Library — Purchase List
Books targeted for acquisition into the H and H research library. For books we already hold, see index.md (current holdings) and the canonical artifacts/HH-LIB-*.md records. For external works we cite without owning, see resources/index.md.
This page is a living curatorial document — entries graduate to a library holding (and disappear from this list) when acquired. The load-bearing column is Why we want it: every entry must answer what gap in the research corpus it fills.
Priority tiers
- P1 — Fill named gaps. A specific gap area in the current KB has no adequate source. Buying this book directly enables a research thread or pages we already intend to write.
- P2 — Strengthen weak coverage. Topic has some coverage in
resources/ but a better, more recent, or more authoritative work is available.
- P3 — Nice to have / opportunistic. Long-tail, tangential, or expensive — pick up if found cheap, signed, or inscribed.
Priority 1 — Fill named gaps in current research
Roasting history & industrial equipment
| Title | Author | Year | Why we want it | Acquisition notes |
|---|
| Jabez Burns & Sons trade literature (patent roaster pamphlets, equipment catalogs) | Jabez Burns & Sons | 1870s–1890s | Primary manufacturer literature from the dominant late-19th-c American roaster builder (e.g. 1874 new Patent Coffee Roaster pamphlet; equipment plates quoted in Ukers ch. 34). Burns-lineage equipment is the most likely ancestry for the rotating drum roaster shown in the man-at-coffee-roaster press photo; originals enable direct comparison against the Huntley Monitor catalog (TODO-12). Dealer reference photos archived 2026-05-25 — see Jabez Burns & Sons. | No single standard monograph — dealer/collector market, Hagley, or Hathi/IA for pamphlets and broadsides. |
| All About Coffee (1st ed., 1922) | William H. Ukers | 1922 | Currently hold the 1935 2nd ed. (HH-LIB-2014-0005). The 1922 first edition has different and longer chapters on roasting machinery and trade infrastructure that the 1935 abridged. Edition-comparison is research-grade. | First-edition copies are scarce/expensive; condition-flexible if signed or association. |
| Burns Coffee Company history / catalog | (Jabez Burns & Sons trade publication) | various | No dedicated monograph on the Burns company is in the corpus. Any in-house or third-party trade history would directly support roaster-attribution research. | No specific candidate identified. Open to suggestions from coffee-machinery collectors. |
Correction (2026-05-24): An earlier row listed Uncommon Grounds (Pendergrast) as a P1 target on the rationale that no physical copy was held. The book is in fact in-hand (2010 revised edition, paperback, ISBN 978-0-465-01836-9 — edition confirmed 2026-05-26 per TODO-35) and has been accessioned to the library as HH-LIB-2026-0016. Row removed.
Tin lithography, packaging, and label printing
| Title | Author | Year | Why we want it | Acquisition notes |
|---|
| Antique Tins: Identification & Values (Books 2–3) | Fred Dodge | 1994–1998 | Standard collector price/ID guides for lithographed advertising tins (coffee, tobacco, baking powder, etc.). Goes broader than Stahl’s key-wind focus (Stahl in resources/). Will help date and attribute H&H Master Chef, Original Blend, and Light Housekeepers tins. | Collector Books / Cooksey Shugart; used market common. |
| A general history of American tin lithography 1880–1940 | (various) | various | The chromolithography-on-tin trade is undocumented in the corpus. American Can Company (Canco) imprints are confirmed on H&H artifacts (2026-05-24; see companies/american-can-company.md) but no source ties the printing trade to the can-making trade. | No specific candidate identified. Schiffer Publishing has multiple “antique advertising tins” titles; review their catalog. |
| Trade-card / chromo-lithography reference | (various) | various | Adjacent reference: tin litho descended from chromo-lithographed trade cards. Period printing-trade volumes would situate the technique. | No specific candidate identified. |
American Can Company / can-making industrial history
| Title | Author | Year | Why we want it | Acquisition notes |
|---|
| The Canning Clan: A Pageant of Pioneering Americans | Earl Chapin May | 1937 | Contemporary trade history of the canning industry; covers the Sanford Bros. and predecessor lineages that became American Can Co. Period source for the era when H&H was packaging in Canco 06 / 08 tins. | Out of print; used market (Macmillan, 1937). |
| American Can Company corporate history / jubilee volume | (in-house, various) | various | Any official Canco history would directly support seamer-and-tooling identification work in companies/american-can-company.md and the Melvina contact follow-up (TODO-25). | No specific candidate identified. Check Hagley Museum and corporate archives for in-house publications. |
| The Tin Can Book or comparable popular history | (various) | various | Popular industry surveys may cite primary sources we can chase. | No specific candidate identified. |
Texas business / commercial directories & San Antonio period sources
| Title | Author | Year | Why we want it | Acquisition notes |
|---|
| Morrison & Fourmy San Antonio City Directories (period) | Morrison & Fourmy | 1900s–1960s | Primary source for year-by-year H&H street address, principals, employees, telephone listings. Anchors the 601 Delaware lifecycle and pre-Delaware addresses. | Originals scarce; microfilm at TX State Library, UTSA Special Collections, or San Antonio Public Library Texana. Reprints if affordable. |
| Texas Almanac (1920s–1960s period editions) | A. H. Belo / Dallas Morning News | various | State-level industrial and commercial reference; useful for situating H&H in the Texas coffee trade and tracking coffee/spice industry statistics during H&H’s operating decades. | Long publication history; period editions commonly found used. |
| German Seed in Texas Soil: Immigrant Farmers in Nineteenth-Century Texas | Terry G. Jordan | 1966 | Contextual: Stevens and Hayman family-origin research. Germanic / Central European entrepreneurial milieu in Texas grounds founder biographies. | University of Texas Press; readily available. |
| Period San Antonio business histories | (various) | various | Companion to resources/saving-san-antonio.md and downtown-san-antonio.md; specifically business-history angle (rather than civic/preservation). | No specific candidate identified. Check TSHA (Texas State Historical Association) catalog. |
Coffee trade periodicals (primary period sources)
| Title | Publisher | Period | Why we want it | Acquisition notes |
|---|
| Tea & Coffee Trade Journal — bound runs | Tea & Coffee Trade Journal Co. (Ukers’s house) | 1900s–1970s | Primary-source pricing, advertising, equipment specs, and trade movements during H&H’s operating decades. Publisher of Coffee Merchandising (HH-LIB-2014-0004) and All About Coffee (HH-LIB-2014-0005), so editorially adjacent to works already held. | Bound runs scarce. Institutional access acceptable in lieu of purchase (NYPL, Hagley, US Library of Congress). |
| Spice Mill — bound runs or facsimile | Spice Mill Publishing Co. | early–mid 20th c. | Analogous trade periodical; spice / coffee crossover (H&H ran spice lines as well). | Same caveat. Institutional access acceptable. |
Priority 2 — Strengthen weak coverage
Coffee trade & business history
| Title | Author | Year | Why we want it | Acquisition notes |
|---|
| The Devil’s Cup: A History of the World According to Coffee | Stewart Lee Allen | 1999 | Popular narrative coffee history; complements Pendergrast and adds travelogue perspective. | Soho Press; common used. |
| Coffee: A Dark History | Antony Wild | 2004 | Supply-chain / colonial-era coffee history; weak coverage area in the corpus. | W. W. Norton; readily available. |
| The Global Coffee Economy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 1500–1989 (eds.) | Steven Topik & William G. Clarence-Smith | 2003 | Academic economic history. Scaffolding for sourcing-context claims; the corpus currently has none. | Cambridge University Press; check for paperback. |
Collector guides (additional)
| Title | Author | Year | Why we want it | Acquisition notes |
|---|
| Additional Schiffer coffee/tin collectible volumes | (various Schiffer authors) | various | The 2000 Kvetko & Congdon-Martin (HH-LIB-equivalent in resources/) is the only general coffee-collectibles survey in the corpus. Newer or specialized Schiffer titles would broaden tin / paper-ad identification. | Schiffer Publishing catalog; opportunistic. |
Priority 3 — Nice to have / opportunistic
| Item type | Why we’d want it | Acquisition notes |
|---|
| Signed / association copies of works already held or cited | Collector and provenance value: Ukers (HH-LIB), Stahl and White (resources/), Pendergrast (on this list until acquired). Particularly relevant for Texas Glass (already hold author-direct copy HH-LIB-2014-0001; additional signed copies are nice-to-have at the right price). | Watch ABEBooks, Heritage, and regional Texas booksellers. |
| Period San Antonio community cookbooks with H&H advertising | Parallel to Alamo Cook Book (HH-LIB-2014-0003). Local cookbooks regularly carry coffee advertising on inside covers and back pages. | Estate sales; church/synagogue cookbook reprints. |
| SHA (Society for Historical Archaeology) volumes referencing Texas glass, cans, or coffee | Companion to Lockhart monographs already in the corpus. | SHA back-issues; Hartwick College / SHA archive. |
| A Reverence for Wood and similar Eric Sloane Americana | Periodically pictures period coffee-store interiors and tinware. | Common used. |
See also
