Porter & Coates, Philadelphia
Henry T. Coates & Co.

Charles H. Davis opened a bookstore at 62 North Eighth Street in Philadelphia in 1853.

On July 1, 1864 Willis P. Hazard along with Charles H. Davis and Robert Porter formed a partnership to start a publishing and bookselling business. This new firm was called Davis, Porter & Company and was located at 21 South Sixth Street in Philadelphia. Hazard disposed of his interests in the company in December of 1865. In February, 1866 Henry T. Coates was made a partner. It was styled Davis, Porter & Coates. Davis retired in 1867 and the house's new name became "Porter & Coates".

Robert Porter was born in 1842 in Wilmington, Delaware. His first work in the book world was with George S. Appleton. Subsequently he joined the above men in the new firm in 1864. He retired from Porter & Coates in 1895 and died in 1899.

Henry T. Coates (1843-1910) was a native of Philadelphia and a graduate of Haverford College. When Robert Porter died, he took over the firm and renamed it.

(Most references note that Davis and Porter, a bookselling firm was established in 1848. Since Porter would have only been six years old at the time, this appears to be incorrect. Unfortunately, it seems that all notices of this early firm came from the same source and no reference is ever noted. Of interest is that the Copartnership notice of 1864 does not mention a preceding entity. Also Davis had his own store without Porter in the 1850's.)

Davis, Porter & Co.	July 1,1864-1866
Davis, Porter & Coates	February 1, 1866-1867
Porter & Coates	1867-1895
Henry T. Coates & Co.	1895-1904

1864-1866	21 South Sixth Street
1867-1868	712 Sansom Street
1869-1885	822 Chestnut Street
1886-1891	900 Chestnut Street
1898-	1222 Chestnut

Porter & Coates published more than 100 children's /juvenile libraries, series and sets. For the first couple of years most of the series were in wraps for the very young. These books had previously been published by its predecessor, Davis, Porter & Coates. As time went on however, this firm published the very popular first editions of Harry Castlemon, Edward S. Ellis as well as first editions and reprints of Horatio Alger, Jr.

Porter & Coates published the Alta Edition which was a large publisher's series of reprints of both adult and juvenile titles. It started as a 19 volume set 1881. By 1888 there were 162 titles in the set. They were printed into the 1890's. Henry T. Coates & Co. also published this edition in a different format.

These 12 mo. clothbound books had dust jackets and came in a variety of colors.

Henry T. Coates & Co. Alta Edition

In the 1880's Porter & Coates published its "Best editions of Popular 12 mos". Most of these books were for adults but a number of them were also published in the various juvenile series. The key point is that the formats seen in this series were different from the juvenile book styles. Here are some examples:

Trade card from 1880		1887 Advertising Cover

Henry T. Coates & Co. published a number of new series as well as reprints of many of the Porter & Coates volumes. This house published the well known Roundabout Library which consisted of 97 titles. These were reprints of mostly previously published series.

Here are the Porter & Coates series. Some of these series were only published by Henry T. Coates & Co. Those are designated with HTC. No series begun after 1900 are included here.