Theodore G. and Eleanor S. Congdon Maritime Collection: Finding Aid priTEC

Finding aid prepared by Charla DelaCuadra.

The Huntington Library

1151 Oxford Road

San Marino, California 91108

Business Number: (626) 405-2191

reference@huntington.org

URL: http://www.huntington.org

Note

Finding aid last updated by Melissa Haley on August 25, 2023.

Contributing Institution: The Huntington Library

Title: Theodore G. and Eleanor S. Congdon Maritime Collection

Identifier/Call Number: priTEC

Physical Description: 65.16 Linear Feet (2 boxes, 145 folders, 4 volumes)

Date (inclusive): approximately 1700-1990

Date (bulk): 1800-1935

Abstract: 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.

Language of Material: Primarily English, with some French.

General

Finding aid last updated on January 27, 2016.

Publication Rights

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item]. Theodore G. and Eleanor S. Congdon Maritime Collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Provenance

This collection was donated to the Huntington Library by Theodore G. and Eleanor S. Congdon in August 2006 and February 2008. Most of the items in the collection were donated in 2008; the 2006 donation consists of the following 26 items: priTEC 0165-priTEC 0190.

Access

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Biographical Note

Theodore G. Congdon (1929-2012) lived in the Pasadena area of southern California with his wife Eleanor, where he worked as an accountant. He grew up in New England, one of five sons of the socially prominent Congdon family that founded Congdon & Carpenter Co. in 1790. The firm dealt in iron, steel, hardware, carriage and saddlery goods, and paints and oils, and was one of the oldest family-owned and operated businesses in the United States until it was sold in 1977.

Ted Congdon's deep interest in maritime history led him to amass a variety of prints, documents, periodicals, and artifacts related to whaling, yachting, and naval history, the bulk of which forms the Theodore G. and Eleanor S. Congdon Maritime Collection.

Scope and Content

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.

Materials are arranged in three series: Commercial, Naval, and Recreational. These series are further divided into subseries based on format. All items are fully inventoried, and all printers, artists, and publishers are indexed by name.

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. 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.

Existence and Location of Copies

Visit the Huntington Digital Library to view digitized items from this collection.

Related materials in the Huntington Library

Periodicals donated by Theodore G. and Eleanor S. Congdon as part of the Theodore G. and Eleanor S. Congdon Maritime Collection:

Manuscript volumes donated by Theodore G. and Eleanor S. Congdon as part of the Theodore G. and Eleanor S. Congdon Maritime Collection:

Related collections:

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in the following three series, which are further divided into subseries by genre:

Series I. Commercial
Subseries A. Manuscripts
Subseries B. Prints
Subseries C. Publications
Series II. Naval
Subseries A. Manuscripts
Subseries B. Prints
Series III. Recreational
Subseries A. Paintings
Subseries B. Photographs
Subseries C. Prints
Subseries D. Publications

Items are arranged numerically by call number and described in the following format:

Title. Date
Artist(s) (when known and when applicable). Printer(s). Publisher(s)

Items are housed individually in folders, and are located in flat files or (when noted in the collection contents list) in one flat-top box.

A number of brief notes made by the donor regarding several items in the collection is available in Box 1.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Boats and boating -- Pictorial works.

Hunting -- Pictorial works.

Lighthouses -- Pictorial works.

Naval battles -- Pictorial works.

Ships -- Pictorial works.

Shipwrecks -- Pictorial works.

Whales -- Pictorial works.

Whaling -- Pictorial works.

Yachts -- Pictorial works.

Chromolithographs.

Contracts.

Ephemera.

Engravings.

Handbills.

Leaflets (printed works)

Lithographs.

Manuscripts.

Passenger lists.

Paintings.

Periodical illustrations.

Periodicals.

Printed ephemera.

Promotional materials.

Relief prints.

Series I. Commercial approximately 1700-1981

Physical Description: 74 Items

Scope and Content

This series contains 74 items pertaining to commercial maritime activities (primarily whaling) from the early 1700s through the middle of the 19th century, with reproductions from as late as 1981. The series is comprised mainly of prints of whaling ships, sailors in boats engaged in the acts of hunting and harvesting whales, and manuscript letters sent during or regarding these whaling expeditions. Notable items include a series of engraved hand-colored Dutch whaling prints by Adolf van der Laan and Sieuwert van der Meulen dating from approximately 1700-1730 (priTEC 0032-0037), and a series of lithographs printed by J.H. Bufford's Lith. illustrating the great whaling disaster of 1871, in which 33 American whaling ships were trapped in Arctic ice off the coast of Alaska, and subsequently abandoned (priTEC 0052-0056).

Box 1

Subseries A. Manuscripts 1798-1866

Box 1

Bill of sale between John C. Whitridge of New Bedford, Mass., and William Hathaway, of New Bedford, for part of the profiteer Potomka [printed form filled in, 4 pages]. priTEC 0004 1854

Box 1

Bill of sale between Lot Phinney of Osterville, Mass., and William Hathaway, for part of the ship Niger [printed form filled in, 4 pages]. priTEC 0005 1865

Box 1

Bill of sale between Robert Farley of Boston, Mass., and William Hathaway, and Matthew Luce of New Bedford, for part of the ship Statira [printed form filled in, 4 pages]. priTEC 0006 1848

Box 1

An outward entry of goods entitled to drawback, intended to be shipped ... by Henry Prince and Nathaniel Bowditch in the Ship Astrea [printed form filled in, 1 leaf]. priTEC 0007 1798

Box 1

Whaling signals on board ship J. Perry [handwritten document with name of 4th Officer Gifford, 1 leaf]. priTEC 0008 after 1852

Box 1

Letter from Frank Richardson, Cumberland Inlet, to his mother in Lawrence, Mass. [3 pages]. priTEC 0009 1866 October 10

Box 1

Letter from Captain Richard Luce, Jr., New Bedford, Mass., to Dr. Leroy M. Yale, Holmes Hole, Mass. [1 page]. priTEC 0010 1847 November 20

Box 1

Letter from Captain Richard Luce, Jr., on the Ship Margaret Scott, to Dr. Leroy M. Yale [2 pages]. priTEC 0011 1849 July 10

Box 1

Letter from Captain Richard Luce, Jr., on the Ship Margaret Scott at sea, to Dr. Leroy M. Yale [1 page]. priTEC 0012 1849 August 17

Box 1

Letter from Captain Richard Luce, Jr., on the Ship Margaret Scott, to Dr. Leroy M. Yale [2 pages]. priTEC 0013 1849

Box 1

Letter from Captain Thomas Burdett, off Paita, to William Hathaway [3 pages]. priTEC 0014 1854 October 22

Box 1

Letter from Captain Thomas Peakes, Ship Julian [?] at sea, to William Hathaway [3 pages]. priTEC 0015 1856 March 30

Box 1

Letter from Royal Thurber to William Hathaway about recruiting ship crews [1 page]. priTEC 0016 1856 [July] 20

Box 1

Letter from E. Wyszynski, Louisville, Kentucky, to William Hathaway about his son, Eustace Wyszynski [3 pages]. priTEC 0017 1864 April 4

Box 1

Letter from Captain Jacob L. Cleveland to William Hathaway [3 pages]. priTEC 0018 1857 March 27

Box 1

Letter from Captain Jacob L. Cleveland, on the Barque Luce, at Talcahuano, to William Hathaway [4 pages]. priTEC 0019 1860 February 13

Box 1

Letter from S. P. Hinegar, Honolulu, Hawaii, to William Hathaway [2 pages]. priTEC 0020 1860 October 13

Box 1

Letter from Captain Jacob L. Cleveland, Talcahuano, to William Hathaway [4 pages]. priTEC 0021 1861 March 18

Box 1

Letter from William Standish Fuller to Mallichi Ellis [i.e. Malachi Ellis?], Mattapoisett, Rochester, Mass. [2 pages]. priTEC 0022 1834 August 19

Subseries B. Prints approximately 1700-1981

The chase. priTEC 0023 1855 January 20

Scope and Contents