Name authority headings for the book trade

This article discusses situations where it is not immediately clear whether an entity should be established as a personal or corporate name heading. While these situations are well-documented in early modern materials, less attention has been paid to them in 19th- (and, to a lesser extent, 20th-) century items.

The Folger is currently in the process of deciding on an approach to the "personal vs corporate" name heading problem, and is collecting a pool of examples, both to inform our decision-making process and to assist other catalogers considering the same issue. We are disregarding at the moment the current existence of authority records that may pertain to these entities for the purpose of establishing a general principle for tracing these names.

Discussion

Here follow tentative proposals on a default approach to book trade entities presented as individuals.

Individual presentation

If an entity presents itself consistently within a more-or-less defined time period as an individual, establish and trace the personal name.

Example: Nakładem Karola Wilda (see below) would be traced as Wild, Karol, 1824-1885

Simultaneous individual and corporate presentation

If an entity presents itself inconsistently as both an individual and a corporation within a more-or-less defined time period, establish and trace the corporate name.

Consecutive individual and corporate (or corporate and individual) presentation

If an entity presents itself consistently within a more-or-less defined time period as an individual, and subsequently presents itself as a corporation, or vice versa, establish and trace as personal and corporate names, respectively.