Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
John Haskell Kemble Maritime Art Collection: Finding Aid
artJHK
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: John Haskell Kemble maritime art collection
Dates (inclusive): 1828-1981
Bulk dates: 1880-1920
Collection Number: artJHK
Collector: Kemble, John Haskell, 1912-1990.
Extent: 125 items
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Prints and Ephemera
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: This collection forms part of the John Haskell Kemble maritime collection compiled by American maritime historian John Haskell
Kemble (1912-1990).
The collection contains 125 artworks pertaining to and/or depicting maritime vessels, including both commercial and military
ships.
Language: English.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services
Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.
Access Information
RESTRICTED. Available with curatorial approval. Requires extended retrieval and delivery time.
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.
[Identification of item]. John Haskell Kemble maritime art collection, The Huntington
Library, San Marino, California.
Gift of John Haskell Kemble, 1960s-1990s.
Processing/Project Information
Collection processed 1999 to 2006 by Mario M. Einaudi. Finding aid encoded by Charla DelaCuadra in 2019.
John Haskell Kemble (1912-1990), Jack to his family and friends, was born June
17, 1912, in Marshalltown, Iowa. He was the only child of Ira Oscar Kemble and
Caroline Haskell Kemble. His father owned and operated several greenhouses
which grew flowers for the florist trade. In the late teens, Jack's father sold most
of his greenhouses and in 1921, the family moved to California. The Kemble family
first lived in Eagle Rock, then Pasadena. Jack graduated from Pasadena High
School in 1930, and went to Pasadena Junior College in 1931, before transferring
to Stanford, where he earned his B.A. in 1933. He then crossed the Bay and
studied under Prof. Herbert Eugene Bolton at the University of California,
Berkeley, earning his M.A. in 1934, and his Ph.D. in 1937. Through the contacts
made by Bolton and Henry Wagner, Kemble joined the Pomona College faculty in
1936 as a Professor of History. He retired from Pomona 41 years later, in 1977.
During World War II Kemble served in the U.S. Navy, from 1942-1946, in the Office
of Chief of Naval Operations and on the Staff of Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific
Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas. In October 1945 he received a Commendation
Ribbon from Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz during a ceremony at Pearl Harbor.
Kemble rose from Ensign to Lieutenant Commander during the war, remained active
in the US Naval Reserve after the war, and retired as Commander, USNR, in
1960.
In peacetime Kemble was also busy outside of his professorial duties at Pomona. He
was a Visiting Professor, at the Naval War College, Newport, R.I., 1952-1953;
was on the faculty of the Munson Institute of American Maritime History, Mystic,
Conn., teaching during Summers from 1955-1981; served on the Secretary of the
Navy's Advisory Committee on Naval History from 1961-1980; and on the
California State Historical Resources Commission from 1976-1979 and again from
1985-1990 (Chairman, 1987-1988).
His PhD thesis,
The Panama Route, 1848-1869, was first published by the Univ.
of California Press in 1943, and remains one of the principle resources on that
pivotal time in US and Pacific Maritime history. He also wrote
San Francisco Bay:
a pictorial maritime history,
published by the Cornell Maritime Press in 1957 and
was the editor for a definitive edition of
Two years before the mast by Richard
Henry Dana, Jr.,
published by Ward Ritchie Press in 1964; he also edited
To
California and the South Seas: the diary of Albert G. Osbun, 1849-1851,
published by the Huntington Library in 1966.
Kemble was an active member of the Zamorano Club, as well as other organizations
and groups including: the California Historical Society; E Clampus Vitus; and the
Los Angeles Corral of the Westerners. In February of 1990 Kemble was on his fourth
round the World cruise on the P&O liner
Canberra when, between New Zealand
and Australia, he passed away, asleep in a deck chair.
This collection forms part of the John Haskell Kemble maritime collection compiled by American maritime historian
John Haskell Kemble (1912-1990). The collection contains 125 artworks dating from 1828 to 1981, with subjects pertaining to
and/or depicting maritime vessels, including commercial and military ships.
Most are oil paintings, with some watercolors also included.
The collection is divided into three series: Commercial, General, and Military. Over two dozen companies are represented
in the Commercial series,
including Northern Pacific Steamship, Occidental and Oriental, Pacific Mail Steamship, and White Star Line. General artworks
include costal and waterfront views as well as a variety of vessels. The Military series
contains mainly American naval vessels, but also includes a Peruvian man-of-war schooner and a British Royal Navy frigate.
Related Materials in the Huntington Library
- John Haskell Kemble commercial maritime ephemera collection
- John Haskell Kemble maritime, travel, and transportation collection
Related collection of maritime books from Kemble's library is fully cataloged and may be searched under individual titles
in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
The collection may also be accessed as a whole by searching TITLE -- "John Haskell Kemble maritime collection", or AUTHOR
-- " Kemble, John Haskell, 1912-1990, donor."
The collection is arranged in the following three series:
- Series I. Commercial
- Series II. General
- Series III. Military
Artwork is arranged numerically by call number and described in the following format:
- Item call number
- Title of artwork. Date
- Artist(s) (when known).
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Ships.
Steamboat lines.
Tourism.
Transportation.
Drawings (visual works)
Paintings (visual works)