Stirling Tract Enterprise

Identity area

Type of entity

Corporate body

Authorized form of name

Stirling Tract Enterprise

Parallel form(s) of name

  • Drummond Tract Enterprise

Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules

    Other form(s) of name

      Identifiers for corporate bodies

      Description area

      Dates of existence

      1848 - 1980

      History

      The Stirling Tract Enterprise was established in 1848 by Peter Drummond (1799 – 1877) of the Drummond family, Stirling seed merchants and agricultural improvers during the 19th century, to publish religious tracts. The business first started out in Messrs Drummond & Sons seed premises in King Street, Stirling. Drummond’s first published tract was called ‘The Sabbath’ and he managed to distribute roughly 10,000 copies, followed by another 200,000 copies in the following months. He subsequently published several new tracts and, by 1852, he had devoted himself to tract publishing full-time. Drummond wrote and initially acted as the editor for these publications, the tracts were aimed at both adults and children and were distributed for free with the charge instead going to the distributors of the tracts, such as missionaries, preachers, and Sunday schools. However, changing attitudes after the Second World War, as well as the rising costs of publication and distribution, forced the company to rethink this approach.

      By 1957, Stirling Tract Enterprise had grown to be a worldwide publishing business. The tracts were distributed across the globe and were even translated into Gaelic and most Western European languages. They also published three periodicals during the year, which were each aimed at different target audiences. Due to the rapid growth of the company, the premises were moved to a larger building on King Street in Stirling. The Enterprise was then employing 26 members of staff and took advantage of the introduction of a special book-postage in 1859 – 1860 in order to access a wider market. The Enterprise soon began to publish books and magazines and had published around 60 million tracts by 1872. In 1888, the business had to expand into a larger building yet again, this time moving to Dumbarton Road in Stirling before a decline in business during the 20th century saw the Enterprise move to 64 Murray Place, Stirling. The Stirling Tract Enterprise closed permanently in 1980.

      Today, in spite of the vast amount of volumes produced, Drummond books are quite rare to come across.

      Places

      Stirling, Stirling

      Legal status

      Functions, occupations and activities

      Mandates/sources of authority

      Internal structures/genealogy

      General context

      Relationships area

      Related entity

      Drummond, Peter, 1799 - 1877, editor, elder (1799 - 1877)

      Identifier of related entity

      P0220

      Category of relationship

      hierarchical

      Type of relationship

      Drummond, Peter, 1799 - 1877, editor, elder is the owner of Stirling Tract Enterprise

      Dates of relationship

      Description of relationship

      Access points area

      Subject access points

      Place access points

      Occupations

      Control area

      Authority record identifier

      C0130

      Institution identifier

      GB224

      Rules and/or conventions used

      ISAAR(CPF): International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families, International Council on Archives (2nd edition, 2003); Rules for the construction of personal, place and corporate names, National Council on Archives (1997)

      Status

      Draft

      Level of detail

      Full

      Dates of creation, revision and deletion

      Created 07 Oct 2020, revised 16 Dec 2020.

      Language(s)

        Script(s)

          Maintenance notes