D&B History

We've come a long way since July 20, 1841 — the day we set up shop as The Mercantile Agency in New York City and led a business information revolution. We've grown enormously over the years and have stayed on the leading edge of technology.
Here’s an in-depth look at where we've been, and where we’re going.
The Pioneer Years
A Historic Merger
D&B in the Modern Era
D&B in the Millennium
Did You Know?
Timeline
The Pioneer Years
In 1841, an enterprising businessman named Lewis Tappan established a network of correspondents to provide American merchants with reliable, consistent and objective credit information. His Mercantile Agency in New York City was one of the first organizations formed for the sole purpose of providing business information to help merchants make informed decisions.
To foster expansion, in 1849 Tappan turned the agency over to Benjamin Douglass, a former clerk. Douglass capitalized on the improved transportation and communication of the time by expanding his network of offices, providing the agency with both new customers and superb information.
Shortly after he joined the agency, Benjamin Douglass began establishing local offices and hiring full-time employees who became experienced, skilled reporters and interpreters of credit information. Working as a credit reporter was a respected position that provided strong training in sound business practices. Among the D&B reporters who went on to establish names for themselves were four U.S. presidents: Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland and William McKinley.
In 1849, the rival John M. Bradstreet Company was founded in Cincinnati, Ohio. Two years later, the Bradstreet organization popularized the use of credit ratings with publication of the first book of commercial ratings. The rivalry between The John M. Bradstreet Company and Douglass' agency would intensify as the 20th century began and have lasting effects on the fate of the two organizations.
In 1859, Douglass turned over The Mercantile Agency to his brother-in-law, Robert Graham Dun.
Under the new name, R.G. Dun & Company, Dun continued Douglass' relentless expansion. During the next 40 years, Dun led the agency all over the United States and across international boundaries, carrying Lewis Tappan's vision into the next century.
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A Historic Merger
As America entered the 1930s, the effects of rivalry and economic depression on both the John M. Bradstreet Company and R.G. Dun & Company could no longer be ignored. In 1933, the arch competitors merged to form D&B.
The merger was engineered by Dun's CEO Arthur Whiteside. Using his first-rate diplomatic skills, Whiteside was able to broker a deal with the company's long-lasting and foremost competitor. Whereas previously both companies sold "products," Whiteside increasingly emphasized "service." With great leadership, he led D&B out of the depression and into the Information Age.
D&B in the Modern Era
The rapid development of computing and communications technology in the post-war era has been central to the growth of D&B. During the past 50 years of D&B's history, increases in the speed and volume of cross-border communications have influenced our evolution from a provider of credit reports to a leader in the international information industry.
The 1960s and 1970s were a time of explosive growth. Whiteside's successor, J. Wilson Newman, recognized that D&B needed to take risks and increase its range of products and services. D&B expanded dramatically during the 1960s by engineering ways to apply new technologies to evolving operations. In 1962, D&B introduced the Data Universal Numbering System — The D&B D-U-N-S® Number. Used to identify businesses numerically for data-processing purposes, it helped bring business information into the computer age. This unique business identification system proved so useful that today the D&B D-U-N-S Number has become a standard business identifier for the United Nations, the European Commission and the U.S. Government.
By the 1970s, D&B had established its commitment to new technology. A new "advanced office system" (AOS) fully computerized our data-collection operations, providing the ability to link and analyze categories of information in entirely new ways, and to deliver information to customers faster and more economically.
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D&B in the New Millennium
D&B has undergone a period of restructuring in recent years, designed to make it a smaller, more tightly focused company. A.C. Nielsen, Cognizant, Reuben H. Donnelley and Moody's Corporation were all spun off to allow each company to pursue focused strategies for its specific business. And in October 2000, D&B launched an ambitious new plan called the Blueprint for Growth — a strategy designed to transform itself into a growth company with an important presence on the Web.
We're creating a whole new generation of products and services and are constantly expanding the size and improving the quality of our global database, which now covers more than 100 million businesses worldwide. Most importantly, we're working hard to continuously improve the high-quality service that is our hallmark.
As we soar into this millennium, we will always have a fundamental legacy of excellence to build upon and define us.
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Did You Know?
— Lewis Tappan's strong belief in business ethics and sound judgment extended to his personal life as well. Tappan brought the first civil rights case in U.S. history to the attention of the national abolitionist movement and was primarily responsible for raising the funds used to appeal the case to the Supreme Court. Amistad, a 1997 Steven Spielberg film, includes the story of Lewis Tappan and his crusade to defend the rights of slaves.
— As a successful businessman, Lewis Tappan supported education, charities and social reform, including the abolition of slavery. In 1834, he skillfully organized "Anti-Slavery Week," bringing the movement serious national attention for the first time. That same year, mobs gathered before Tappan's home and burned it to the ground.
— Abraham Lincoln, one of the four U.S. Presidents who served as a business correspondent for D&B, often laced his reports with humour. In one of them, he described a grocer in his hometown of Springfield, Illinois as possessing a rat hole in his shop that "would bear looking into." When Lincoln was assassinated, one of the agency's employees drew a eulogy to the president in the margin of the page that contained the report on Lincoln's law office. A cross-like tombstone with the vertical letters 'A L' and a weeping willow tree were inked in black, in a small box, the inscription: "This office had the honor of having Old Abe as a correspondent."
— Benjamin Douglass' family members have remained associated with D&B as employees or directors ever since his retirement in 1859.
— R.G. Dun was the first to recognize the potential of the typewriter for business use. In 1874, he ordered 100 of the machines, at $55 apiece.
— Because of the typewriter, beautiful hand-written ledgers were gradually retired. Today, D&B ledgers are housed at the Baker Library of the Harvard University Graduate School of Business, these are studied by scholars and economists from around the world.
— In 1870, Dun retained as his attorney a man who in 1881 would become the 21st U.S. president: his friend and frequent salmon-fishing partner, Chester A. Arthur.
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Timeline
1841: The Mercantile Agency is established
1847: Benjamin Douglass becomes a partner in The Mercantile Agency
1849: The rival credit-reporting agency is founded in Cincinnati by John M. Bradstreet
1859: Robert Graham Dun assumes leadership of The Mercantile Agency
1874: The Mercantile Agency places the first commercial order for typewriters
1886: R.H. Donnelley introduces his first telephone directory in Chicago
1900: John Moody produces the first industrial manual
1931: R.G. Dun & Company introduces a new level of credit reporting
1933 R.G. Dun & Company merges with The Bradstreet Company
1962: D&B introduces the Data Universal Numbering System (D-U-N-S®)
1975: D&B develops the National Business Information Center
1996: Corporation restructured into three independent companies
1998: Independence for R.H. Donnelley
2000: The D&B Corporation splits into two companies