Skip to content

OPEN TODAY: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.

Rare Books

The old sea chest

Image not available



You might also be interested in

  • Image not available

    George Washington Felt journal

    Manuscripts

    The journal covers Felt's voyages on board the ship Rival from Boston to San Francisco, San Francisco to Callao, Peru, and then from Callao to Hampton Roads. Felt gives great detail regarding the events on board the ship, fights among the crew, daily chores and duties, ships and locations passed, the weather and sea conditions, and the longitude and latitude of the ship. The last few pages of the journal are "reminiscences" Felt wrote after the voyage regarding his feelings about being a sailor and his memories of San Francisco (including a visit to a Chinese Temple), and Callao and the Chincha Islands, Peru. Scattered throughout the journal are sketches of ships drawn by Felt; also included is a photo of Felt.

    mssHM 63174

  • Image not available

    "Rocks beside the Sea". St. Paul's Island

    Visual Materials

    Photograph album containing 36 prints that depict Alaskan nature scenes, various Native American life scenes, and the fur trade in the nineteenth century. The photographs were taken in 1881 and 1883. It is unclear if the photographs taken in 1883 are from one of the "Corwin's" voyages. The collection is particularly strong in images of fur trade expeditions and merchants; Native American villages and people; and views of the Arctic Ocean.

    photCL 97

  • Image not available

    Town on St. Paul's Island. Behring [Bering] sea

    Visual Materials

    Photograph album containing 36 prints that depict Alaskan nature scenes, various Native American life scenes, and the fur trade in the nineteenth century. The photographs were taken in 1881 and 1883. It is unclear if the photographs taken in 1883 are from one of the "Corwin's" voyages. The collection is particularly strong in images of fur trade expeditions and merchants; Native American villages and people; and views of the Arctic Ocean.

    photCL 97

  • Image not available

    [Seas Shipping Company - early and later studies]

    Visual Materials

    This collection contains the papers of naval architect, artist, and interior designer Jack Heaney primarily related to projects Heaney worked on in the mid 20th century at the New York City marine design and naval architectural firm of George G. Sharp Inc., and later at Jack Heaney and Associates. The bulk of the collection dates from the late 1930s to the 1960s and includes both professional and project records primarily reflecting Heaney's design work for cargo-passenger vessels, and some personal documents. The professional and project records in the collection includes design renderings and drawings of ship exteriors, interiors, furniture, and fixtures; photographs primarily of ship interiors; miscellaneous ephemera, often with graphic components by Heaney; publications and clippings profiling Heaney's work; and some miscellaneous correspondence. The largest section relates to the first nuclear cargo ship, the NS Savannah. Other ships and ship lines represented include the Robin Line, Delta Line, American President Lines, Great Lakes Ore Carriers, SS Aquarama, Gulf and South American Steamship, and the Farrell Lines. While most of the collection concerns Heaney's work, the Staten Island Ferries series also includes correspondence related to JoAnne Heaney's interior design work on the project in the late 1970s. The materials also include twelve of the first issues of Harmony in G. Sharp, the George G. Sharp firm's in-house magazine dating from the mid 1940s. The personal papers include three shipbuilding books and a notebook used by Heaney as a student; six pieces of student artwork dating from 1924 to 1926; and some additional postcards and pieces of ephemera.

    archHeaney

  • Image not available

    Two years before the mast; : a personal narrative of life at sea

    Rare Books

    Richard Henry Dana (1815-1882) of Boston left his studies at Harvard in 1834 in the hope that a sea voyage would aid his failing eyesight. He shipped out of Boston as a common seaman on board the brig Pilgrim bound for the Pacific, and returned to Massachusetts two years later. Completing his education, Dana became a leader of the American bar, an expert on maritime law, and a life-long advocate of the rights of the merchant seamen he had come to know on the Pilgrim and other vessels. Two years before the mast (1911) is based on the diary Dana kept while at sea. First published in 1841, it is one of America's most famous accounts of life at sea. It contains a rare and detailed account of life on the California coast a decade before the Gold Rush revolutionized the region's culture and society. Dana chronicles stops at the ports of Monterey, San Pedro, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Clara. He describes the lives of sailors in the ports and their work of hide-curing on the beaches, and he gives close attention to the daily life of the peoples of California: Hispanic, Native American, and European.

    496906b

  • Image not available

    Revenue Cutter "Bear" in the Sea[?]—Behring [Bering] Sea

    Visual Materials

    The 282 photographic prints in this collection document voyages of the United States Revenue Cutters "Bear," "Corwin," and "Richard Rush" to Alaska and the Arctic Ocean in the 1880s and 1890s. The images depict the boats, Captain Michael A. Healy, Frank A. Healy (Healy's son), the crewmen of the afore-mentioned revenue cutters; Alaskan natives and their homes; and various views of the Alaskan wilderness and towns. The collection provides insight into the people and events the "Bear" and "Corwin" encountered on their voyages while under the command of Healy. The collection also depicts Alaskan native graves; missionaries; whaling ships; ice fields in the Arctic Ocean; J.B. Vincent, a survivor of the shipwrecked "Napoleon"; Francis "Frank" Fuller, murderer of Archbishop Charles John Seghers; Alaskan native umiaks and various artifacts; and reindeer stations. Photographers who contributed to this collection include H.W. Bradley, Edward DeGroff, Lt. C.D. Kennedy of the USRC Maine, Geoff Knight, William H. Rulofson, and I.W. Taber. See also photCL 97 for related photographs concerning the "Corwin". The photographs were originally part of the Huntington's Manuscripts collection for Papers of Michael A. Healy, 1881-1900, call number mssHM 47577-47618.

    photCL 131