Table of Contents

Scope and Content Note

Information for Researchers

Administrative Information

Description

Subject Headings

Inventory of the Biographical Collection

In the New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library

Scope and Content Note

The Biographical Collection encompasses a wide range of manuscripts relating principally to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York residents from 1668 to ca. 1977. Many of these documents concern individuals and families who lived in Dartmouth, Mass., and in the nearby towns of Acushnet, Fairhaven, Fall River, Freetown, Marion, Mattapoisett, Middleborough, Rochester, Sandwich, and Westport, Mass. Another sizeable quantity of material relates to persons who lived in Boston, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket, Mass., and in many Rhode Island towns, including Bristol, Jamestown, Little Compton, Newport, Portsmouth, Providence, Tiverton, and Warwick. Other papers reflect the activities of residents of New York, particularly those who lived in Ontario and Yates counties and in New York City. Also represented by materials in the collection are persons who lived in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Washington, D.C., and in Brazil and England.

Most of these documents in this collection concern the personal affairs of individuals and families. Dominating the collection are letters exchanged by relatives, friends, and associates; diaries and journals, chiefly compiled by women; deeds and leases for land and buildings; wills and other estate records; marriage certificates; court records, such as warrants and oaths; bills and receipts; military commissions, discharges, passes, and bounty records reflecting service in the American Revolution, War of 1812, or Civil War; contracts; and notebooks containing arithmetic and navigational exercises. The collection also includes numerous poems and songs; sermons by several prominent American ministers, including Samuel Hopkins and David Hosack; surveyors’ notes, a tax list, and other public records; recipe books; appointments to public offices; insurance policies; newspaper subscriptions; autograph albums; and genealogical notes. In several instances, an individual’s or family's papers contain information about business activities as well.

Papers in this collection are especially numerous for members of the following Dartmouth, Fairhaven, and New Bedford, Mass., families: Allen, Davis, Delano, Gifford, Hammond, Hathaway, Howland, Hussey, Jenney, Kempton, Macomber, Mosher, Nye, Ricketson, Rodman, Rotch, Russell, Shearmen/Sherman, Slocum, Spooner, Swift, Taber, Tobey, Wing, and Winslow. Notable materials pertaining to these families include correspondence, financial records, and notes of Henry Howland Crapo, a Dartmouth and New Bedford merchant and public official, and his son, William Wallace Crapo, a lawyer and local historian, 1823-1926; correspondence of Joseph C. Delano of Fairhaven and New Bedford, 1836-1856, which includes letters from Matthew Calbraith Perry and Mercator Cooper concerning opening trade with Japan in the early 1850s; the 1865 diary of Ellen S. Kempton, a teacher from New Bedford who worked for the New England Freedmen's Aid Society at Edisto Island, S. C.; letters to a New Bedford woman, Hester Swift Prescott, from Edith Wharton and Edith Bangs, 1914-1919, relating to their involvement with the American Fund for French Wounded and the American Memorial Hospital at Rheims, France; and correspondence, financial records, legal documents, a journal, and other papers of Benjamin Rodman,1814-1854, 1875; Samuel Rodman, Sr., 1780, 1806-1828; Samuel Rodman, Jr., 1820-1872; and Thomas Rodman Rotch, 1862-1868.

Another significant portion of this collection consists of documents which appear to have been collected for their autograph value. These items chiefly consist of letters, receipts, and notes addressed to American or English authors, clergymen, lawyers, legislators, politicians, scientists, and teachers, including Jacob Whitman Bailey, John Taylor Gilman, Augustus Addison Gould, Myron Holley, Jared Potter Kirtland, John Page, Henry Richard, Thomas Rodney, John Langdon Sibley, Charles Achilles Spencer, Daniel Webster, and Ezekiel Whitman.

Materials in this collection are arranged in alphabetical series according to the person or family which generated or, in some instances, received the document or documents. Anonymous items are filed under a heading denoting the type or form of manuscript. Inventory entries for the contents of each letter series have been alphabetized in sub-series by surname, family name, or record type/form heading. Names are accompanied by a person's dates and place of residence or the location of a particular family, if known.

Arrangement of Collection

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Information for Researchers

Access to the Collection

Unrestricted. Consult librarian for an appointment.

Preferred Citation

New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library Mss 64 [sub-group, series, sub-series, folder/volume as appropriate], [item]

Copyright Notice

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials. The Privacy Act of 1974 (5 United States Code 552a) governs the use of materials that document private individuals, groups, and corporations.

Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a reproduction if the document does not infringe the privacy rights of an individual, group, or corporation. These specified conditions of authorized use include:

If the researcher later uses a copy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," the researcher is personally liable for copyright. privacy, or publicity infringement and agrees to indemnify the New Bedford Whaling Museum from any legal action as a result of the error. Permission to obtain a photographic, xerographic, digital, or other copy of a document does not indicate permission to publish, exhibit, perform, reproduce, sell, distribute, or prepare derivative works from the document without permission from the copyright holder and from any private individual, group, or corporation shown or otherwise recorded.

Permission to publish, exhibit, perform, reproduce, prepare derivative works from, sell, or otherwise distribute the item must be obtained separately in writing from the holder of the original copyright (or if the creator is dead, from his/her heirs) as well as from any individual(s), groups, or corporations whose name, image, recorded words, or private information (e.g. employment information) may be reproduced in the source material. The holder of the original copyright is not necessarily the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The New Bedford Whaling Museum is not legally liable for copyright, privacy, or publicity infringement when materials are wrongfully used after being provided to researchers for "fair use."

This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if fulfillment of the order is judged in violation of copyright or federal or state privacy law. This institution also places restrictions on the use of cameras, photocopiers, and scanners in the research room.

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Administrative Information

Provenance

The majority of papers in this collection were given to the Old Dartmouth Historical Society by many different donors between 1903 and 1982. In addition, accession records indicate that some of these items were purchased from manuscript dealers during the same period.

Processing Information

Processed by: Patricia J. Albright, ca. 1982

Encoded by: Mark Procknik, 11 May 2012

Funds for processing this collection were provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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Description

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Subject Headings

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Vessel Names

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