Table of Contents

Historical Note

Scope and Content Note

Information for Researchers

Separations List

Administrative Information

Collection Inventory

Subject Headings

Inventory of the Edmund Taber Papers

In the New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library

Historical Note

Edmund Taber (1819-1911) was a notable New Bedford merchant who owned a managing interest in several New Bedford whaling and merchant vessels. One of the vessels in which he held a managing interest was the clipper ship Crystal Palace, built in Eastport (Maine) in 1854. During the years 1854 to 1859, the Crystal Palace shipped on three merchant voyages out of New York and New Bedford to Melbourne (Australia), Callao, Chincha Islands, Calcutta, Valparaiso, Hawaii, Sydney, Java, Macao, Bombay, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Another vessel owned by Taber was the whaling ship Emerald. Built in Boston in 1822, Taber held a managing interest in the Emerald’s final whaling voyage out of New Bedford from 1857 to 1861.

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Scope and Content Note

Materials in this collection consist primarily of ship’s papers in the form of account books for the Crystal Palace (Ship) and the Emerald (Ship), two vessels in which Edmund Taber owned a managing interest. Items related to the Crystal Palace include two agent/owner account books spanning three voyages of the ship during the years 1854 to 1859 in addition to three account books containing crew accounts from the ship’s third voyage during the years 1857 to 1859. Ship’s papers for the Emerald (Ship) include an account book containing crew accounts for the ship’s final three whaling voyages during the years 1847 to 1861.

The collection also contains an account book kept by Alexander H. Taber with notes from 1829 through 1832 with his signature and a date of 1851 on the inside cover. The account book contains 240 pages, but the first 112 pages have been heavily scrapbooked with newspaper clippings documenting New Bedford area news and events. Also included in the collection is a list of silver belonging to Elizabeth D. Howland, dated 1883 and written on a paper with the letterhead of Charles Taber and Company.

Researchers should also note that this collection also contains a nine page typescript journal kept by Joshua N. Rowe onboard the Crystal Palace, spanning May 1854 to September 1854 that has been removed and cataloged discretely as part of the Library’s Logbook and Journal Collection.

Arrangement of Collection

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Information for Researchers

Access to Collections

Unrestricted. Consult librarian for an appointment.

Preferred Citation

New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library Mss 184, [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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Separations List

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Administrative Information

Provenance

Materials in this collection were donated to the New Bedford Whaling Museum on 16 March 1994 by Helen M. Allen and Frederic H. Taber Jr. as part of Accession B94-7 after being formerly loaned to the Museum in 1983 as part of Loan #LB83-13.

Processing Information

Processed by: Mark Procknik, 2020

Encoded by: Kristi Mukk, 9 November 2020

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Collection Inventory

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Subject Headings

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Vessel Names

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