Manuscripts
Ben Field papers
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Logbook of a whaling voyage in the South Atlantic and the Southwest Indian Ocean, 1833-1835
Manuscripts
The logbook author and ship are unidentified. Brief entries date from September 23, 1833 to February 6, 1835 and mention the ship's position, weather, prevailing winds, other ships sighted, and whales encountered with outcomes (these entries are usually marked with inked images of whales). There is little mention of land sighted or visits ashore, though the entry for February 19, 1834 notes Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope and the several pages following record the voyage from Table Bay to the Indian Ocean.
mssHM 26610
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Peter Andrew Clapsaddle diary
Manuscripts
In this diary, Clapsaddle writes daily entries while on his voyage from New York to San Francisco. In it. he talks about life on board the ship, seasickness, his asthma, three passengers dying on board, church services he attended and the meals he ate. He also gives the ship's position and course. He briefly mentions the ship's stops in Panama and Guatemala, the arrival in San Francisco and a job he obtained with the Evening telegram. With the diary is a typed biography of Clapsaddle, outline of his voyage, map of his voyage and typescript of the diary.
mssHM 75101
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Eugene Field papers
Manuscripts
Collection of manuscripts by Eugene Field, mostly autograph copies of his own poems, and letters written by and to Field. Contains a large number of letters from Field to his wife, both before and after they were married, many dating from his trip to Europe in 1873.Collection also includes the following manuscripts: Beard and Baby, HM 19409; Bethlehem Town, HM 19876; Bethelehem Town II, HM 19877; A Birthday Wish, HM 19891; Boccacio, HM 19410; Casey's Table d'Hote, HM 19878; The Dead Babe, HM 19411; Dear Old London, HM 19412; The Dreams, HM 19413; Echoes from the Sabine Farm, HM 19414; Go, missive mine, as valentine..., HM 19879; The Hawthorne Children, HM 19415; Human Sympathy on the Sinin Farms, HM 19416; Hymn. Xmas. 1888, HM 19880; Memoirs of Mrs. Ruth Gray, HM 19418.
mssField
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Mary J. Colson diary of a whaling voyage in South American waters
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
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Edward H. Miller papers
Manuscripts
Although the majority of the letters were written by Edward H. Miller to his sister Sally, other addressees include his sister Ellen and his parents. There are also a few letters by his brothers Elisha and David. Miller's letters describe in detail his voyage to California on board the ship Pacific; his attempt at mining and the hardships involved; conditions in California mining camps; life in Sacramento and San Francisco; his business with Mark Hopkins; damage done by fires and floods; vigilance activities in Sacramento; and his opinion about the Civil War, abolitionists, and slavery. Also included with the correspondence is a short manuscript account of Miller's voyage to California on board the ship Pacific, presumably written by Miller, and an obituary for Miller written by an unknown author.
mssHM 67920-67957
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Rosario Curletti Collection of A. M. Ebbets Papers
Manuscripts
This collection was donated in honor of Southern California anthropologist Rosario Curletti. The collection consists of the 1849 sea voyage diary of Arthur Mercein Ebbets (121 pages) and supplementary material, including six letters by Charlotte White Penniman Ebbets, written while during her 1853 voyage on the steamer Tennessee (which ran aground near San Francisco); 14 folders of biographical manuscripts about Arthur written by his daughter Charlotte Penniman Ebbets; other family manuscripts, including family trees; and correspondence of Rosario Curletti regarding the diary and letters. It was Charlotte Penniman Ebbets who who supplied Rosario Curletti with several items in the collection. Nineteen pages of pencil drawings by Arthur Ebbets, depicting scenes from his 1849 voyage, accompany the diary. Seven other early California and Panama items supplement the Ebbetts items, including drafts of short stories or memoirs by K. V. Hastings ("A Visit to Acapulco," "A Day on Shipboard," and "From Panama to Aspinwall"), a copy of a long letter by Elizabeth Whitney Putnam detailing her journey west (she and her child sailed aboard the Tennessee and the Georgia on the same voyage as Lottie Ebbets), and Spanish and English versions of the diary of Pablo de la Portilla, a Mexican captain attached to Santa Barbara Presidio who led an unsuccessful 1824 expedition against a group of Chumash Indians who had rebelled against the San Buenaventura mission. Finally, the collection originally included a photocopy of the Augustin W. Hale diary, the original of which the Huntington holds in the Hale papers. Hale also sailed to California on the Pacific in 1849, and the he and Ebbets were apparently friendly. Details and references in the two collections overlap occasionally. In addition, the ships Pacific and Tennessee are both discussed in detail in the John Goodman Papers at the Huntington.
mssHM 69651-69707