James Wrigley (J. Wrigley), New York

The English born James Wrigley was a prominent valentine publisher in the 1840’s. Later he branched out into the publication of songs, ballads, poetry and toy books. Prior to establishing his firm in New York, he was a printer in Manchester, England. Interestingly a toy book, Ali Baba, has been seen with the J. Wrigley, printer imprint with a Manchester address. No other information about Wrigley is known at this time.

This New York firm published series between 1844 and the late 1860's.
Dating its books is quite easy since all of the volumes have an address on the cover.

223.5 Division 1844-1848
366 Grand 1848-1849
394 Grand Street 1849-1852
396 Grand Street 1853
398 Grand 1854-1860
27 Chatham Street 1861-1864// 1866-1867
29 Chatham 1864-1866
61 Chatham Street 1867-1876

Wrigley's series are shown below. Most of the Wrigley books do not note which series they belong to. Series were published over a many year span with changing cover formats. Since a number of the titles were part of more than series, it has been a challenge to place the editions appropriately within the correct series.

The exact dates in which any one series was published are unknown. Based on the addresses approximate dates can be determined.