Guide to the John L. Lochhead Collection , 1916-1990

(bulk 1929-1985)

Steamship Historical Society of America, Archives
Steamship Historical Society of America
2500 Post Road
Warwick, RI 02886
Tel: 401-463-3570
E-mail: info@sshsa.org

Published in 2023

Collection Overview

Title:	John L. Lochhead Collection
Date range:	1916-1990, (bulk 1929-1985)
Creator:	Lochhead, John Lipton
Extent:	34.22 cubic feet
Abstract:	Large collection of maritime books, photo negatives, journals and scrapbooks collected and compiled by Lochhead throughout his life and military service.
Language of materials:	English
Repository:	Steamship Historical Society of America, Archives
Collection number:	1991.03

Scope & content

John L. Lochhead was a meticulous documentarian who detailed his maritime career with Eastern Steamship Lines and the U.S. Navy through scrapbooks, photographs, and bound typescripts of personal travel accounts. Perhaps using skills from his later career as a librarian for The Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia, Lochhead even created indexes for his 200 scrapbooks and over 10,000 negatives, and also created indexes and bibliographies for maritime research. His collection also comprises slides and images from his trips to Norway and other countries in his later years. A particularly representative and notable object from the collection is Lochhead's four-volume typescript account of working on various Eastern Steamship Lines ships from 1929-1940.

Access Points

Subject Names

• Lochhead, John Lipton

Subject Organizations

• Eastern Steamship Lines

Subject Topics

• Description and Travel
• Ocean Travel

Subject Topics

• Maritime

Document Types

• Scrapbooks
• Photograph albums
• Postcards
• Film negatives
• Correspondence
• Manuscripts

Arrangement

This collection is arranged by material type in eight series.

Series 1: Scrapbooks

• This series contains approximately 210 scrapbooks compiled by Lochhead from when he was 6-7 years old in 1916 up until 1990, just a year prior to his death. The scrapbooks contain clippings, photographs, postcards, and notes dealing with maritime events and topics. The first four scrapbooks (from 1916-1918) are related to World War One.

Series 2: Travel Logs

• 16 travel logs handwritten by Lochhead and featuring accounts of his trips to Norway, Scotland, Newfoundland, England, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland from 1965-1983.

Series 3: Day Planners

• 19 miniature diaries/day planners kept by Lochhead to record meetings, events, and other items of interest on a daily basis. There is a diary for each year from 1970-1989, with the diary for 1987 missing.

Series 4: Film Negatives

• Approximately 10,500 negatives of images of ships taken by Lochhead. A card catalog index for the negatives exists and is physically stored on top of the cabinet of negatives.

Series 5: Photo Albums

• 32 photo albums featuring mainly black and white prints from Lochhead's negatives of images of ships.

Series 6: 35mm Slides

• 35mm slides featuring images taken from Lochhead's various trips aboard steamboats and steamships. The original inventory lists 44 boxes of slides, but as of the catalog date, only 3 have been located.

Series 7: Typescripts and Manuscripts

• This series comprises the typed manuscripts of research conducted by Lochhead throughout his career on steamship data and travel accounts. Typescripts include bibliographies, an index, and extracts from maritime books/records. Lochhead's professionally-bound four-volume account of his employment with Eastern Steamship Lines is a standout in this series.

Series 8: Correspondences

• This series comprises a large correspondence with Lochhead's former colleague and friend Robert H. (Bob) Burgess and miscellaneous correspondences with others.

Biographical note

From a young age, John Lipton Lochhead displayed a remarkable skill and discipline at documenting maritime events. His interest in the nautical stemmed from growing up in Winthrop, Massachusetts, across the street from a family that often entertained Cunard and Leyland Line captains. Starting from age 6-7, Lochhead began creating scrapbooks that initially contained clippings about naval affairs in the First World War, and then later contained clippings and notes related to general maritime events. He would continue creating such scrapbooks throughout his life, eventually producing over 200 that spanned from 1916 up until 1990, within a year of his death.

Lochhead graduated from Winthrop High School in 1926. During the 1930s, he worked as a purser on various ships of the Eastern Steamship Lines. When World War Two broke out, Lochhead enlisted in the Navy and served as a chief yeoman for four years, taking part in the North African and Sicilian invasions. True to form, he created a scrapbook documenting his experience aboard the naval vessels on which he served.

Upon discharge, Lochhead became the head librarian at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, VA, where he continued researching and collecting information on maritime topics. In addition to compiling and publishing several bibliographies and indices on such topics, Lochhead also meticulously indexed his own scrapbooks. His passion for the maritime did not stop with the written word - Lochhead was also an avid marine photographer who accumulated over 10,000 negatives of images of ships. If that weren't enough, the Mariners' Museum librarian also served as the regional editor for the SSHSA's quarterly publication, "Steamboat Bill," covering the Chesapeake Bay region. At some point, Lochhead also obtained an M.A. from Harvard and studied library science at Columbia University.

Lochhead retired in 1976 after thirty years at the Mariners' Museum. He returned to his native Winthrop, and spent much of his retirement traveling to locales such as South America, Newfoundland, Scotland, England, and Norway, which he visited at least nine times. These trips were, of course, all documented in his scrapbooks. He also was involved with the Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands, a group dedicated to recording the history of the islands and advocating for their preservation. Lochhead passed away at the age of 81 in 1991.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	This collection is available to the public by appointment at the Steamship Historical Society. Objects that are fragile, significant, or require additional tools to access may require archivist assistance.
Use of the materials:	Use, reproduction, and/or publication of archival material is prohibited without prior approval of the Steamship Historical Society. Fees and/or restrictions may apply. Please contact the SSHSA archivist, Astrid Drew, at adrew@sshsa.org for more information.
Preferred citation:	John L. Lochhead Collection, 1991.03, Steamship Historical Society of America Archives, www.sshsa.org.
Contact information:	Steamship Historical Society of America, Archives Steamship Historical Society of America 2500 Post Road Warwick, RI 02886 Tel: 401-463-3570 E-mail: info@sshsa.org

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Acquisition:	The SSHSA received the John L. Lochhead Collection as a donation from Lochhead’s sister, Mary E. Lochhead, in January 1991 following Lochhead's death. The SSHSA retains a signed Deed of Gift from Ms. Lochhead’s agent dated July 29, 1991. The collection was retroactively accessioned by Archivist Astrid Drew in 2019 with an accession number 1991.03 and processed and cataloged by Assistant Archivist Tessa Mediano in 2023.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Finding aid prepared by Tessa Mediano.
Encoding:	Finding aid encoded by Tessa Mediano 2023 July 14
Descriptive rules:	Finding aid based on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Additional Information

Related material:

The Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia has extensive holdings of Lochhead's material as well.

Inventory

---