Copyright registrations for 1959

Selected copyright registrations from 1959 are available from this page. Registrations were classified by category, with renewals included in the same volume as original registration in most cases.

The following types of records are available here:

• Books and Submissions to Periodicals (61,045 original registrations; more than 3,946 renewals)
• Renewals for Periodicals (14 catalog pages)
• Drama (3,429 original registrations; 781 renewals)
• Renewals for Maps and atlases (9 catalog pages)
• Renewals for Artwork and photographs (5 catalog pages)
• Commercial prints and labels (8,302 original registrations; 84 renewals)
• Motion pictures and filmstrips (3,916 original registrations; 1,020 renewals)

1959 original copyrights were due to be renewed in 1986 and 1987 (see the Copyright Office database for registrations for these years.) Original copyrights for 1959 renewals date from 1931 and 1932. 1931 copyrights could also be renewed in 1958, and 1932 copyrights could also be renewed in 1960. To find out more about researching copyright renewals, see this page.

To see if a book can go online, you may have to check not only the "Books" category, but also the "periodicals" category, if parts of the book first appeared in a periodical, and the "artwork" category if you want to scan any of the illustrations. If the book is a play, or a set of lectures or addresses, check the "Drama and Works Prepared for Oral Delivery" category too.

Not yet available online are original registrations for periodicals, artwork, maps, and music; and renewals for music. Please let us know if you have or find any of these online.

Books and Contributions to periodicals: Original registrations and renewals

• Part 1: Books, Pamphlets, Serials, and Contributions to Periodicals, January-June 1959
  • Renewals (pp. 715-784; see also a Project Gutenberg transcription)
  • Title index (pp. 785-960)
• Part 1: Books, Pamphlets, Serials, and Contributions to Periodicals, July-December 1959
  • Renewals (pp. 1623-1681; see also a Project Gutenberg transcription)
  • Title index (pp. 1683-1844)

Renewals for Periodicals

• January - June:
  • Page 177 (A - Chain Store Age (start))
  • Page 178 (Chain Store Age (cont.) - Ladies' Home Journal)
  • Page 179 (Liberty - New York Times (start))
  • Page 180 (New York Times (cont.) - New Yorker (start))
  • Page 181 (New Yorker (cont.) - Short Stories (start))
  • Page 182 (Short Stories (cont.) - Street & Smith's Wild West Weekly (start))
  • Page 183 (Street & Smith's Wild West Weekly (cont.) - West Pub. Co.)
• July - December:
  • Page 389 (A - Atlantic Reporter (start))
  • Page 390 (Atlantic Reporter (cont.) - Federal Reporter (start))
  • Page 391 (Federal Reporter (cont.) - National Geographic Magazine (start))
  • Page 392 (National Geographic Magazine (cont.) - New York Times (start))
  • Page 393 (New York Times (cont.) - Railroad Stories (start))
  • Page 394 (Railroad Stories (cont.) - Street & Smith's Western Story Magazine (start))
  • Page 395 (Street & Smith's Western Story Magazine (cont.) - Yale Law Journal)

Drama: Original registrations and renewals

• Parts 3-4: Drama and Works Prepared for Oral Delivery, January-June 1959
  • Renewals (pp. 39-46; see also a downloadable PDF from a different scan)
  • Name Index (pp. 47-66)
• Parts 3-4: Drama and Works Prepared for Oral Delivery, July-December 1959
  • Renewals (pp. 95-103; see also a downloadable PDF from a different scan)
  • Name Index (pp. 105-122)

Renewals for Maps

• January - June (5 pages)
• July - December (4 pages)

Renewals for Artwork

• January - June (3 pages)
• July - December (2 pages)

Commercial prints and labels: Original registrations and renewals

• Part 11B: Commercial Prints and Labels, January-June 1959
  • Renewals (p. 87; see also a downloadable PDF from a different scan)
• Part 11B: Commercial Prints and Labels, July-December 1959
  • Renewals (p. 159; see also a downloadable PDF from a different scan)

Motion pictures and filmstrips: Original registrations and renewals

• Parts 12-13: Motion Pictures and Filmstrips, January-June 1959
  • Renewals (pp. 39-46)
  • Name Index (pp. 47-56)
• Parts 12-13: Motion Pictures and Filmstrips, July-December 1959
  • Renewals (pp. 91-100)
  • Name Index (pp. 101-109; legibility problems on some pages)

Selected summary statistics

The above figures show original and renewal registrations for the categories shown above for the time periods shown, but do not necessarily represent the exact number of entries in these issues of the Catalog.

The images above were scanned by Google, and by the Universal Library Project, by Penn's Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image (with volumes loaned from Stanford), by John Mark Ockerbloom (with microfilm loaned from the Free Library of Philadelphia), and by Greg Weeks. If you would like to contribute better copies, or registrations that we don't yet list for 1959, email onlinebooks@pobox.upenn.edu. (Please don't send any images by email unless I ask for them.)