The U.S. 1902 Gregg Shorthand manual has copyright dates of 1901 and 1902, but it was not printed until July 1902. It was not sold until July or August 1902. Here is the timeline of events:
- There is no copyright record in the US copyright books for the Gregg Shorthand manual in 1901.
- The Forward for the 1902 manual was dated March 1902.
- US copyright records show that the new Gregg Shorthand manual was copyrighted on July 5, 1902.
- Advance autographed copies of the 1902 manual were given to attendees of the second annual GSA convention in Peoria, Illinois, on July 7, 1902. This was stated in the Gregg Writer dated July 15, 1902.
- US copyright records show that 2 copies of the 1902 Gregg Shorthand manual were received by the US Copyright Office on July 19, 1902.
- Mention of future writing materials conforming to the new 1902 manual was made in the September 15, 1902, Gregg Writer.
It is difficult to pin down the initial print and sales months for the 1902 manual for the following reasons:
- Gregg shorthand manuals displayed the publication year on the title page through around 1909. For the next few years, there were no print dates or years. Printers codes that showed the print month and year did not start appearing in these manuals until 1914. This was not consistent across every Gregg Publishing Company book.
- The Gregg Publishing Company did not commonly place ads for their own book in the Gregg Writer in the first decade of the 20th century. They needed advertising from other companies to fill the ad space because they needed the money.
- Copyright dates from British editions were sometimes put on the copyright page of US Gregg Shorthand manuals.