John Haskell Kemble commercial maritime ephemera collection, 1855-1990, bulk 1920-1940

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Summary

Creators:
Kemble, John Haskell, 1912-1990.
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 ephemeral materials including ship histories, travel brochures, schedules and passenger lists from over 925 shipping companies.
Extent:
214 boxes (98.6 linear feet), over 24,000 items
Language:
The materials are primarily in English; small amounts of material in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, and Japanese.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection forms part of the John Haskell Kemble maritime collection compiled by American maritime historian John Haskell Kemble (1912-1990). Kemble assembled his archive by saving souvenirs from his own travels as well as by purchasing items from travel agencies and other collectors. There are over 24,000 items in the collection including ship histories, brochures, schedules, passenger lists, accommodation plans, menus, and publicity pamphlets. More than 925 shipping companies are represented including American President Lines, Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd., Cunard Steamship Company, Holland Amerika Lijn, Matson Navigation Company, Pacific Mail Steamship Company, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, and White Star Line.

Biographical / historical:

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.

Acquisition information:
Gift of John Haskell Kemble, 1960s-1990s.
Arrangement:

The maritime ephemera is organized alphabetically by corporate name. Each corporate entity has a four digit number which appears in parentheses following the name. The material for each corporate entity is organized into the following four groupings: brochures; schedules and rates; ship information; and other items. Brochures are primarily multi-page pamphlets, but may also include flyers and broadsides. Schedules and rates are organized in reverse chronological order. Kemble organized the schedules in this manner, and his original arrangement is preserved. Ship information also preserves Kemble’s original order for ephemera about individual ships: menus, passenger lists, accommodation plans, and publicity pamphlets. The final grouping, other items, contains miscellaneous ephemera not fitting the previous three groupings.

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

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

Oversize volumes in boxes 205-214 are RESTRICTED due to the fragility of the items. They are not pageable and are accessible with curatorial permission only.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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