The story of American papermaking encompasses manufacturing history, family and local history, book arts, printing and technology history, also paper distribution and, by extension, the stationery trade. The current bibliography attempts to identify a broad range of literature to aid historians and all other researchers in the study of the formative American paper industry through the year 1900.

The 7,826 entries represent a highly analytical approach to identifying relevant information embedded within books, pamphlets, theses and dissertations, periodicals and newsletters, as well as selected unpublished typescripts and a few dozen of the more informative Internet resources (if dated at all, some sites may be later than 2013).