Matthew Joseph Walsh Collection
Finding aid created by Los Angeles Maritime Museum staff using RecordEXPRESS
Los Angeles Maritime Museum
2015
Berth 84 Foot of Sixth Street
San Pedro, California 90731
(310) 548-7618
http://www.lamaritimemuseum.org/
Title: Matthew Joseph Walsh Collection
Dates: 1866-1960, (bulk 1920 – 1950)
Collection Number: Collection # 42
Creator/Collector:
Walsh, Matthew Joseph - 1866-1960
Walsh, Helen
Gorry, Matthew
Garbutt, Frank
Garbutt & Walsh Boat Yard
Extent: 7 cu. ft.
Online items available
Repository:
Los Angeles Maritime Museum
San Pedro, California 90731
Abstract: Contains news clippings, photographic prints and negatives, an original manuscript, journal and newspaper articles. Business
correspondence, although fragmentary, was kept between 1928-1954.
Language of Material: English
Prior arrangement with Librarian, Curator, or Museum Director
Copyright restrictions apply.
Matthew Joseph Walsh Collection. Los Angeles Maritime Museum
Collection was gifted to the Museum in 2006.
Biography/Administrative History
Matthew Joseph Walsh was born in Little Canso, Nova Scotia in 1866. From the age of twelve, he worked with and spent most
of his time on sailboats and yachts until his retirement in 1948. He died in San Pedro at the age of 94 in 1960. The story
of his life, yacht racing and boat building business in the Los Angeles Harbor is also found in an article by Thomas Skahill
in Maritime Life and Traditions, 2005.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection depicts the life and career of Matthew Joseph Walsh, 1866-1960. Walsh was a yachtsman skilled at racing who
also built yachts, fulfilled Navy and Coast Guard contracts and performed ships’ repairs at his shipways, Garbutt & Walsh
Boat Yard, on Terminal Island between 1910 and 1950. News clippings, photographic prints and negatives, an original manuscript,
journal and newspaper articles, and business correspondence detailing the life of Matt Walsh are contained in the collection.
Business correspondence in this collection intermittently covers the dates between 1928 and 1954 for the firm, Garbutt & Walsh
Boat Yard. Four (4) CDs (compact discs) contain digital scans of select images were also donated with this collection.
boatbuilders
ferries
schooners
yachtsmen
yacht racing
Walsh, Matthew Joseph - 1866-1960
Garbutt & Walsh Boat Yard (firm)
San Pedro Bay (Calif: Bay)
photographic prints
film negatives
news clippings
autobiography