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• 1 media/SSH Church Music Hall and Fountain.jpg 2020-05-23T16:53:02-07:00 Sailors' Snug Harbor 95 image_header 2020-05-27T06:03:20-07:00

  Sailors' Snug Harbor Library

  In The View from the Masthead Hester Blum makes the case that sailors "were a class of workers who attained an above-average degree of literacy and who participated in a robust culture of reading and writing" (25). In making this case, Blum relies on the findings of Harry Skallerup, who used signature estimates, charitable organizations' surveys, naval library records, and mechanics' library histories to quantify sailor literacy (see Books Afloat & Ashore: a History of Books, Libraries, and Reading Among Seamen During the Age of Sail, 1974). Blum expanded on Skallerup's research by examining sailor writings, which provide further evidence of their literary interests and ambitions. 
  
  SUNY Maritime College is home to an additional, largely unexplored, treasure trove of data on sailors' reading habits: library records in the Sailors' Snug Harbor archives. Sailors Snug Harbor was the first home for retired seamen in the United States, dedicated to the welfare of “aged, decrepit, and worn out” mariners. Established through through the 1801 will of Robert Richard Randall (son of wealthy privateer Thomas Randall), the home opened on Staten Island in 1833. According to the Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden, "by the turn of the century, Sailors’ Snug Harbor was reputedly the richest charitable institution in the United States and a self-sustaining community with farms, a dairy, a bakery, workshops, a power plant, a chapel, a sanatorium, a hospital, a concert hall, dormitories, recreation areas, gardens, and a cemetery." Omitted from this list of amenities was the library, which was used extensively by the residents.

  Six library borrowing registers are among the 375 linear feet of records, photographs, and bound volumes that comprise the Sailors' Snug Harbor archival collection at the Stephen B. Luce Library. These borrowing registers list books and magazines circulated to the residents from 1884 through 1909. A sample page, selected at random from the 1884-1886 volume, is provided here. Items checked out from October 8 through October 10, 1884, included:
  • Novels and Tales (probably this book by Goethe) 
  • Two Years Ago (probably this book by Charles Kingsley - the Epub is for a 1901 edition, but Kingsley died in 1875)
  • Harper's
  • Scribner's
  • Court of London (probably The mysteries of the court of London by George W M Reynolds)
  • Camp and Field (probably Volunteers' Camp and Field Book: Containing Useful and General Information on the Art and Science of War, for the Leisure Moments of the Soldier by John P. Curry)
  • Lady of Lyndon (probably The Lady of Lyndon by Louise Pilkington Blake)
  • Seaside Library (probably related to the Seaside Library editions of popular titles published by George Munro) 
  • Our Saturday Nights (probably this book by Mark Mills Pomeroy)
  • Three Spaniards (probably Three Spaniards: A Romance By George Walker)
  • Hidden Perils (probably this book by Mary Cecil Hay)
  • King's Own (probably this book by Frederick Marryat)
  • Arabian Nights (of which there are many versions)
  • Christina North (probably this book by Eleanor A. Towle)
  • Brave Old Salt (probably Brave Old Salt, Or, Life on the Quarter Deck, A Story of the Great Rebellion by Oliver Optic)
  Transcribing and analyzing a larger data sample from the registers would be an extremely time consuming process, one that I wasn't prepared to undertake for this capstone. Nonetheless, exploring even this single page was fascinating. The diverse reading material included news, classics, and popular fiction, as well as first-hand narratives of sailors and soldiers. 

  Herman Melville and Sailors' Snug Harbor

  In a tantalizing twist, Herman Melville was intimately connected to Sailors' Snug Harbor and its library through his brother, Captain Thomas Melville, who ran the institution from 1867-1884. According to John Rocco, "Thomas Melville has been called one of the most important leaders of Snug Harbor for modernizing the record keeping and expanding the population. Herman Melville and the Melville family spent many holidays at Sailors’ Snug Harbor during Thomas Melville’s tenure as Governor from 1867-1884." As a young man Thomas Melville went to sea as a whaler, eventually commanding a clipper ship for seven years. After taking the helm of Snug Harbor at age 37 he married Catherine Bogart, daughter of the institution's Chief Physician (Barry 96-98; Shepherd, 22-25). (Learn more about Thomas Melville and other governors of Sailors' Snug Harbor in this embedded timeline). 
  
  About 20 books from the Snug Harbor Library are preserved in the SUNY Maritime Archives. Among these, at least one was once owned by Herman Melville: an 1813 edition of John Turnbull's A voyage round the world, in the years 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804. The title page is inscribed "Herman Melville April 10th 1847 New York." Presumably, Melville purchased the book in New York in 1847.
  
  In 1847 Melville was an up and coming novelist in the New York literary scene. His first two books, Typee (1846) and Omoo (1847), based on his own journey to the South Seas on a whaling ship earlier in the decade, were extremely popular, if controversial. In contrast, by 1867, when Thomas Melville became head of Sailors' Snug Harbor, Herman Melville's had faded into obscurity. His more experimental works -- including his monumental masterpiece, Moby-Dick - were not well received. In 1866 he took a monotonous day job at a New York Customhouse, where he worked until 1885. 
  
  

  Ned Myers

  Even the romantic father of sea fiction James Fenimore Cooper responded to these developments in his later years with the publication of Ned Myers: A Life Before the Mast. Myers was Cooper's friend from the Sterling; Cooper collaborated with Myers to tell his story. (Myers retired to Sailors' Snug Harbor on Staten Island; perhaps they worked together in its illustrious reading room.
• 1 media/SSH_Photograph.jpg 2020-10-11T07:47:24-07:00 Herman Melville and Sailors' Snug Harbor 35 image_header 2021-08-26T16:19:24-07:00 In a tantalizing twist, Herman Melville was intimately connected to Sailors' Snug Harbor and its library through his brother, Thomas Melville, who ran the institution from 1867-1884. According to John Rocco ("Wearily, we seek a haven"), Herman Melville spent many holidays at Sailors’ Snug Harbor during his brother's tenure as Governor.
  
  At least one item in the Sailors' Snug Harbor Archives derives directly from Herman Melville: an 1813 edition of John Turnbull's A voyage round the world, in the years 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804 . The volume is inscribed with Melville's signature, captioned "April 10th 1847 New York." As evidenced by the label on the cover, it is one of the twenty or so surviving books from the library at Sailors' Snug Harbor. Over the years it must have been borrowed by dozens of old salts who used the library in their waning years. 
  
  In A voyage round the world, John Turnbull recounts his four-year journey traveling to and trading on the island of Tahiti. As Digital Archivist Heidi Rempel notes, "It is a good example of the popular British 'Voyage' narrative that interested and influenced Regency and Victorian readers, who were eager to learn about places on the globe that were being explored by Europeans for the first time." To the eye of the twenty-first century reader, the text exemplifies colonialist and racist ideologies. 
  
  When Melville acquired A voyage round the world in 1847, he was an up-and-coming writer in New York City. His first two books, Typee (1846) and Omoo (1847), based on his own adventures in the South Seas, had just been published. These novels were well reviewed by the literati and popular among the reading public. While adhering in some ways to travelogue and adventure fiction tropes, Melville also embedded critiques of western culture and Christian missionaries within the narratives (Rocco, "Herman Melville"). 
  
  Twenty years later, when Thomas Melville became head of Sailors' Snug Harbor, Herman Melville's life had shifted dramatically. His more experimental works - including his monumental masterpiece, Moby-Dick - were not well received in his lifetime. In 1866 he took a monotonous day job as a customs inspector, where he worked six days a week until 1885. Perhaps Melville's trips to the opulent Snug Harbor grounds during this period were a diversion from his everyday routine, or an opportunity to reconnect with maritime culture.

  Notes

  • Learn more about Thomas Melville and other governors of Sailors' Snug Harbor in this digital timeline.
  • The front matter and first chapter of John Turnbull’s A Voyage Round the World, in the Years 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804 can be viewed on Maritime Digital Collections. 
  • Header image: Sailors' Snug Harbor Reading Room; Source: Digital Culture of Metropolitan New York