J.A. Frye Shoe Company ledgers

Included are thirteen ledgers kept by the Marlboro leather shoe and boot manufacturer J.A. Frye Company from 1867-1903. The ledgers contain payment records of women shoe workers, a complete run of piecework accounts with individual workers, running balances of the company, accounts with suppliers, and accounts with shoe retailers. Perhaps as much as one third of the Frye workforce was made up of women. The ledgers of the 1860s and early 1870s separate accounts with cutters, lasters, and stitchers, some of which give evidence of exchange of goods for labor. One part of each ledger primarily contains accounts with single and married women, most likely home stitchers, who received needles as part of their pay.