Journals and notebooks of Joseph Dixon

This material is held atUniversity of Birmingham, Cadbury Research Library, Special Collections

  • Reference
    • GB 150 MS14
  • Dates of Creation
    • circa 1811-1830s
  • Name of Creator
  • Language of Material
    • English
  • Physical Description
    • 5 volumes

Scope and Content

Personal and business journals and notebooks of Joseph Dixon (fl 1809-1832), mercer and haberdasher of Birmingham.

Joseph Dixon had a shop in Great Hampton Street, Birmingham, and these volumes reveal all manner of information relating to his employment and business interests, and about his family and personal life. Several of the journals serve as both personal and business travel diaries. The earliest notebook, for example, starts as a diary of a visit to Shrewsbury and North Wales in 1811; another begins with an account of a journey to Cornwall and his subsequent itinerary there in 1822; and a third relates to much more local journeys of only a few days to such places as Warwick, Henley in Arden, Coventry, Stourbridge, and Bromsgrove between 1822 and 1828.

The volumes also include details and accounts of the goods he sold on his travels, topographical, historical and statistical information about the places he visited, and much other incidental information. This ranges from medical and culinary recipes and other domestic and chemical formulae to acrostic poems written to celebrate such occasions as the births of his children, songs, hymns, epitaphs and sermon notes which he wrote or collected, and sketches and technical and other drawings. Some volumes also include copies of family letters which he wrote and received, and the earliest notebook contains a detailed financial account of the family and household expenditure between 1809 and 1821.

Administrative / Biographical History

Joseph Dixon (fl 1809-1832), mercer and haberdasher, had a shop in Great Hampton Street, Birmingham by 1820.

Reference: University of Birmingham, Special Collections Department, Online Archive Catalogue ( http://calmview.bham.ac.uk/ ). Accessed May 2002.

Access Information

Open. Access to all registered researchers.

Other Finding Aids

Please see online archive catalogue for further details.

Conditions Governing Use

Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the University Archivist, Special Collections. Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. Special Collections will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.