Dickinson Family Papers, 1854-1951 | Maine Maritime Museum Manuscript Collection Online Catalog

The contents of the Dickinson Family Papers were originally housed in Capt. Wylie’s ditty box. Most of the vessel papers belonged to Capt. Wylie R. Dickinson when he was master of a number of vessels including the large ships Aryan, Rappahannock II and Yorktown. Vessel papers include ownership papers, insurance, registration, construction invoices, correspondence (mostly incoming), account summaries, labor and wage receipts and protest papers.  Not all vessel papers are complete. There are vessel papers (dividend statements) of ships the family had an interest in.  Other vessel papers have no reference to the Dickinson name, so it is difficult to determine if they had a vested interest or not.

            Two small sewing kits were in Wylie’s ditty box. One is a square tin and the other in a very small round wicker basket with lid. (Crewmen carried little sewing kits known as “housewives.”  These usually small tin cans or boxes contained needles, buttons, threads, cloth and pins.) Wylie’s sewing kits contained needles, pins, threads, buttons, hooks, nails, beeswax, and pieces of cloth.

            Other papers found in the box were general and personal letters written by Wylie Dickinson, John Dickinson, wife Emma S. Dickinson and daughters Bessie Emma and Grace Percy Dickinson.

            Research notes and articles on local history were also found in the ditty box belonging to Bessie Dickinson. It was a bit difficult to determine if some of these papers were hers or taken from articles as she did not sign any of her work. If the story was written in first person referring to her father, then I assumed these were written by Bessie. The date she wrote these is unknown. A large unpublished manuscript written in long hand by Bessie Dickinson was also found in the box. It details her sea experiences on the Rappahannock II during its trip around Cape Horn. She takes the liberty of using many of her father’s diary entries to build her own story and even admits this in her foreword “our journals and ship papers have been saved, and many of these I have copied for this tale.”  There is also a typewritten copy but both are not complete, have missing pages and many extensive additions and editorial changes made by Bessie. Bessie sent a copy of her manuscript to Maine author, Hugh Pendexter for review and received a reply in 1938. This may help date the manuscript around the 1930s.

            A large number of personal letters written to Grace and Bessie are from David S. Kindell, a past shipmate on the Aryan when both girls were on board during their youth. Mr. Kindell became close to the Dickinson Family. There are references to his experiences on the Aryan in these letters and other interesting maritime tidbits. Personal letters to Grace and Bessie from Abbie Minott give an interesting commentary on Bath social life.

            It is important to note that this is not a comprehensive collection of the Dickinson Family. Papers. As noted previously in a letter written by Bessie to Capt. Parker in 1956, many papers were “burned or thrown away.”