 1850–1940: “The McClurg is hidden on Wabash Street, just south of Adams. Its noisy mid-block location places it adjacent to the elevated train tracks of the Wabash line, and just south of an iron-trussed commuter station perched level with its second floor. Here is a microcosm of fin de siècle Chicago where immediate access to public transportation was paramount to a skyscraper’s tenants, customers, and the ultimate economic success of the skyscraper itself.” Although the building lacked windows on its sides, Holabird & Roche remedied the absence of sunlight with nine thousand square feet of windows on the building’s façade. 

In subsequent years, A.C. McClurg & Co. moved away from collecting rare and fine books and turned toward publishing new works, including Edgar Rice Burroughs’s commercially successful Tarzan of the Apes novels. One of A.C. McClurg and Co.’s most culturally and historically significant publications was sociologist and activist W.E.B. Du Bois’s collection of essays The Souls of Black Folk (1913). In 1923, A.C. McClurg sold its Wabash Street shop to Bretano’s, a bookstore established in New York by August Brentano, to focus on its wholesale operations. A.C. McClurg remained in business until its liquidation in 1962.

“A Richly-Attired Thief: Caught Shop-Lifting at A.C. McClurg & Co.’s by a Clerk.” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 9, 1888.

A.C. McClurg & Co. A.C. McClurg & Co.’s Catalogue of Fine and Rare Imported Books. Chicago: The Company, 1907.

A.C. McClurg & Co. A.C. McClurg & Co.’s Illustrated Price List of Blank Books, Stationery, Photograph Albums, Holiday Goods, Etc., Etc.  Chicago: The Company, 1886.

A.C. McClurg & Co. A Classified Catalogue of 3,500 Volumes Suitable for a Public Library. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1901.

A.C. McClurg & Co. Illustrated Holiday Catalogue, 1895–6. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1895.

A.C. McClurg & Co. Records, The Newberry Library, Chicago.

“A.C. McClurg Acquired.” Chicago Tribune, December 28, 1966.

Babcock, Frederic. “Among the Authors.” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 14, 1946.

Biographical Sketches of the Leading Men of Chicago. Chicago: Wilson & St. Clair, 1868.

Butcher, Fanny. “The Literary Spotlight.” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 23, 1950.

Butcher, Fanny. “The Literary Spotlight.” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 26, 1959.

“Charles Wilder Davis Dead: Commander of the Loyal Legion and Connected with A.C. McClurg & Co.” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 16, 1898.

“Chicago Real Estate: Mandel Bros. Lease the Old M’Clurg Building Site; Form Intends Erecting a Fireproof, Nine-Story Structure on the Wabash Avenue and Madison Street Corner, Connecting with Their Stores.” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 24, 1900.

Clark, Herma. “When Chicago Was Chicago.” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 9, 1947.

“Contract for Books Awarded: Public Library Trustees Will Buy New American Works from A.C. McClurg & Co.” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 28, 1904.

Cottenet, Cécile. Race, Ethnicity, and Publishing in America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

“Death of A.C. McClurg; Head of Chicago Publishing House Expires at St. Augustine, Where He Went to Seek Health.” New York Times, April 16, 1901.

Dietrich, Lucas. “Across the Color Line: Race, Reception, and the U.S. Literary Marketplace, 

1877–1920.” PhD diss., University of New Hampshire, 2015.

Dietrich, Lucas. “At the Dawning of the Twentieth Century: W.E.B. Du Bois, A.C. McClurg & Co., and the Early Circulation of The Souls of Black Folk.” Book History 20 (2017): 307–329.

Drury, John. Dedicated to the Friends, Customers, and Employees of A.C. McClurg & Co. on the Occasion of Its Centennial, 1844–1944. Chicago: A.C. McClurg, 1944.

Du Bois Papers, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.

Dzwonkoski, Peter, American Literary Publishing Houses, 1638–1899. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research, 1986. 

“Erase All Social Lines: Women of St. James’ Church Guests at a Tea; Mrs. A.C. McClurg Invites Every Member, Irrespective of Husband’s Calling—Several Hundred Attend the Reception in Lake Shore Drive Residence—Plans for Raising $75,000 Endowment Fund Are Discussed Informally.” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 11, 1904.

“Expansion on State Street.” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 24, 1900.

Federal Writers’ Project, Illinois. Illinois: A Descriptive and Historical Guide. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1947.

“Gen. M’Clurg’s Apologies.” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 9, 1888.

“General A.C. M’Clurg, Who Died Yesterday.” Chicago Daily Tribune, April 16, 1901.

“House of General A.C. McClurg, Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Ill.” American Architect and Building News 36 (April 16, 1892): 46, pl. 851.

Illustrated Holiday Catalogue, 1895–6. Chicago: A.C. McClurg and Co., 1895.

Korom, Jr., Joseph J. The American Skyscraper, 1850–1940: A Celebration of Height. Boston: Branden, 2016.

“Lenten Sewing by Women Will Benefit Hospitals: Mrs. A.C. McClurg and Her Friends Have Prepared 1,600 Garments to Be Given to the Needy.” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 29, 1904.

“Maxwell Confirms the Sale: A.C. McClurg & Co. Are Now Proprietors of His Establishment.”

Chicago Daily Tribune, January 1, 1891.

“M’Clurg’s Store in Ruins: Big Bookhouse and Contents at Madison and Wabash Burn; Blaze Starts at 10 A.M. Simultaneously with an Explosion on the Third Floor, and in Three Hours the Ruin Is Complete—Plans for Erecting a New Building Under Consideration—Water Damages Mandel Bros. and Others—Total Loss $650,000.” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 13, 1899.

McClurg, A.C. “From A.C. McClurg & Co.” The Literary World: A Monthly Review of Current Literature 29, no. 4 (February 19, 1898): 58.

“McClurg Has Completed Its First Hundred Years.” Publishers’ Weekly 146 (September 2, 1944): 

814–819.

“McClurg’s New Building: 120-Year Old Firm to Start Its Plant on Anniversary.” Chicago Tribune, August 2, 1963.

McIlvaine, Mabel. Reminiscences of Chicago during the Civil War. Chicago: R.R. Donnelley , 1914.

Morris, Charles, ed. Men of the Century: An Historical Work Giving Portraits and Sketches of Eminent Citizens of the United States. Philadelphia: Hamersly & Co., 1896.

Morris, Jack Cassius. “The Publishing Activities of S.C. Griggs and Company, 1848–1896; Jansen, McClurg and Company, 1872–1886; and A.C. McClurg and Company, 1886–1900; with Lists of Publications.” MLS thesis, University of Illinois, 1941. 

“Mosaics.”  The Inland Architect and News Record 42, no. 2: (April 1903): 24.

Mott, Frank L. A History of American Magazines, Volume III: 1865–1885. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1938.

“Mrs. Carter Harrison Writes Travel Book.” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 23, 1918.

“New Location for M’Clurg: Firm Takes Up Temporary Quarters in Keith Building—Fire in Open Board of Trade.” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 14, 1899.

“New Store for M’Clurg: Arrangements Made for Erection of Large Building; Proprietors of Book Concern Negotiating with Several Firms—Announce Present Quarters Are Temporary and Expected to Be in New Establishment by Fall—Fail to Reach Terms with Rutters, Who Own Site of Fire-Wrecked House.” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 28, 1899.

“Plan to Continue Business: Members of McClurg & Co. Discuss Schemes for a New Building on the Old Site.” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 13, 1899.

“Recent Realty Sales and Leases: A.C. McClurg & Co. Will Continue to Occupy Their Present Quarters.” Chicago Daily Tribune, April 11, 1897.

“Residence of A.C. McClurg, Chicago.” Inland Architect and News Record 20 (December 1892): 58.

“Says Book Ridicules Him: W.H. Lytell Sues A.C. McClurg & Co., Publishers, for Damages; Story of Theatrical Life; Manager ‘Bill Truetell’ Alleged to be Caricature of Plaintiff.” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 26, 1909.

Smith, Frederick B. A Sketch of the Origin and History of the House of A.C. McClurg. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1902.

Smith, Harold Bryon and Griggs, S.C. Chicago Book Trade. Chicago: S.C. Griggs & Company,

1. 1858–1860.