Books targeted for acquisition into the H and H research library. For books already held, see the Library (current holdings). For external works cited without being owned, see the Resources archive.
This page is a living curatorial document — entries graduate to a library holding (and disappear from this list) when acquired. The load-bearing column is Why we want it: every entry must answer what gap in the research corpus it fills.
Priority tiers
- P1 — Fill named gaps. A specific gap area in the current research has no adequate source. Buying this book directly enables a research thread or pages we already intend to write.
- P2 — Strengthen weak coverage. Topic has some coverage in the resources archive but a better, more recent, or more authoritative work is available.
- P3 — Nice to have / opportunistic. Long-tail, tangential, or expensive — pick up if found cheap, signed, or inscribed.
Priority 1 — Fill named gaps in current research
Roasting history & industrial equipment
| Title |
Author |
Year |
Why we want it |
Acquisition notes |
| The Coffee Roaster’s Manual |
Jabez Burns |
1872 (and later eds.) |
Primary text by the dominant late-19th-c American roaster builder. Burns-lineage equipment is the most likely ancestry for the rotating drum roaster shown in the man-at-coffee-roaster press photo; a copy enables direct comparison of plates against the Huntley Monitor catalog. |
Multiple 19th-c. editions; later facsimile reprints exist. Used market, or Hathi/IA scan for working copy + later physical buy. |
| All About Coffee (1st ed., 1922) |
William H. Ukers |
1922 |
Currently hold the 1935 2nd ed. The 1922 first edition has different and longer chapters on roasting machinery and trade infrastructure that the 1935 abridged. Edition-comparison is research-grade. |
First-edition copies are scarce/expensive; condition-flexible if signed or association. |
| Burns Coffee Company history / catalog |
(Jabez Burns & Sons trade publication) |
various |
No dedicated monograph on the Burns company is in the corpus. Any in-house or third-party trade history would directly support roaster-attribution research. |
No specific candidate identified. Open to suggestions from coffee-machinery collectors. |
Correction (2026-05-24): An earlier row listed Uncommon Grounds (Pendergrast, 1999 1st ed.) as a P1 target on the rationale that no physical copy was held. The book is in fact in-hand and has been accessioned to the library — see Uncommon Grounds on the holdings shelf. Row removed.
Tin lithography, packaging, and label printing
| Title |
Author |
Year |
Why we want it |
Acquisition notes |
| Petretti’s Coffee Advertising Price Guide |
Allan Petretti |
2002 (and later eds.) |
Standard collector reference for chromolithographed coffee tins, paper advertising, and store displays. Goes broader than Stahl’s key-wind focus (already held). Will help date and attribute H&H Master Chef, Original Blend, and Light Housekeepers tins. |
Krause/Antique Trader Press. Used market common. |
| A general history of American tin lithography 1880–1940 |
(various) |
various |
The chromolithography-on-tin trade is undocumented in the corpus. American Can Company (Canco) imprints are confirmed on H&H artifacts (2026-05-24) but no source ties the printing trade to the can-making trade. |
No specific candidate identified. Schiffer Publishing has multiple “antique advertising tins” titles; review their catalog. |
| Trade-card / chromo-lithography reference |
(various) |
various |
Adjacent reference: tin litho descended from chromo-lithographed trade cards. Period printing-trade volumes would situate the technique. |
No specific candidate identified. |
American Can Company / can-making industrial history
| Title |
Author |
Year |
Why we want it |
Acquisition notes |
| The Canning Clan: A Pageant of Pioneering Americans |
Earl Chapin May |
1937 |
Contemporary trade history of the canning industry; covers the Sanford Bros. and predecessor lineages that became American Can Co. Period source for the era when H&H was packaging in Canco 06 / 08 tins. |
Out of print; used market (Macmillan, 1937). |
| American Can Company corporate history / jubilee volume |
(in-house, various) |
various |
Any official Canco history would directly support seamer-and-tooling identification work on collection artifacts. |
No specific candidate identified. Check Hagley Museum and corporate archives for in-house publications. |
| The Tin Can Book or comparable popular history |
(various) |
various |
Popular industry surveys may cite primary sources we can chase. |
No specific candidate identified. |
Texas business / commercial directories & San Antonio period sources
| Title |
Author |
Year |
Why we want it |
Acquisition notes |
| Morrison & Fourmy San Antonio City Directories (period) |
Morrison & Fourmy |
1900s–1960s |
Primary source for year-by-year H&H street address, principals, employees, telephone listings. Anchors the 601 Delaware lifecycle and pre-Delaware addresses. |
Originals scarce; microfilm at TX State Library, UTSA Special Collections, or San Antonio Public Library Texana. Reprints if affordable. |
| Texas Almanac (1920s–1960s period editions) |
A. H. Belo / Dallas Morning News |
various |
State-level industrial and commercial reference; useful for situating H&H in the Texas coffee trade and tracking coffee/spice industry statistics during H&H’s operating decades. |
Long publication history; period editions commonly found used. |
| German Seed in Texas Soil: Immigrant Farmers in Nineteenth-Century Texas |
Terry G. Jordan |
1966 |
Contextual: Stevens and Hayman family-origin research. Germanic / Central European entrepreneurial milieu in Texas grounds founder biographies. |
University of Texas Press; readily available. |
| Period San Antonio business histories |
(various) |
various |
Companion to Saving San Antonio and Downtown San Antonio; specifically business-history angle (rather than civic/preservation). |
No specific candidate identified. Check TSHA (Texas State Historical Association) catalog. |
Coffee trade periodicals (primary period sources)
| Title |
Publisher |
Period |
Why we want it |
Acquisition notes |
| Tea & Coffee Trade Journal — bound runs |
Tea & Coffee Trade Journal Co. (Ukers’s house) |
1900s–1970s |
Primary-source pricing, advertising, equipment specs, and trade movements during H&H’s operating decades. Publisher of Coffee Merchandising and All About Coffee, so editorially adjacent to works already held. |
Bound runs scarce. Institutional access acceptable in lieu of purchase (NYPL, Hagley, US Library of Congress). |
| Spice Mill — bound runs or facsimile |
Spice Mill Publishing Co. |
early–mid 20th c. |
Analogous trade periodical; spice / coffee crossover (H&H ran spice lines as well). |
Same caveat. Institutional access acceptable. |
Priority 2 — Strengthen weak coverage
Coffee trade & business history
| Title |
Author |
Year |
Why we want it |
Acquisition notes |
| The Devil’s Cup: A History of the World According to Coffee |
Stewart Lee Allen |
1999 |
Popular narrative coffee history; complements Pendergrast and adds travelogue perspective. |
Soho Press; common used. |
| Coffee: A Dark History |
Antony Wild |
2004 |
Supply-chain / colonial-era coffee history; weak coverage area in the corpus. |
W. W. Norton; readily available. |
| The Global Coffee Economy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 1500–1989 (eds.) |
Steven Topik & William G. Clarence-Smith |
2003 |
Academic economic history. Scaffolding for sourcing-context claims; the corpus currently has none. |
Cambridge University Press; check for paperback. |
Collector guides (additional)
| Title |
Author |
Year |
Why we want it |
Acquisition notes |
| Additional Schiffer coffee/tin collectible volumes |
(various Schiffer authors) |
various |
The 2000 Kvetko & Congdon-Martin (already in resources) is the only general coffee-collectibles survey in the corpus. Newer or specialized Schiffer titles would broaden tin / paper-ad identification. |
Schiffer Publishing catalog; opportunistic. |
Priority 3 — Nice to have / opportunistic
| Item type |
Why we’d want it |
Acquisition notes |
| Signed / association copies of works already held |
Collector and provenance value: Stahl, White, Ukers, Pendergrast. Particularly relevant for Texas Glass (already hold author-direct copy; additional signed copies are nice-to-have at the right price). |
Watch ABEBooks, Heritage, and regional Texas booksellers. |
| Period San Antonio community cookbooks with H&H advertising |
Parallel to Alamo Cook Book (already held). Local cookbooks regularly carry coffee advertising on inside covers and back pages. |
Estate sales; church/synagogue cookbook reprints. |
| SHA (Society for Historical Archaeology) volumes referencing Texas glass, cans, or coffee |
Companion to Lockhart monographs already in the corpus. |
SHA back-issues; Hartwick College / SHA archive. |
| A Reverence for Wood and similar Eric Sloane Americana |
Periodically pictures period coffee-store interiors and tinware. |
Common used. |
Related: Library (current holdings) · Resources archive
