G. & C. Merriam Company
—The business was started in 1831, but the publication of Webster’s Dictionary was not undertaken until 1843. The founders were the brothers, George and Charles Merriam, and the original copartnership style was G. & C. Merriam. In 1856 Homer Merriam joined the other brothers, with no change in the firm style.
In 1882 the firm name was changed to G. & C. Merriam & Company, and at that time Orlando M. Baker and H. Curtis Rowley were admitted to partnership. In 1892 the copartnership was changed to a corporation, styled G. & C. Merriam Company. George Merriam, one of the founders of the company, died shortly before 1882, and about that time Charles Merriam retired from the firm. Thereafter the active management of the business devolved upon Mr. Baker and Mr. Rowley. Later Mr. K. N. Washburn was made one of the Managers. Mr. Baker died in 1914, and at the present time the active management of the business is in the hands of Mr. Rowley, Mr. Baker’s two sons, A. G. Baker and H. W. Baker, and Mr. Washburn.
The original firm of G. & C. Merriam, shortly after becoming established in 1831, began publishing educational books in a small way. The first of these publications seem to have been a series of school readers, The Child’s Guide, Village Reader, etc. For many years, however, and probably almost from the time that they acquired the rights in Webster’s Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam and their successors have confined their publications to the Genuine Webster Dictionaries.