Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Image not available
Visual Materials
The Theodore G. and Eleanor S. Congdon Maritime Collection contains 190 items that pertain to commercial, naval, and recreational maritime-related activities primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom. Materials date from approximately 1700 to 1990, with the bulk dating from 1800-1935. The collection consists of prints (engravings, etchings, aquatints, and lithographs), photographs, manuscript materials, publications, portfolios and bound volumes, and a single painting. The items deal primarily with whaling, yachting, and naval battles, and the vessels and people involved in these activities. The collection contains materials as diverse as early 18th-century engravings of whaling expeditions, letters from sailors working on whaling vessels during the 19th century, photographs of yachts competing for the America's Cup in the early 20th century, 19th-century lithographs of naval ships engaged in battle, and letters of marque and safe conduct signed by presidents of the United States, from George Washington to James Buchanan. Includes some letters and bills of sale of William Hathaway Jr. of New Bedford, Massachusetts. These items offer a wealth of information regarding the vessels that operated throughout three centuries, as well as the fishermen, sailors, and sportsmen who manned them.
priTEC 0003
Image not available
Manuscripts
Diary of Mary J. Colson, a ship captain's wife, chronicling a whaling voyage in the South Atlantic Ocean off the coasts of Argentina and Uruguay from October 1877 to December 1880. Colson provides details on the weather, food, and other ships encountered, noting numerous social visits with other ship captains and sometimes their wives. She describes frequent whaling activities, noting whales sighted, chased, and killed, and the boiling of whales aboard ship with the amount of oil extracted often mentioned. Colson's entry of January 13, 1878, details the killing of a right whale that happened near the ship. She refers to several accidents, mishaps, and deaths during the voyage, and to an outbreak of scurvy. There are a few trips onshore--to Port Stanley, Falkland Islands and to Montevideo, Uruguay--but none are described in detail. Also mentioned are reports and letters from home received from other ships, and notable events such as birthdays and holidays. The journal ends on December 18, 1880. At the end of the volume is a two-page account of whales killed and amounts of oil extracted, dating from December 9, 1877 to January 26, 1881, a note about a steamship dated April 18, 1881, and notes and calculations. The journal is written in pencil and is in a bound volume with numerous blank pages; the back inside cover has four small ink prints depicting sperm whales. Also present are two cabinet card portraits: one presumably of Mary J. Colson dated October 1, 1879 and one presumably of Herbert D. and Mary J. Colson, undated. Both photographs were taken at Chute & Brooks studio, Montevideo, Uruguay. In addition, there is a souvenir album of illustrated scenes of Montevideo titled "Album de Montevideo publicado por la Libreria Alemana Buenos Aires" (9 x 13 cm) with captions in English, Spanish, French, and German. An annotated transcript of the diary is available (mssHM 26611 (FAC)), which was created by Joan Druett, author of Petticoat Whalers: Whaling Wives at Sea, 1820-1920 (2001), in 1991.
mssHM 26611
Image not available
Rare Books
Includes illustrations of navigation instruments, ship cross sections, etc.; coat of arms on t.p.; charts; and astronomical tables. Leaves 16-23 and 78-87 lack numeration. Signatures: pi⁴ A-T⁸ V⁴. Contains a glossary of nautical terms on leaves 129-156, with running title: Vocabulario nautico.
106304
Visual Materials
Image of a whale being harpooned by hunters in a whaling boat; another whale being butchered and blubber being pulled onboard a ship in background.
priTEC 0064
Image not available
Manuscripts
The journal begins with Calkin leaving Auburn, New York on September 24, 1833, for Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he signs on to the crew of the whaling ship Independence, captained by Isaac Brayton. Calkin provides descriptions of whaling, icebergs, other ships encountered, a burial at sea, storms, and weather. The journal chronicles the ship's journey around Cape Horn to Chile and Peru, including a visit ashore to Lima and its Bellavista and Callao areas with descriptions of a Catholic Church and damage from the 1746 earthquake; the Galapagos Islands; the Marquesas Islands and Nuku Hiva, where he describes the Indigenous people and details a fatal encounter of two shipmates with locals; and to the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii). Following the shipwreck of the Independence on Starbuck Island on December 13, 1835, Calkin describes taking shelter on the deserted island and then going to sea in smaller boats with crewmates, eventually landing in the Cook Islands--first on Manuae Atoll, also known as the Hervey Islands, then Aitutaki and Rarotonga. The journal contains descriptions of the islands, local inhabitants, flora, and Christian missionaries encountered. Calkin then travels to the Sandwich Islands in November 1836, where he lives until January 1842; there is little description of his life there. The journal also contains 13 watercolor sketches of whales and whaling, icebergs, birds, flora, an iguana on the Galapagos Islands, and buildings in the Sandwich Islands. Some of the journal appears to have been written retrospectively. Also present is a loose letter from U.D. Kellogg, Harpersfield, Ohio, to Kezia Calkin, Sandusky, Ohio, approximately 1835 (1 page).
mssHM 26539
Visual Materials
Image of a large panoramic view of a whaling scene depicting a wide range of whaling activities on various boats and ships, including whales being harpooned at left and at right; captions printed under the image provide labels for the various stages of the whale hunt.
priTEC 0067