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John Haskell Kemble Commercial Maritime Ephemera Collection: Finding Aid
ephJHK
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Title: John Haskell Kemble commercial maritime ephemera collection
Dates (inclusive): 1855-1990
Bulk dates: 1920-1940
Collection Number: ephJHK
Collector: Kemble, John Haskell, 1912-1990.
Extent: 214 boxes (98.6 linear feet), over 24,000 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 ephemeral materials including ship histories, travel brochures, schedules and passenger lists from
over 925 shipping companies.
Language:
The materials are primarily in English; small amounts of material in French,
Italian,
German,
Spanish,
Dutch,
Swedish, and
Japanese.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services
Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.
Access Information
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.
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 commercial maritime ephemera 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 revised
June, 2008, following the assignment of series numbers to individual companies
by Mario M. Einaudi. Encoded by Diann Benti in 2017. Revised by Charla DelaCuadra in 2019, following the standardization of
box and folder numbers.
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). 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.
Item-level Inventory of the Kemble Maritime Ephemera
Visit the
Huntington Digital Library
to view
digitized selections from this collection.
Related Materials in the Huntington Library
- John Haskell Kemble maritime art 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."
Related Materials in other repositories
A portion of the Pacific Coast Steamship Companies Collection records were acquired by The Claremont Colleges (Claremont,
Calif.) in 1940. Dr. Kemble aided in the sorting and selection of the papers to be acquired, and the guide can be found here:
Guide to the Pacific Coast steamship companies collection.
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.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Advertising -- Tourism.
Advertising -- Transportation.
American Export Lines, Inc.
American President Lines, Ltd.
Anchor Line (Firm)
Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd.
Compagnie générale transatlantique
Costa crociere (Firm)
Cunard Steamship Company, ltd.
Dollar Steamship Lines
Grace Line
Hamburg-American Line
Holland Amerika Lijn
Italian Line
Matson Navigation Company
Moore-McCormack Lines, Inc.
Nihon Yūsen Kabushiki Kaisha
Norddeutscher Lloyd
Norske Amerikalinje
Pacific Steamship Company
Panama Pacific Line
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company
Princess Cruises, Inc.
Red Star Line
Royal Mail Lines, ltd.
Royal Viking Line (San Francisco, Calif.)
Ships.
Sitmar (Firm : Genoa Italy)
Steamboat lines.
Svenska Amerika linien, ab.
United Fruit Company
United States Lines Company
White Star Line
Billheads
Brochures
Clippings (information artifacts)
Ephemera
Leaflets (printed works)
Letterheads
Periodicals
Printed ephemera
Promotional materials
Tickets