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Emilie Sargent scrapbook of West Indies and South American cruise aboard R.M.S. Mauretania

 Collection
Identifier: MSS 0093-Item 0010

Scope and Content Note

The Emilie Sargent scrapbook documents Sargent’s travels to the West Indies and South America aboard the cruise ship R.M.S. Mauretania in the fall of 1933. The scrapbook comprises approximately one-hundred-pages of photographs, newsletters, postcards, programs, menus, newspaper clippings, souvenirs, and other ship ephemera gathered during the cruise, which stopped at the following ports of call between September 9 and September 22, 1933: Trinidad, La Guaira (Venezuela), Curacao, Colon (Panama), and Havana (Cuba).

The Cunard Line cruise ship R.M.S. Mauretania sailed on five identical West Indies and South American cruises between July 8 and September 22, 1933. Emilie Sargent booked passage on the fifth of these cruises with her neighbor Dorothy ("Dot") Harris. This scrapbook retains much of the original material produced by the Cunard Line for passengers aboard these cruises, including several issues of the ship newsletter, The Cunard Cruise News , the ship’s passenger list, several day programmes, time tables for tender service, a floor plan of the ship, and other items.

In addition to items generated by the cruise line itself, the scrapbook also preserves materials collected by Sargent during the cruise’s shore excursions, including brochures (both general informational brochures issued by local tourist bureaus, as well as those issued by specific attractions and local companies), menus, receipts, tickets, and photographic postcards.

The remaining bulk of the scrapbook consists of photographs taken during Sargent’s shore excursions. Some, but not all, of the photographs are captioned. Sargent appears in many of these photographs, as does her neighbor, Dorothy ("Dot") Harris, and fellow cruise passengers Louis de B. Lovett and Arthur B. Whitcomb. It appears that Sargent and Harris befriended Lovett and Whitcomb during the cruise. The final page of the scrapbook contains two Western Union telegrams sent from Lovett and Whitcomb to Sargent several months after the completion of the cruise wishing her and her neighbor a Happy Thanksgiving and Christmas, respectively.

The final items in the scrapbook are two 1935 newspaper articles discussing the decommissioning and dismantling of the R.M.S. Mauretania for scrap. The ship, which served the Cunard Lines for 28 years, made its last trip to the Scottish port of Rosyth in August 1935.

Dates

  • Creation: 1933-1935

Creator

Language of Materials

Materials entirely in English.

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. Please contact Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, http://library.udel.edu/spec/askspec/

Biographical Note

Emilie Hall Sargent was born to Emilie Hall (b. April 27, 1866) and Arthur Hewes Sargent on November 29, 1896, in Boston, Massachusetts. Emilie was the third of the four surviving Sargent children, who include Edith Adelaide Sargent (b. May 15, 1889), Arthur Hewes Sargent, Jr. (b. August 1890), and Margaret Sargent (b. December 21, 1899). An additional daughter, Joanna Sargent, was born on September 26, 1892, and died at the age of four on January 18, 1896.

Emilie Sargent's father, Arthur Hewes, worked as a real estate trustee. Beginning in 1886, Arthur Sargent resided nearly full-time in France, with several short residences in the United States. Arthur's wife and children appear to have lived with him at least part of the time he resided in France. Additionally, passport records indicate that the three Sargent daughters traveled with their mother throughout Switzerland, Germany, France, and Italy, for reasons of "health and education" between the years 1912 and 1916.

Between 1911 and 1919 Emilie Hall Sargent resided full-time in Europe, partly due to the outbreak of the First World War, which kept the Sargent family from making any visits to the United States until after the conclusion of hostilities. In addition to her travels in Europe with her family in her teens and early twenties, New York passenger records indicate that Emilie Sargent continued to travel back and forth to Europe throughout her adulthood. Between 1921 and 1934, Miss Sargent made at least four Atlantic crossings to New York City from Naples, Italy; Cherbourg, France (twice); and Liverpool, England. Miss Sargent's travels were not solely limited to Europe, however, as records indicate that she traveled to the Carribean on at least two occasions in the 1930s. On October 31, 1932, she arrived in New York from Hamilton, Bermuda, and then again in September of 1933, she traveled on board the R.M.S. Mauretania on a West Indies and South/Central America cruise to the ports of Trinidad, La Guaira, Curacao, Colon, and Havana.

As of 1932 and at least until 1935, Emilie Hall Sargent resided at 109 Lee Street, Brookline, Massachusetts. On both her 1932 and 1933 Carribean excursions, Miss Sargent traveled with her neighbor, Miss Dorothy Harris of 161 Lee Street.

Ancestry.com Library Edition.New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957. Provo, Utah: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. http://search.ancestrylibrary.com/iexec/?htx=List&dbid=7488&offerid=0%3a7858%3a0 (accessed July 21, 2009).Ancestry.com Library Edition.U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925. Provo, Utah: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007. http://search.ancestrylibrary.com/iexec/?htx=List&dbid=1174&offerid=0%3a7858%3a0 (accessed July 21, 2009).Cutter, William Richard, and William Frederick Adams.Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1910. Additional information derived from the collection.

Extent

1 volume

Abstract

The Emilie Sargent scrapbook documents Sargent’s travels to the West Indies and South America aboard the cruise ship R.M.S. Mauretania in the fall of 1933. The scrapbook comprises approximately one-hundred-pages of photographs, newsletters, postcards, programs, menus, newspaper clippings, souvenirs, and other ship ephemera gathered during the cruise, which stopped at the following ports of call between September 9 and September 22, 1933: Trinidad, La Guaira (Venezuela), Curacao, Colon (Panama), and Havana (Cuba).

Source

Gift of Catherine S. Johnson, 2009.

Related Materials in this Repository

This item forms part of MSS 0093 Commonplaces, Albums, Scrapbooks collection.

Shelving Summary

  1. Item 0010: Shelved in SPEC MSS 0093 FOLIO+

Processing

Processed and encoded by Lora J. Davis, July 2009.

Title
Finding aid for Emilie Sargent scrapbook of West Indies and South American cruise aboard R.M.S. Mauretania
Status
Completed
Author
University of Delaware Library, Special Collections
Date
2009 July 21
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the University of Delaware Library Special Collections Repository

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