Historical company research can be conducted on businesses still in operation, as well as those that no longer exist. While there are many reasons to research a historical company, some may include wanting to:
When conducting your research, you will most likely need to piece together information from multiple sources. Below are various sources available through the New Jersey State Library and online that contain historical company information.
The amount of information available on a company will depend on it's business structure, as well as when and where it operated. Usually you will find more information for public companies, which have more federally-mandated reporting requirements than private companies.
Currently, businesses must register with NJ Department of Treasury, Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services (DORES). DORES’s Business Records Service portal allows users to search for information on businesses operating in New Jersey. While most business documents and reports can be ordered for a fee, some important information can be viewed for free.
The Business Entity Name Search allows you to look for existing registered businesses by name, keyword, or Entity ID. This search returns the business’s name, Entity ID, city, business type, and incorporation date. The following results are for The Taylor Provisions Company, maker of Taylor Pork Roll.
Additionally, within the Business Entity Documents search, you're able to see the name and year of documents on file. This information can be helpful in determining if and when changes occurred with a business. In the example below, you can see the documents filed by Bayada Home Health Care, Inc., including those filed when it changed from a for-profit corporation to a nonprofit corporation in 2019.
NJ DORES's guidelines provide helpful tips for searching by name and keyword. For more information about the types of documents and reports available to order from NJ DORES, visit their Frequently Asked Questions page.
Sole proprietors and general partnerships in NJ, who don't wish to do business using their personal names, must register their trade name with the County Clerk’s Office in the county where they operate. This requirement began in 1906 with P.L.1906, c. 240 and continues today under N.J. Statute 56:1-1 et. seq..
Some counties provide online access to filed Trade Name Certificates through their County Clerk Office's website. However, each county is different in how they make trade name registration information available. Information found on Trade Name Certificates includes the business's name, address, nature of the business, and the names and addresses of its owner or partners.
In some cases, articles of incorporation were also retained by the County Clerk, although this practice varies from county to county. Monmouth County is a notable example. Their Corporations & Business Names Collection, 1833-1995 finding aid provides a detailed history of the business records filed at the county level in NJ.
From colonial times until 1875, NJ businesses were incorporated through charters granted by special acts of the Legislature. An “Act Concerning Corporations”, passed on February 14, 1846, further led to businesses filing their certificates of incorporation with the Secretary of State.
The following index lists corporations filed with the Secretary of State, under general laws, from 1846-1870, and corporations chartered by the Legislature from 1693-1870, with the exception of some entity types. Pamphlet Laws (P.L.) referred to in this index can be found in the Acts of the Legislature for that year.
Beginning in 1889, the Secretary of State was required by law to publish an annual list of corporations organized within New Jersey during the preceding year. Compilations of these lists are available online through websites like HathiTrust.
Additional business filings, both at the State and County level, can be found at the New Jersey State Archives.
The New Jersey State Library has a large collection of industrial and business directories for New Jersey, spanning from the late nineteenth century to the present. These directories can provide information on the location, nature, leadership, and size of a business. For a detailed description of the directories in our collections, view the bibliography linked below.
The New Jersey State Library has an extensive collection of New Jersey city directories, both in print and on microfilm, dating from 1835-1988. While the contents of city directories can vary by location and year, most have a business directory that lists companies by product or industry. Businesses are also included in the alphabetical index, usually in bold face to distinguish them from individual residents. Company information found in city directories can include the name, address, proprietor, and nature of a business. Additionally, most city directories include advertisements for local businesses that may provide images and other relevant information.
Below are the advertisement and listings for William F. Taylor Barrel Co. in Newark, NJ, taken from the 1921 Elizabeth, NJ city directory. This is a great example of how an advertisement can provide additional information. This advertisement shows an image of the factory, the years the company was founded and incorporated, its telephone number, and the names and positions of its board members. Notice how this business is located in Newark but is listed in Elizabeth's city directory. This is not uncommon for businesses located close to municipal borders.
Image Source: (1921). Elizabeth Directory 1921, pp. 17, 477, 653.
Many city directories have been digitized. Some are freely available online through sites like Internet Archive, HathiTrust, or FamilySearch. Local libraries or historical societies, like the Red Bank Public Library, may also make city directories digitally available on their websites. Additionally, city directories can be found through databases services like HeritageQuest and Ancestry.
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The New Jersey State Library has Phonefiche, microfiche of yellow and white pages published by University Microfilms International, for New Jersey from 1976-2005. For a full list of the telephone directories available, see the guide linked below. Yellow pages provide a business's name, product/service, telephone number, and address. Most yellow pages also include business advertisements that can contain additional information.
We also have a small assortment of print telephone directories for various NJ locations. These directories can be found in our online catalog by searching Subject Browse for "Geographic Term -- Telephone Directories”, ex. "Mercer County (N.J.) -- Telephone Directories".
Company histories and other information for active and recently defunct businesses can be found in some of the New Jersey State Library's subscription databases, including:
This link opens in a new windowMany components of a newspaper, like advertisements, articles, and legal notices, can contain helpful information about a company. The New Jersey State Library provides access to many NJ newspapers in print, microfilm, and subscription databases. Our Newspapers Research Guide contains a full description of our newspaper holdings.
Many newspapers are available digitally. Digitized newspapers can be valuable resources, especially when you have limited information on a company, because many are keyword searchable. Our New Jersey Digitized Historic Newspapers Research Guide can be used to locate digitized NJ newspapers by county and municipality.
The article below is from the Trenton Evening Times and was found using the NewsBank database. This article gives the details of why the Semple Rubber Company went into receivership in 1922.
Image Source: (1922, August 10). Trenton Evening Times, p. 4.
Trade periodicals are regular publications that contain news and other items of interest on a specific profession or industry. These periodicals can provide company information through reports on business openings and closures, announcements of industry-related patents, obituaries of industry professionals, legal notices, advertisements, and more.
Some recent trade periodicals, mostly post-1990, can be accessed electronically through New Jersey State Library's subscription databases, like ABI/INFORM and Business Source Premier.
Other trade periodicals that are out of copyright have been digitized and are freely accessible online through sites like HathiTrust or Internet Archive.
The article below, from The Rubber Age, was found using HathiTrust and describes the new bloomer uniform worn by women working at Semple Rubber Co. in Trenton. A photograph of female employees wearing the new uniform accompanies the article.
Image Source: (1917, July 10). The Rubber Age, p. 317.
Following the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) was created in 1934. Several federal laws regulate securities to ensure that publicly traded companies honestly disclose financial and investment information. For this purpose, the SEC requires public companies to file regular reports. Companies file many different types of forms with the SEC. However, the following forms contain a wealth of business information and are good starting points when researching a company:
In 1995, the SEC mandated that companies file reports electronically through their Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval (EDGAR) system. EDGAR maintains a freely accessible database of SEC filings from 1994 to the present.
This link opens in a new windowFilings not available through EDGAR, usually dated before 1996, can be requested from the SEC through their Office of FOIA/PA Operations. Copies of SEC filings can also be found in other library collections, including the Library of Congress. SEC filings, mostly 10-Ks, are also available through Mergent Archives, see the Historical Annual Reports section below.
An annual report is a yearly statement of a company's activities and financials. While U.S. private companies may issue annual reports to their internal stakeholders, unlike publicly-traded companies, they aren't generally required by law to publicly share this information. For this reason, finding annual reports and other financial information for private companies in the United States can be very difficult.
On the other hand, public companies are required to submit annual 10-K reports to the SEC. Additionally, some companies will also issue an annual report to shareholders (ARS). An ARS is usually an illustrated booklet that contains a message from the company's leadership, an overview of the company's history and structure, and a detailed description of it's achievements from the past year. More recent annual reports can be found on company websites. Some older annual reports have been digitized and are available for free online or through subscription databases, like Mergent Archives.
This link opens in a new windowIn 1810, 1820, and 1850-1880, data was collected on manufacturing establishments as part of the decennial U.S. Census. The 1810 U.S. Census for New Jersey has been lost, but the Manufacturing Schedules for 1820 and 1850-1880 are available on microfilm at the New Jersey State Library.
Information collected as part of the Manufacturing Schedules varies by year, but includes the manufacturer's name, service or product, capital investment amount, value of product produced annually, number of employees, and average monthly cost of labor. Small businesses producing less than $500 worth of goods are not included in these schedules.
A precursor of NJ's Department of Labor, the Bureau of Statistics of Labor and Industries was created in 1878. They published annual reports for the legislature from 1878-1917. These reports are digitally available in the New Jersey State Library's Digital Library and can be searched by keyword.
Most information found in these reports are for NJ industries in general. However, sections of the annual reports, like the "Chronology of Industry", mention companies by name in reference to employee injury, damage by fire or flood, the opening or closing of firm locations, the occurrence of strikes, and more.
Maps can provide valuable geographic context for historical companies. Some maps even identify the location of a business by name. Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, in particular, provide very detailed property information. In addition to street addresses and property boundaries, Sanborn Maps identify building footprints, uses, and construction materials.
The New Jersey State Library has a large New Jersey map collection in print, on microfilm and through our subscription databases. For more information on our map collections, visit the guide linked below:
The image below, from the 1912 Sanborn Insurance Map for Orange, NJ, shows the Edison Phonograph Works located on Lakeside Ave., West Orange, NJ. This map was found using the Fire Insurance Maps Online database, but is also freely available through the Library of Congress. 
Image Source: Sanborn Map Company. (1912). Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Orange, Essex County, New Jersey, Sheet 53.
In order to find information on historical companies, you may need to look outside the collections available through the New Jersey State Library or online. Libraries and historical societies local to where the company operated can be great places to start. Below are some additional resources to help you locate materials related to historical companies owned by other institutions.
