The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center
CredoResearch digital collections in Credo

Collecting area: Maritime

Briggs, Benjamin, 1760-1834

Benjamin Briggs Account Book

1805-1820
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 173 bd

Ship’s captain and cobbler from Scituate, Massachusetts. Includes list of ship expenses (harbor master’s fees, wages, wharf fees, provisions, carpenter and blacksmith bills, and bills for loading labor, rigging, and mending the sails), debt accounts with individuals, and accounts for making and mending shoes and boots.

Subjects

Barter--Massachusetts--Scituate--19th centuryBrown, JonathanCook, IchabodDebtor and creditor--Massachusetts--Scituate--19th centuryLitchfield, NathanielOzbon, AbsalomScituate (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryShip captains--Massachusetts--Scituate--19th centuryShipping--Massachusetts--Scituate--19th centuryShoemakers--Massachusetts--Scituate--19th centuryTalon, LewisWilcott, Daniel

Contributors

Briggs, Benjamin, 1760-1834

Types of material

Account books
Champion Family

Champion and Stebbins Family Account Books

1753-1865
8 vols. 2 linear feet
Call no.: MS 228

Account books from the Champion and Stebbins families of Saybrook, Connecticut and West Springfield, Massachusetts, who were involved in various businesses and professional activities. Includes lists of accounts by surname, services rendered, methods of payment, entries for treatments and remedies, lists of patients, and lists of banking activities. Volumes were kept by Reuben Champion (1720-1777), Jere Stebbins (1757-1817), and Reuben Champion, M.D. (1784-1865).

Subjects

African Americans--Massachusetts--West Springfield--HistoryAgriculture--Economic aspects--Massachusetts--HistoryAtwood, ElijahBarter--Massachusetts--West SpringfieldChampion familyConnecticut River Valley--Economic conditions--18th centuryFarmers--Massachusetts--HistoryGeneral stores--MassachusettsHomeopathic physicians--MassachusettsHomeopathy--Materia medica and therapeuticsMedicine--Practice--Massachusetts--HistoryPhysicians--MassachusettsPottery industry--Massachusetts--HistorySaybrook (Conn.)--HistoryShipping--New England--HistoryStebbins familyWest Springfield (Mass.)--Economic conditionsWest Springfield (Mass.)--HistoryWest Springfield (Mass.)--Social conditionsWomen--Massachusetts--History

Contributors

Champion, Reuben, 1727-1777Champion, Reuben, 1784-1865Stebbins, Jere, 1757-1817

Types of material

Account booksDaybooks
Chandler, John S., 1836-1916

John Chandler Account Book

1853-1914
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 287 bd

A mariner and whaleman originally from Provincetown, Massachusetts, John S. Chandler (1836-1916) relocated to Bucksport, Maine, in the 1870s to provide care for his aging in-laws.

Chandler’s account book and diary includes records of crewmembers on various voyages, accounts for labor, supplies, and merchandise, pasted-in bills for taxes, clothes, coal, boots, and other commodities, and a journal of Chandler’s farming activities, consisting of notes on labor performed, items and livestock sold, weather accounts, new purchases, and notation of personal visits and trips.

Subjects

Bucksport (Me.)--Economic conditionsBucksport (Me.)--Social life and customsFarmers--Maine--BucksportMerchant mariners--Massachusetts--History--19th centuryProvincetown (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryShip captains--Massachusetts

Types of material

Account books
Chase, Lot

Lot Chase Account Books

1837-1848
2 vols. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 199

Mariner from Harwich, Massachusetts, who was involved in the cod and mackerel fishing industry in Barnstable County. Two account books include expenses, income, and final settlements with those involved with annual voyages of 1837 and 1848. They also contain lists of crew members and part owners, many of whom were members of the Chase family.

Subjects

Barnstable County (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryChase familyCod fisheries--Massachusetts--Barnstable County--HistoryFisheries--Massachusetts--Equipment and supplies--HistoryFisheries--Massachusetts--Finance--HistoryFishers--Massachusetts--HistoryFishing--Economic aspects--MassachusettsHarwich (Mass.)--HistoryHorace (Schooner)Mackerel fisheries--Massachusetts--Barnstable County--History

Contributors

Chase, LotChase, Nathaniel

Types of material

Account books
Gardner, Leonard F.

Gardner/Wilson Collection of the USS Reid 369

ca. 1936-2015
1 box, 1 website 1.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1047
Depiction of Postcard featuring the USS Reid
Postcard featuring the USS Reid

A destroyer commissioned in 1936, the USS Reid was assigned to the Pacific Fleet and in 1939 was moved to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Reid was being serviced in port on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor occurred. The Reid survived and was re-assembled so quickly it was out patrolling later that morning. Between 1941 and 1944, the Reid served on numerous patrol and escort missions, including in the Aleutian Islands and Solomon Islands and joined forces fighting in Guadalcanal. During the Reid’s involvement in the battle of Leyte Gulf, it was attacked by twelve kamikaze fighters, several of which made contact with the Reid, including one that crashed into the port quarter and exploded, blowing the ship apart and killing 103 of the 268 aboard.

The Gardner/Wilson Collection represents the efforts of Leonard F. Gardner (BA ’49), Pearl Harbor survivor, who served on the Reid from 1941-1944. Gardner collected photographs and documents from former shipmates and produced a newsletter from 1997 to 2015 that recorded the lives of shipmates and included photographs and information about the USS Reid. In addition to the original materials Gardner collected, a full run of the newsletter and other documents related to the Reid’s service in World War II, the Gardner/Wilson collection includes a website curated by Gardner and designed, created, and maintained by James M. Wilson III (MBA ’86, MS ’86, PhD ’00), whose father, James M. Wilson, Jr., served on the USS Reid from 1940 and survived its sinking in 1944. Wilson also conducted oral histories of remaining USS Reid 369 members in 2006. The original website can be found at http://ussreid369.org. SCUA also maintains an archived version of the site. Several documents and photographs relating to the sinking of the Reid were added to the collection by Gordon Seastrom, a Pearl Harbor survivor and Reid shipmate.

Gift of Leonard F. Gardner and James M. Wilson III, 2018

Subjects

Destroyer escorts--United StatesKamikaze pilotsPearl Harbor (Hawaii), Attack on, 1941Warships--United StatesWorld War, 1939-1945 -- Naval operations

Contributors

Gardner, Leonard F.
Nichols, Reuben

Reuben Nichols, The adventures and ramblings of a sailor

1840
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 901 bd

The son of a Revolutionary War veteran from Fairfield County, Conn., Reuben Nichols went to sea as teenager and spent a quarter of a century sailing the Atlantic aboard merchant ships and privateers. After rising to become master of the New York and Savannah packets Exact and Angelique in the 1830s, he retired to a life on shore near Bridgeport.

This vigorous account of a life on the antebellum seas runs Nichols’ childhood hardships through a series of adventures at sea in war and peace. An observant and effective writer, Nichols describes voyages to western and northern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, and South America during and after the War of 1812. During a colorful career, he took part in the operations of warships and privateers, witnessed attempted mutinies and desertions, rescued the abolitionist John Hopper from a mob in Georgia, and was drawn into the struggles for colonial liberation. His experiences aboard the privateer Kemp and descriptions of Haiti, Cape Verde, Spain, Gibraltar, Turkey, and Argentina are particularly evocative.

Acquired from William Reese, Mar. 2016

Subjects

Abolitionists--GeorgiaArgentina--Description and travel--19th centuryAruba--Description and travel--19th centuryGibraltar--Description and travel--19th centuryHaiti--Description and travel--19th centuryHopper, John, 1815-1865Merchant ships--ConnecticutMutinyPrivateeringSailors--ConnecticutSpain--Description and travel--19th centuryStratford (Conn.)--HistoryTurkey--Description and travel--19th centuryUnited States--History--War of 1812--Naval operations

Types of material

AutobiographiesMemoirs
Nye, Thomas, 1768-1842

Thomas Nye Cashbook

1830-1842
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 227 bd

Agent or part-owner of a firm, who may have been a ship’s chandler, from Fairhaven and New Bedford, Massachusetts. Includes personal expenses and business accounts (large bills for firms and small bills for labor, repairs, food, blacksmithing, and other items and services). Cash book is made up of six smaller cash books bound together; also contains lists of deaths in the family and notations of the lading of several ships.

Subjects

Fairhaven (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryMerchants--Massachusetts--New Bedford--Economic conditions--19th centuryNew Bedford (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryNye family

Contributors

Nye, Thomas, 1768-1842T. and A.R. Nye (Firm)

Types of material

Account books
Port of Dennis (Mass.)

Port of Dennis Enrollment Bonds Collection

1889-1894
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 290 bd

Bonds entered in application for a Certificate of Enrollment for commerce vessels at the port of Dennis in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Volume contains 200 bonds (80 of which are completed), that provide names of the managing owner(s), the name and weight of the vessel, the sum of the bond, and the master of the vessel, and document the commercial activities of some residents in the towns of Dennis, Yarmouth, and Harwich.

Acquired from Charles Apfelbaum, 1987

Subjects

Barnstable County (Mass.)--Commerce--History--19th centuryBarnstable County (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryDennis (Mass. : Town)--Economic conditions--19th centuryDennis (Mass.)--Commerce--History--19th centuryEnrollmentsHarwich (Mass.)--Commerce--History--19th centuryHarwich (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryShip registers--Massachusetts--Barnstable County--HistoryShipping--Massachusetts--Barnstable County--History--19th centuryYarmouth (Mass.)--Commerce--History--19th centuryYarmouth (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th century
Solander, Arvo A.

Arvo A. Solander Papers

1930-1958
8 boxes 4 linear feet
Call no.: MS 587

Graduating from Harvard in the thick of the Great Depression, Arvo A. Solander worked as a civil and sanitary engineer for a variety of state and federal agencies, including the Civil Works Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps. During the 1930s, as opportunity arose, he filled positions as a road engineer, in the design and construction of water and sewage plants, in pollution control, as a safety engineer in the shellfish industry, and in mosquito control, taking jobs throughout Massachusetts and as far away as Tennessee. After using his talents as an officer in the Sanitary Corps during the Second World War, based primarily in Arkansas, Solander returned home to Massachusetts and opened a private engineering office in South Hadley. He worked as a civil engineer and surveyor until his death in January 1976.
The Arvo Solander Papers consists of twenty-four bound volumes documenting thirty years of varied work as an engineer, including his contributions to the construction of the Quabbin Reservoir. Within the bound volumes are a wide range of reports, typescripts, sketches and diagrams, graphs, contracts and design specifications, photographs, and postcards.

Subjects

Civil engineersCivilian Conservation Corps (U.S.)Depressions--1929Fisheries--MassachusettsMosquitoes--ControlQuabbin Reservoir (Mass.)Roads--Design and constructionSanitary engineersSewage disposal plants--Design and constructionUnited States. Federal Civil Works AdministrationWater--Pollution--TennesseeWater-supply--MassachusettsWestfield State SanatoriumWorld War, 1939-1945Wrentham State School

Contributors

Solander, Arvo A

Types of material

PhotographsScrapbooks
Toppan, C. S.

C.S. Toppan Account Book

1845-1861
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 084

A wealthy merchant from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Includes details of his ventures in ship owning and his investments in manufacturing companies and real estate. Also contains total assets of his “property in possession” as of January 1845, and lists of debtors, including men, women, businesses, religious groups, and political groups.

Subjects

Debtor and creditor--New Hampshire--Portsmouth--History--19th centuryInventories of decedents' estates--New Hampshire--PortsmouthMerchants--New Hampshire--Portsmouth--Economic conditions--19th centuryPortsmouth (N.H.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryShipowners--New Hampshire--Portsmouth--Economic conditions--19th centuryToppan, C. S. (Christopher S.)--Estate

Contributors

Toppan, C. S. (Christopher S.)

Types of material

Account books