Dealer Search

Like mentioned on the Purpose & Objectives page, each state is separated into regions that generally fit their culture (even with those states which are split culturally, I kept them in one region to not clutter up the menus). Within those region pages, there will be further links to go to each respective state's wholesale Edison sellers (along with a color-coordinated regional map- which will be sourced from mapchart.net- in the near future). In each state, there will be an embedded Excel table (in the near future, there will also be a color-coordinated map of the number of Edison sellers in that specific state) that will present the data I have found from the past year-and-a-half. The sources I used (which can be found in fullness here) to find this information came from:

• Edison Phonograph Monthly (which was a periodical monthly business magazine specifically tailored toward those who sold Edison products that was published between March 1903 to December 1916. From E.P.M., I found 2,001 companies/stores).

• Antique Phonograph Advertising - by Timothy C. Fabrizio and George F. Paul (an illustrated book published in 2001 which covered the general history of advertising early recorded music from the end of the 19th century to the mid-to-late 1920's. From A.P.A., I found 20 companies/stores).

• The Phonoscope (another periodical monthly magazine publication dedicated to presenting "scientific and amusement inventions," as mentioned by worldradiohistory.com, between November 1896 to December 1899. Even though many of the Edison products mentioned within the publication came from exhibitors and their nickelodeon exhibitions, many of those same exhibitors would go on to become the first dealers/jobbers for the National Phonograph Co. Other exhibitors mentioned in the proceeding tables are included due to their specific push towards using the National Phonograph Co.'s 'Edison nickel-in-the-slot phonographs.' From the Phonoscope, I found 49 exhibitors/stores).

• Talking Machine World (another periodical monthly magazine that was generally tailored toward those in the overall phonograph and recorded-music-selling business rather than one specific business- i.e., stores that would sell Edison, Victor, Columbia, and other record labels rather than one specific label like that in the Edison Phonograph Monthly. T.M.W. was published between January 1905 to, probably, December 1929. From T.M.W., I have found 1,479 companies/stores).

• Other, Smaller Sources (these were loose sources I found either from individual advertisements online- such as from Pinterest or Alamy- or from the survey I conducted a month ago where individuals reported any unique markings on their Edison phonographs or records that indicated an address or company/store name from where that specific phonograph came from. From these smaller sources, I have found 5 companies/stores).

Of course, at a future time, I will, hopefully, have the time to go through the early editions of E.P.M. where I might have missed any wholesale companies, and I am always willing to hear from those in the community who might have info on any company/store I might have missed. But as of right now (3-21-25), the total Edison stores found are 3,554. While we can never truly know the exact total of stores that sold Edison products (with some stores going out of business within a few years, or operated in quite remote areas where they, perhaps, could not afford to send out advertisements for a national consumer base in these publications), to archive the ones found here is better than archiving none at all. As for the rest of the tables, I separated by these columns: Wholesale Company/Store name, followed by its' address (if one is provided in the source), the city that store was named to be located at, pictures (which will be available at a later time), the source I found the information from, whether the store was suspended from selling Edison products (which is outlined in purple), and if the store/company was a main plant/base (green), a jobber/distributor (red), a dealer (default black), and/or an exhibitor (light blue).

(Terminology Page has many more definitions):

• Plant/Base: the factory bases that the National Phonograph Co./Thomas Edison Inc. operated out of that- might- have also sold a small number of Edison phonographs and records to certain businesses, but mainly to the jobbers.

• Jobber: the Edison's version of a distributor- a larger business/company that operated on a larger scale across a wide territory around the country. They would order the desired records and phonograph machines from the plants/bases to then ship said orders to the smaller dealers who operated within the jobbers' designated territory. In many instances, the jobbers would also have their own shops where they would sell Edison products from.

• Dealer: the standard shop or business that sold Edison records and phonographs directly to the consumer. These range from dry goods stores, drug (pharmacy) stores, instrument (notably, piano establishments)/music sheet and piano roll stores, as well as businesses that specifically sold phonographs and cylinder/disc records. Most of these dealers did not have more than a few stores under their name and would send orders for records and phonograph machines to their local jobber due to consumers buying said product in great numbers. 

• Exhibitor: Businesses, or many times, individuals, that would exhibit early Edison nickel-in-the-slot phonographs (a.k.a., nickelodeons) to the populace throughout cities during the mid-to-late 1890's. They would operate music parlors that would have rows of these nickelodeons set up with one specific song per machine that patrons could pay to listen to with prototype earbuds attached to said phonograph. Many of these Edison-specific exhibitors would also become dealers and jobbers.

• Suspended: Whenever a dealer or jobber would, through the view of the Edison's National Phonograph Co., sell Edison products outside of Edison's strictly set price lines, or would violate other certain guidelines found within the contracts each business would sign once signing up to sell Edison labeled products, then Edison would blacklist that specific company and their stores and would publish that list of blacklisted (or as seen in Edison Phonograph Monthly, the 'suspended list') companies to not conduct businesses with said dealers/jobbers. It was possible for businesses to get reinstated and taken off the suspended list, but it was more likely to see more stores on the suspended list rather than those who were reinstated.