H. Dayton, New York City

Not much is known about Hiram Dayton or his firm. It was active at least between 1854 and 1861.

Firm addresses:
1854-1856 79 John Street
1857 29 Ann Street
1858-1859 107 Nassau Street
1860-1861 36 Howard Street

It published one series for juveniles.

Uncle Merry's Books edited by Uncle Merry (John Newton Stearns)

This series was published by H. Dayton in 1860. The 1859 copyrighted books note 1860 on the title page. These are Dayton first editions.

A seventh book Merry’s Illustrated Book of Rhymes which was published by Bartlett and Miles in 1859 and later by H. Dayton in 1861 is probably not part of this series.

Dayton & Burdick published "Merry's Book of Puzzles" in 1856. It is not part of this series.

The content of these books is not original. Much of it was originally published in the volumes of Merry's Museum. Other of the vignettes were "borrowed" from the work of other writers. An example is a section in "Merry's Book of Eastern Wonders" which was paraphrased from Jacob Abbott's "China and the English" which was copyrighted in 1834.

The two paragraphs below illustrate this. The top paragraph is from the Abbott book. The lower paragraph is from the Merry book.

Format:
Cloth. Various colors. Blindstamped with embossed cover pattern. Gilt spine lettering and decoration. 7.5" x 5"
Only 1860 has been seen on the title pages of these volumes.

A variant of "Merry's Book of Animals" with a gilt cover design and decoration has been seen and is shown below. Whether it is an earlier format or not is unknown.

Variant format.
Title page also dated 1860.