Elwin M. Eldredge Collection

Researchers with interests in American, maritime, and economic history may now access an important portion of the Elwin M. Eldredge Collection at The Mariners' Museum. This voluminous collection of images, artifacts, and archival material about the rise of steamship transportation includes extensive documentation of the history of American steamship companies. With thousands of photographs, extensive notes, ephemera, and clippings from nautical publications, newspapers, and other media, this collection chronicles an important era in our maritime and economic history. The extensive documentation and primary source material will be valuable to researchers pursuing many different interests, from the histories of seaside communities to the development of the nation's industry and commerce.

Search the Elwin M. Eldredge Collection

The database includes a record for each of the 352 American steamship companies documented in the collection. Each record describes the contents of the file on that company and captures essential information, such as:

• Company name, headquarters, and dates of operation
• Other affiliated companies
• Ports touched
• Regions served
• Types of cargo and passenger service, including cargoes carried and involvement in immigration, commuting, and leisure travel
• Types of materials contained in the file of the company, such as advertisements, newspaper clippings, photographs, correspondence, and account books.

In addition, brief records have been created for each of the vessels operated by these companies. Records describe the information on the vessels in the collection and include:

• Vessel name
• Use in military service
• Highlights of the vessel's history, including name changes and involvement in disasters

Visitors are encouraged to search the database by company name, vessel name, or any word or phrase in any field.

Researchers may obtain access to the material in the collection either by visiting the Library or by contacting us at library@marinersmuseum.org.

Creation of this database was made possible by a generous grant from the National Maritime Heritage Grants Program, a federal program to preserve our nation's maritime resources. The program is administered by the National Maritime Initiative of the National Park Service.

This material is based upon work assisted by a grant from the Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Interior.

Photographs from the Elwin M. Eldredge Collection (MS91), The Mariners' Museum Library at Christopher Newport University.