Finding Aid for the Edward Robinson Squibb diary Biomed.0664

Contributing Institution: UCLA Library Special Collections

Title: Edward Robinson Squibb diary

Creator: Squibb, Edward Robinson, 1819-1900

source: Sanctuary Books

Identifier/Call Number: Biomed.0664

Physical Description: 1 unknown (1 volume)

Date (inclusive): 1897 May 29 - 1901

Physical Location: Held at UCLA Library Special Collections. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Language of Material: Materials are in English.

Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Purchased from Sanctuary Books, 2013.

"Edward Robinson Squibb (1819-1901) was an American inventor and manufacturer of pharmaceutics. He was a ship's surgeon in the U.S. Navy during the Mexican-American War and later ran a medical station at the Brooklyn Naval Yards. In 1954, he invented an improved method for distilling ether, a method which he readily shared instead of patenting it for profit. After leaving the military, he founded his own pharmaceutics manufacturing business in Brooklyn, New York, in 1858. In 1892, he partnered with his sons (Edward H. and Charles F.), operating under the name "E.R. Squibb and Sons". The sons sold the company in 1905, and it later grew to become Bristol-Myers Squibb."

Source: Antiquarian bookseller's description, 2013.

UCLA Catalog Record ID: 7119195 

[Identification of item], Edward Robinson Squibb diary (Collection 664). Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections for the Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles.

A handwritten diary of cruises and travels taken by inventor and pharmaceutical manufacturer E.R. (Edward Robinson) Squibb with his wife, Helen, of Brooklyn, New York, features visits to numerous countries as passengers on several cruise lines, from 29 May through 18 December 1897. The author's hand is tight and meticulous. The author pasted- or laid-in photographs (including one of Edward and Helen), maps, images of ships sailed, passenger lists, customs stamps, interpreters' cards, programs of concerts attended, and letters received from his grandchildren.

The diary begins when the Squibbs board the Hamburg-bound twin-screw steamer Pennsylvania -- for which Squibb provides a map, a photo, and a list of passengers -- at New York on 29 May 1897. The first evening he reports being visited by the ship's doctor, who "told me he was sent by the Captain to say that I must take my meals in my room, on account of my everted eyelids and disfigurement." In the early years of his business, Squibb's laboratory caught fire three times, with one explosion leaving him badly burned; was this the cause of his "disfigurement"? After two cold meals alone, he challenge's the captain, showing his concealing glasses, after which he moved to the Ladies' Lounge for meals. Thirteen pages later, before a subsequent cruise, he takes precautions to ensure that he won't be barred from a dining room again.

The remainder of the diary is mostly pleasant and uncontroversial as Squibb records dates, times, locations, miles traveled, weather, his potassium intake, what he is reading (such as "the alcohol brief" and "Thelma", presumably by Marie Corelli). He offers his opinions and observations with wisdom and wit, as when he mocks the talkative Lynch women or berates a tedious minister. On September 4th, page 53, he describes touring the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. On page 78, October 31, Squibb notes receipt of word of his election to the American Philosophical Society. On pages 96-97, Squibb describes a meeting with Leonard Hill, an inventor of the sphygmometer. Tipped-in at page 98 is a copy of Epps's Coacoa's souvenir "Crystal Palace programme" for December 7th, which includes times to view exhibits including "The Royal exhibition of working ants" [and early "ant farm"] and "the Imperial baby incubators" (p.2) The entries conclude on p. 100, "At Home", when the couple is received by family and friends and receives a bouquet from employees at company facilities on Doughty, Gold, and William streets. Squibb even records the time it takes to get through customs. The end of the volume contains a five-page log of letters sent and received during his travels, with dates and recipients indicated. The final page is a record of his finances. A typescript memorial tribute, dated 1901, is laid-in.

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