themarinersmuseum-blog

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William C. Warren, under way.  ca. 1935 . Elwin Eldredge Collection, The Mariners’ Museum. MS0091/03.01-91#079 Sponsored by a Hidden Collections grant from the Council on Library and Information Resource (CLIR).

The going theory is that this is a rocket powered potato, or a meteor coming to destroy the earth.  We have all died, we just don’t know it yet. Or a UFO. This is far more interesting than a splotch on the negative, especially when it has an obvious streamer behind it. Yes. This is perfectly sensible.

There’s been a dreadful lack of coffee this morning.

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Miss Midnight, mascot for the SS Chatham. 3 June, 1937. She has her own little box! It may not be entirely legible here, but it reads Miss Midnight / S.S. Chatham / Cap. 1 Black Cat. And she has her own wee life vest! not that she seem to appreciate the value of such attention, but that’s cats for you. At least she likes her box.

Shot by Mr. William B. Taylor of Boston, a shipyard mechanic, while on a vacation. Most of this collection shows merchant vessels, but there are also some charming vacation photos.

Sponsored by a Hidden Collections grant from the Council on Library and Information Resource (CLIR).

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Photographs taken by Ellis Parker Griffith of the Colonial Pageant at the College of William and Mary in 1921. 

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Ellis Parker Griffith documented the Yorktown Sesquicentennial in 1931. The event commemorated the 150th anniversary of the American Revolutionary War victory over the British.

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In 1950, Hollywood starlet Mitzi Gaynor was named Queen Lorelei III at the National Seafood Festival in Hampton, VA. These photographs of Ms. Gaynor, King Neptune Andy Roberts, and their royal court were taken by Ellis Parker Griffith.

More information about the festival can be found in this digitzed program: http://hampton.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2954

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Men and a child dressed in drag, circa 1918. They could have been part of a womanless wedding performance. The photograph was taken by Ellis Parker Griffith.

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SS Norwich, drawn by Elwin Eldredge.

Photographed by Frederick Sedgwick in the early 20th century. The Mariners' Museum holds a large number of 5x7" glass plate negatives shot by and collected by Mr. Sedgwick, as well as his research notes and records on steam vessels.  

This is now (until we go through the rest of Stanton and Eldredge) the second known image of the Norwich. The only other is a drawing here, which also gives a nice history of the vessel before it reverted to civilian service. It was lost at sea in 1873, 20 years before Eldredge was born. Clearly, there *had* been other images of the Norwich in the past, and maybe we will actually find some in Eldredge’s VAST collections.

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The first dramatic photo shows the Lake Dymer in the process of launching with shipyard workers looking on. The same ship was later painted with camouflage.

Photographs are from the David F. Barry Collection.  Sponsored by a Hidden Collections grant from the Council on Library and Information Resource (CLIR).

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They describe it as ciderlike and fresh, which sounds delightful. And there are period references to a similar sounding beer, so it’s probably at least close to the original. Sadly, no one is actually marketing it yet. 

Oldest Beer Brewed from Shipwreck's 220-Year-Old Yeast Microbes

Yeast microbes from the world’s oldest bottle of beer — a 220-year-old bottle found in one of Australia’s earliest shipwrecks — are being used to create a new, modern beer with the characteristic taste of the 18th-century brew.

The yeast was grown from the contents of a bottle of beer recovered from the wreck of the Sydney Cove, a British trading ship that got caught in a storm near the island of Tasmania, off Australia’s south coast, in 1797 while on its way from Calcutta to the prison colony at Port Jackson, now Sydney.

The crew of the Sydney Cove survived by grounding the sinking ship on a tiny island off northern Tasmania, now called Preservation Island, which is part of the inspiration for the name of the recreated beer: Preservation Ale. 

The researchers used the yeast to brew a mild-tasting beer using a traditional recipe from the time, and they say it has a distinct flavor. Read more.

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Photographed by Edward Hungerford in Rockport, MA between 1923 and 1940. The Mariners' Museum holds a large number of negatives shot between the two world wars.

Sponsored by a Hidden Collections grant from the Council on Library and Information Resource (CLIR).

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Photographed by Edward Hungerford in 1917 in Rockland, ME. The Mariners' Museum holds a large number of negatives shot between the two world wars. 

This shows a shipyard, the first with ships being built and the second, a completed, or nearly completed, vessel. The Frank E. Morey was listed in the American Bureau of Shipping as having been completed in 1917 by a shipbuilder in Rockland, ME. 

Sponsored by a Hidden Collections grant from the Council on Library and Information Resource (CLIR).

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Photographed by Edward Hungerford in 1922 during one of his trips to Europe. The Mariners' Museum holds a large number of negatives shot between the two world wars, many in Europe. Several show buildings and places that no longer exist or were badly damaged during the Second World War.

This is Babbacombe Beach in Torquay, identified by photos from other angles that included rocks that are still in the water. Sadly, the buildings are not, as far as I can tell from Google Maps. 

Sponsored by a Hidden Collections grant from the Council on Library and Information Resource (CLIR).

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Photographed by Edward Hungerford in 1930 during one of his trips to Europe. The Mariners' Museum holds a large number of negatives shot between the two world wars, many in Europe. Several show buildings and places that no longer exist or were badly damaged during the Second World War.

This shows Cologne, Germany, in 1930, with a sidewheel steamboat in the Rhine River, collecting passengers at a small station on the riverbank. The only building in the background to survive mostly unscathed is the twin-spired cathedral in the background, which provided an excellent navigation point. Most of the city was leveled. 

Sponsored by a Hidden Collections grant from the Council on Library and Information Resource (CLIR).

MS003-01886

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Photographed by Edward Hungerford in 1931 during one of his trips to Europe. The Mariners' Museum holds a large number of negatives shot between the two world wars, many in Europe. Several show buildings and places that no longer exist or were badly damaged during the Second World War. 

The Haus Ring der Frauen, shown here, was a presentation by the architect Peter Behrens for the 1931 Builders' Exposition (Bauausstellung, also translated as Building Materials, Construction, or Builders' Union Expo). 

Sponsored by a Hidden Collections grant from the Council on Library and Information Resource (CLIR).

MS003-01815 - Berlin

MS003-01817 - Berlin

MS003-01819 - Berlin

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Photographed by Edward Hungerford in 1930 during one of his trips to Europe. The Mariners' Museum holds a large number of negatives shot between the two world wars, most in Europe. Many show buildings and places that no longer exist or were badly damaged following the Second World War.

This one, as marked, shows Luebeck in 1930, with what appears to be a model or replica of a 16th century caravel, similar to the Lisa von Luebeck from 2005. Frustratingly, there is no ship name and I have not been able to track down who may have built a similar vessel. It is entirely possible the information is somewhere in our library, but as we are closed and in storage at the moment, I cannot access it for research. So, she is a tantalizing mystery ship, which is far more fun than the alternatives.

Sponsored by a Hidden Collections grant from the Council on Library and Information Resource (CLIR).

MS003-01977, Lubeck. 

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We are within sight of the end of the HRPE collection! Should be before the end of this week, barring emergencies and strange occurrences. On the way, we’ve found strange and lovely things, some funny things, and some things that are just ... too many things to correctly define. They vary. This set is pretty keen! The bride is Helen Onyett, the first Chinese American woman to reach Colonel in the American Army, on the day of her wedding, 1 December 1944, in Newport News, Virginia. 

Virginia, where a marriage between a white man and a Chinese woman was illegal, and would be for another 23 years, with Loving vs. Virginia. 

I found that note pasted to the back of the marriage licence for the Onyetts while looking for the name of a sister listed only by her initials in the photograph, and it is impossible to go from the joy of those wedding photos to the bluntness of that note, the pain, the indignity, the humiliation, the insult of it. 

As far as we have come towards equality, we still have so far to go.