Jay T. Last Collection of Maritime Prints and Ephemera: Finding Aid

Finding aid prepared by Charla DelaCuadra.

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

Prints and Ephemera

The Huntington Library

1151 Oxford Road

San Marino, California 91108

Phone: (626) 405-2191

Email: reference@huntington.org

URL: http://www.huntington.org

Overview of the Collection

Title: Jay T. Last Collection of Maritime Prints and Ephemera

Dates (inclusive): 1704-approximately 1942

Bulk dates: 1840-1890

Collection Number: priJLC_MAR

Collector: Last, Jay T.

Extent: approximately 1,150 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: The Jay T. Last Collection of Maritime Prints and Ephemera contains approximately 1,150 printed items that pertain to travel, shipping, and other maritime-related activities and businesses in the United States primarily dating from the second half of the 19th century. The collection consists of advertising and promotional materials, business records, and illustrations produced for or relevant to steamship companies, sailing vessels, shipping entities, passenger lines, and related businesses and publications.

Language: English.

Note:

Finding aid last updated on September 24, 2015.

Access

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

Administrative Information

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

[Item title, Call number]. Jay T. Last Collection of Maritime Prints and Ephemera, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Provenance

This collection forms part of the Jay T. Last Collection of Graphic Arts and Social History, which was donated to the Huntington Library by Jay T. Last in 2005 as a gift in progress. The bulk of the Maritime Prints and Ephemera was transferred to the Library between 2010 and 2012.

Background

The Jay T. Last Collection is an unparalleled archive of printed paper artifacts that documents American lithographic, social, and business history. The collection began in the early 1970s when physicist and Silicon Valley pioneer Jay Last moved to Southern California and started collecting citrus box labels he found at local flea markets and rummage sales. As his collection grew, Last realized that these labels conveyed important information about commercial printing, graphic design, and social history, and he expanded his collection to include other forms of American visual culture. Today this collection contains more than 200,000 lithographic prints, posters, and ephemera of mostly nineteenth- and early twentieth- century American origin and represents works by more than five hundred lithographic companies.

Scope and Content

The Jay T. Last Collection of Maritime Prints and Ephemera contains approximately 1,150 printed items that pertain to travel, shipping, and other maritime-related activities and businesses in the United States primarily dating from the second half of the 19th century. The collection consists of advertising and promotional materials, business records, and illustrations produced for or relevant to steamship companies, sailing vessels, shipping entities, passenger lines, and related businesses and publications.

Materials are arranged in two series: small-size items (11 x 14 inches or less) and large-size items (bigger than 11 x 14 inches). Small-size items are described broadly at the series level; large-size items are fully inventoried, and all printers, artists, and publishers are indexed by name. The collection has more than 55 large-size items comprised mainly of lithographic and engraved prints of ships, certificates and contracts, and advertising materials for passenger and shipping routes. Small-size items in the collection number approximately 1,100 and are comprised mainly of advertising and promotional ephemera and business documents. The vast majority of these items are bills of lading and steamship passes, but the collection also has trade cards, timetables, booklets, directory ads, menus, passenger lists, postcards, handbills, and printed billheads and letterheads with manuscript text.

Subjects addressed within the collection include commerce, advertising, technology and engineering, and tourism as related to river, lake, and ocean travel mostly in the United States. The images are primarily promotional and provide information about the history of passenger travel and commercial shipping, as well as the advertising strategies employed by these industries in the 19th and early 20th centuries. As graphic materials, the items offer evidence of visual culture and printmaking techniques and trends, as well as information about the artists, engravers, lithographers, printers, and publishers involved in the creative process.

Alternative Form of Materials Available

Visit the Huntington Digital Library: Jay T. Last Collection to view digitized items from this collection.

Related materials in the Huntington Library

John Haskell Kemble Maritime Collection

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in the following two series:

Series I. Maritime Prints and Ephemera (small size)
Series II. Maritime Prints and Ephemera (large size)

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

Title of print. Date
Artist(s) (when known). Printer(s). Publisher(s)

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Huntington Library's Online Catalog.

Genres

Billheads.

Broadsides.

Business cards.

Business records.

Certificates.

Chromolithographs.

Contracts.

Ephemera.

Ephemera -- United States -- 19th century.

Ephemera -- United States -- 20th century.

Engravings.

Handbills.

Intaglio prints.

Leaflets (printed works).

Letterheads.

Lithographs.

Maps.

Menus.

Newspapers.

Passenger lists.

Postcards.

Printed ephemera.

Promotional materials.

Relief prints.

Stationery.

Tickets.

Timetables.

Trade cards.

Subjects

Advertising -- Tourism.

Advertising -- Transportation.

Boats and boating -- Pictorial works.

Docks -- Pictorial works.

Dry docks -- Pictorial works.

Fenians.

Flags -- Pictorial works.

Hudson River (N.Y. and N.J.) -- Pictorial works.

Industrial buildings -- Pictorial works.

Mississippi River -- Pictorial works.

Palms -- Pictorial works.

Rivers -- Pictorial works.

Sailboats -- Pictorial works.

Sailors -- Pictorial works.

Ship captains -- Pictorial works.

Shipbuilding.

Ships -- Pictorial works.

Shipwrecks -- Pictorial works.

Steamboats -- Pictorial works.

Steamboats.

Transportation accidents -- Pictorial works.

Printer, Publisher, Artist Index

The following is a complete list of printers, publishers, and artists represented in the large-size items in this collection.

A. Hoen & Co.

American Lithographic Co.

Bixler & Corwin.

Britton & Rey.

Bufford, John Henry, 1810-1870.

Century Lith. Co.

Clapp, David, 1806-1893.

Clay, Cosack & Co.

Cleveland, James A., 1811-

Currier & Ives.

Davids, Oscur.

De Young, M. H. (Michael Harry), 1849-1925.

Democrat Print.

Drew, Clement, 1806-1889.

Endicott & Co. (New York, N.Y.)

F. Sala & Co.

Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company.

George F. Nesbitt & Co.

Gies & Co.

Gladwin, George.

Harper & Brothers.

Hatch Lith. Co.

Hoogland, William, 1794 or 1795-1832.

J.O. Seymour & Co.

Kelly, Thos., active 1867-1868.

Magnus, Charles.

Major & Knapp Engraving, Manufacturing & Lithographic Co.

Martinet, Alf.

Menger, L. R.

N. Currier (Firm)

Nagel & Weingärtner.

Otis, Fessenden N. (Fessenden Nott), 1825-1900.

P.S. Duval & Son.

Palmer & Co. (1842-1851)

Parsons, Charles, 1821-1910.

Pendleton’s Lithography.

Pollock & Doty.

Propeller Power Presses.

Queen, Jas. (James), 1824-approximately 1877.

Rand McNally and Company.

Russell, E. N.

Strobridge & Co. Lith.

Swett, Moses.

T. Moore’s Lithography.

Tidd, M. M., 1827-1895.

Todhunter, Francis Augustus, 1884-1963.

Wade, William, active 1844-1852.

Weale, John, 1791-1862.

Webber, W.

Weingartner, A.

Wickersham, S.

Series I. Maritime Prints and Ephemera (small size) 1704-1939 (bulk 1840-1890)

Physical Description: approximately 1,090 items in 11 binders and 1 flat-top box

Scope and Content

This series contains approximately 1,090 small-size printed items that pertain to travel, shipping, and other maritime-related activities and businesses in the United States from 1704 to 1939. The materials consist of advertising and promotional ephemera, illustrations, and business records relevant to steamship companies, sailing vessels, shipping entities, passenger lines, and related businesses and publications. The vast majority of these items are bills of lading and steamship passes, but the collection also has trade cards, timetables, booklets, directory ads, menus, passenger lists, postcards, handbills, and printed billheads and letterheads with manuscript text.

Items smaller than 8 x 10 inches are housed in binders, while items that are between 8 x 10 inches and 11 x 14 inches in size are individually sleeved and arranged in folders in one box.

Arrangement

Small-size items are arranged by company, with the exception of bills of lading. Bills of lading are organized geographically by state followed by city of departure, and then ordered chronologically within each city grouping.

Binder 1

Bills of Lading, AL-MD by state (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)

Physical Description: approximately 85 items

Binder 2

Bills of Lading, MA-NJ by state (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)

Physical Description: approximately 80 items

Binder 3

Bills of Lading, NY, 1760-1859 (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)

Physical Description: approximately 85 items

Binder 4

Bills of Lading, NY, 1860-1899 (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)

Physical Description: approximately 60 items

Binder 5

Bills of Lading, NC-PA by state (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)

Physical Description: approximately 85 items

Binder 6

Bills of Lading, RI-VA by state & Wash. D.C. (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)

Physical Description: approximately 75 items

Binder 7

Steamboat Lines, U.S. & Canada, A-Z by company (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)

Physical Description: approximately 125 items

Binder 8

Steamboat Lines, Transoceanic, A-N by company (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)

Physical Description: approximately 105 items

Binder 9

Steamboat Lines, Transoceanic, O-Z by company (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)

Physical Description: approximately 60 items

Binder 10

Steamboat Passes, A-L by company (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)

Physical Description: approximately 155 items

Binder 11

Steamboat Passes, M-Z by company (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)

Physical Description: approximately 165 items

Box 1

Maritime Prints and Ephemera (between 8 x 10 inches and 11 x 14 inches in size)

Physical Description: approximately 15 items

Series II. Maritime Prints and Ephemera (large size) 1825-approximately 1942 (bulk 1840-1890)

Physical Description: 57 items

Scope and Content

This series contains 57 large-size printed items pertaining to travel, shipping, and other maritime-related activities and businesses in the United States from 1825 to approximately 1942, with the majority of items dating from 1840 to 1890. The series is comprised mainly of lithographed advertising prints produced for steamship companies, including both domestic and transoceanic passenger and commercial services.

Genres represented include advertising prints, certificates, broadsides, and documentary prints. The series contains color-printed, hand-colored, and uncolored images that range in size from approximately 11 x 14 inches to 30 x 40 inches.

Arrangement

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

Title of print. Date
Artist(s) (when known). Printer(s). Publisher(s).

priJLC_MAR_001387

The packet-boat Shenandoah, Capt. S. Compson, will hereafter leave Montezuma for Geneva daily ... Sept. 12, 1845. 12 September 1845