USA

Date

Document title

1

1673

John Usher's Printing Privilege

1.1

1700

William Bladen's Liberty to print in Maryland

1.2

1746

North Carolina Printing Privilege to Commissioners

1.3

1750

An Act to revise, digest & Print the Laws of this Colony

1.4

1772

An Act to revise, digest & Print the Laws of this Colony

1.5

1772

William Billing's Second Petition to the Massachusetts Governor and House of Representatives

1.6

1772

William Billing's Printing Privilege Bill

2

1781

Andrew Law's Legislative Printing Privilege

2.1

1783

Petition of John Ledyard

2.2

1792

Joseph Purcell's Map Printing Privilege

3

1783

An Act for the Encouragement of Literature and Genius [Connecticut]

3.1

1782

Letter from Samuel Stanhope Smith to Noah Webster

3.2

1783

Letter from Joel Barlow to the Continental Congress

3.3

1783

Continental Congress Resolution recommending the several States to secure to the authors or publishers of new books the copyright of such books

3.4

1783

An Act for the purpose of securing to authors the exclusive right and benefit of publishing their literary productions for twenty – one years [Massachusetts]

3.5

1783

An Act respecting literary property [Maryland]

3.6

1783

An Act for the promotion and encouragement of literature [New Jersey]

3.7

1783

An Act for the encouragement of literature and genius, and for securing to authors the exclusive right and benefit of publishing their literary productions for twenty – one years [New Hampshire]

3.8

1783

An Act for the purpose of securing to authors the exclusive right and benefit of publishing their literary productions for twenty – one years [Rhode Island]

3.9

1784

Letter from Noah Webster to James Madison

3.10

1784

An Act for the encouragement and promotion of learning [Pennsylvania]

3.11

1784

An Act for the encouragement of the arts and sciences [South Carolina]

3.12

1785

An Act securing to authors of literary works an exclusive property therein for a limited time [Virginia]

3.13

1785

An Act for securing literary property [North Carolina]

3.14

1786

An Act for encouragement of literature and genius [Georgia]

3.15

1786

An Act to promote literature [New York]

4

1789

United States Constitution, Art. I sec. 8

4.1

1787

Constitutional Convention Journal entry of August 18 1787

4.2

1787

Madison's Journal Record of August 18 1787

4.3

1787

Madison's edited Journal Record of August 18 1787

4.4

1788

The Federalist (No.43)

5

1790

An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books to, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned. “Act of May 31, 1790”

5.1

1789

Petition of David Ramsay of the State of South Carolina

5.2

1789

House Decision to prepare a bill for general copyright and patent protection

5.3

1789

A Bill to Promote the Progress of Science and Useful Arts [H.R. 10]

5.4

1790-1800

Sample Deposits

6

1831

An Act to Amend Several Acts Respecting Copy Rights

6.1

1826

Letter from Noah Webster to Daniel Webster

6.2

1826

Letter from Daniel Webster to Noah Webster

6.3

1830

Copy-Right Committee on the Judiciary Report

6.4

1831

Debate in House over copyright bill

7

1834

Wheaton v. Peters, 33 U.S. 591 (1834)

7.1

1828

Letter from Robert Donaldson to Richard Peters Jr.

7.2

1831

Letter from Richard Peters Jr. to Robert Donaldson

7.3

1828

Letter from Robert Donaldson to Henry Wheaton

7.4

1830

Letter from Richard Peters Jr. to John McLean.

7.5

1834

Report on the Copy-Right Case of Wheaton V. Peters Decided in the Supreme Court of the United States

7.6

1837

Memorandum from Joseph Story to Henry Wheaton and Richard Peters Jr.

7.7

1834

Memorandum from Henry Wheaton to Daniel Webster

7.8

1834

Letter from Charles Sumner to Joseph Story

8

1837

Report, with Senate Bill No. 223

8.1

1837

An Address of Certain Authors (with notes)

8.2

1837

Authors of Great Britain, Address of Certain Authors of Great Britain to the House of Representatives of the United States in Congress Assembled

8.3

1837

Debates in Congress: 'Copy-Rights to Foreigners'

8.4

1837

Memorial of a Number of Citizens of the United States, praying an alteration of the law regulating copyrights. February 4, 1837. Referred to a select committee, consisting of Messrs. Clay, Preston, Buchanan, Webster, Ewing of Ohio, and Ruggles, and ordered to be printed

8.5

1838

Report, from the Committee on Patents and the Patent Office

8.6

1838

Memorial of the New York Typographical Society, against the passage of an international copyright law. March 13, 1838.

8.7

1838

Memorial of a Number of Citizens of Boston, Praying the Passage of an International Copyright Law

8.8

1843

An Address to the People of the United States in Behalf of the American Copyright Club

8.9

1842

Memorial of a Number of Persons Concerned in Printing and Publishing, Praying an Alteration in the Mode of Levying Duties on Certain Books, and Remonstrating against the Enactment of an International Copy-Right Law

8.10

1848

Memorials of John Jay and of William C. Byrant and Others, in Favor of an International Copyright Law

8.11

1853

Henry Charles Carey, Letters on International copyright, (1853)

8.12

1853

Convention between Her Britannic Majesty and the United States of America for the Establishment of International Copyright

9

1841

Folsom v. Marsh, 9 F.Cas.342 (C.C.D Mass.1841)

9.1

1841

Master in Chancery Report

10

1847

George Ticknor Curtis, A Treatise on the Law of Copyright

11

1853

Stowe v. Thomas, 23 F.Cas.201 (C.C.D. 1853)

11.1

1852

Harriet Beecher Stowe, “Copyright and Natural Right—Letter from Harriet Beecher Stowe,” New York Daily Tribune 16, September 1852.

11.2

1853

Stowe v. Thomas, Complainant's Bill

11.3

1853

Stowe v. Thomas, Defendant’s Answer

11.4

1853

Stowe v. Thomas, Affidavit of Harriet Beecher Stowe

11.5

1853

Uncle Tom’ at Law,” New-York Weekly Tribune, 16 April 1853, 10.

12

1856

An Act supplemental to an Act entitled “An Act to amend the several acts respecting Copyright,” approved February third, eighteen hundred and thirty-one

12.1

1870

Reports of the Committee of the Senate of the United States, No. 209, June 11, 1870. To Accompany Bill S. No. 703

12.2

1844

A Bill Relating to Copyright by C.J. Ingersoll H.R. 9

13

1863

A Bill to Secure copyrights to authors and composers, citizens of the Confederate States, whose works were copyrighted under the laws of the United States

13.1

1862

“Southern Feeling,” Index, 15 May, 1862.

13.2

1863

Memorial to the Congress of the Confederate States

13.3

1863

A Resolution in Relation to International Copyright.

14

1865

An Act supplemental to an Act entitled “An Act to amend the several laws respecting Copyright,” approved February third, eighteen hundred and thirty-one, and to the Acts in Addition thereto and Amendment thereof

14.1

1883

Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony, 111 U.S. 53 (1883)

14.2

1882

"Oscar Wilde No. 18" photograph

14.3

Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony, Brief for defendant in error

14.4

1883

Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony, Brief for Plaintiff in error

14.5

1891

Falk v. Brett Lithographing Co., 48 F. 678 (S.D.N.Y. 1891)

14.6

1893

Falk v. Donaldson, 57 F.32 (S.D.N.Y. 1893)

15

1870

An Act to revise, consolidate, and amend the Statutes relating to Patents and Copyrights

15.1

1879

Report on Dramatic Compositions

16

1879

E. S. Drone, Drone on Copyright

17

1879

Baker v. Selden, 101 US 99 (1879)

17.1

1879

Baker's v. Selden Argument for Appellee

17.2

1879

Baker v. Selden Argument for Appellants

18

1891

International Copyright Act (also known as The Chace Act)

18.1

1872

S.688 A Bill for the securing to authors in certain cases the benefit of international copyright

18.2

1873

Report from the Committee of Library printed in Harper’s Magazine

18.3

1886

Report on the Bill S. 2496, From the Committee on Patents

18.4

1891

George Haven Putnam, The Question of Copyright

18.5

1890

Report on the Bill H.R. 10881 “Simmonds Report”

18.6

1888

Samuel Clemens and Brander Matthews, “American Authors and British Pirates,” New Princeton Review, New Series, V (1888) 47-65

18.7

1888

"The International Copyright Bill," The Nation XXX (1888), 44.

19

1897

Copyright Act (Public Performance: Musical Compositions)

19.1

1896

A bill to amend title 60, chapter 3 of the Revised Statutes relating to copyrights

19.2

1885

Carte v. Duff, (The Mikado case) 25 F.183 (C.C.S.D.N.Y. 1885)

19.3

1896

Report to Accompany H.R. 1978 (Cummings Bill)

19.4

1896

Report to Accompany S.2306

19.5

1894

Report to Accompany H.R. 6835

19.6

1896

Treloar Copyright Bill: Hearing on H.R. 5976 Before the House Committee On Patents

19.7

1896

Treloar Copyright Bill (H.R. 5976)

19.8

1894

H.R. 6835 (Cummings Bill)

19.9

1896

Debate over Cummings Bill

20

1903

Bleistein v. Donaldson Lithographic Co., 188 U.S. 239 (1903)

20.1

1899

Bleistein v. Donaldson United States Circuit Court District of Kentucky Decision

20.2

1900

Bleistein V. Donaldson Lithographic Co. United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Decision

20.3

1902

Bleistein v. Donaldson Lithographic Co. United States, Brief on behalf of plaintiff in error

20.4

1902

Bleistein v. Donaldson Lithographic Co. United States, Brief of defendant in error

20.5

1902

Three Posters: Spectacular Ballet Design The Stirk Family Design Statutory Act Design.