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Christmas, 1903 in Bristol, Rhode Island: The local paper, the Bristol Phoenix, published a souvenir supplement that week describing “Change and Improvements in Bristol During the Past Ten Years” in which HMCo.’s contributions to the town are featured prominently. After a hard year and a half focused on RELIANCE’s design, construction and defense for the America’s Cup, Captain Nat was concentrating on quieter, smaller things at home. That December in his third floor workshop he was carving the model and working out the design details for the Buzzards Bay 18 Class, and was corresponding on the topic with W. B. Duncan and Bob Emmons – longtime HMCo. patrons who could also be counted as friends. He was also working out a model for a high speed steam launch with his son Sidney, then 17 years old. Sidney probably thought this winter father-son steam project terribly old fashioned given his experiences that summer with his first (and very own!) internal-combustion-engine-powered launch, NEON.
That new toy was tucked up in the iced-in boathouse next door after its very first season out, having tagged along in ROAMER’s wake or – more often – dashing off ahead to beat the mothership to their next anchorage, piloted by N.G.H.’s teenage boys who always seemed to be hankering for a race. By now ROAMER too was buttoned up for winter, put to bed at the wharf off Love Rocks after a busy second season out, having cruised more than 3,000 miles that year. The cold had sustained itself long enough by December that year that there was ice boating and skate sailing on the pond at the Herreshoff family farm, and the Bay too was covered in ice and snow. A mysterious “Santa Claus” made an appearance on the porch at Love Rocks that Christmas, and even allowed himself to be photographed by Captain Nat’s eldest child, Agnes.
Someone that December – Santa Claus? Nathanael or Clara Herreshoff perhaps? Agnes? – placed a particular present with care under the tree at Love Rocks. It was addressed to the youngest of Captain Nat’s six children, Clarence. One can imagine the disappointment on eight-year-old Clarence’s face when he first pulled off the paper – for what eight-year-old obsessed with sledding and skating, fast boats and models and horses and big steam yachts really wants a book for Christmas? But imagine then his delight on finally opening the cover (perhaps after some cajoling) and realizing that this book, smugly titled “Quality in Disguise”, was actually an elaborate piece of packaging for a box of chocolates made by a Boston-based candy company, H.D. Foss & Co. And surely the chocolates would have been appreciated, but what about the book itself! What a fabulous gift for an eight year old: both a wonderful joke and also a secret hiding place for only the smallest treasures.
Agnes & Clarence ca. 1900
Clarence must have eaten the candy, as (thankfully) no trace of it remains 121 years later. The secret-compartment-book-box itself is now a part of the collection at the Herreshoff Museum, having recently been donated to the museum by the Herreshoff family after it was discovered amongst a collection of real family books by Librarian & Archivist Norene Rickson. And while we too felt the delight of an eight year old on receiving such a wonderful piece of spy-craft as a gift, it is not the packaging so much as the contents of the box that make this artifact a particularly wonderful addition to the museum. Clarence filled this book-box with a precious collection of 25 tiny photographs and cyanotypes, some nearly as small as a stamp. Most of them appear to have been taken by his sister Agnes, 11 years his senior and an avid photographer. Some of the cyanotypes may well be contact prints made from Agnes’s negatives on poached blueprinting paper from the Company, for the chemicals and the process are essentially the same. A more thorough study needs to be undertaken to determine what the latest dated photograph in the set may be, but there does seem to be at one, possibly two photos of boats built as late as 1907. Other subjects include a Herreshoff family kitty named Marco Polo, a family horse on the lawn at Love Rocks, a sledding scene in the same location, a Cup defender on the ways at HMCo., steam yachts, ferries, a gunter rigged cat yawl which may be Clarence’s boat NIPPER, the New York 70 YANKEE, three actual stamps, and more.
Though more study is required, we hope you will enjoy this little holiday gift as much as we have! And if any citizen scientists out there have further ideas about boat identities, we welcome your comments below…
“Quality in Disguise” by H.D. Foss & Co.
“Clarence DeWolf Herreshoff Christmas 1903” – possibly in Agnes’s hand
Unidentified schooner
Sledding in Bristol
The local ferry BRISTOL
A sliding gunter rigged catyawl, possibly Clarence’s NIPPER, which was built in 1907
The same catyawl posed for a portrait
The catyawl under sail
A Herreshoff family cat named Marco Polo, identified elsewhere in Agnes’s photo albums
An unidentified steam vessel, possibly naval; note grain of starched linen on which the cyanotype is printed
Three stamps also contained in the box
Unidentified sloop, possibly a New York 70
The New York 70 YANKEE
Verso of the previous print; very few of these photos are annotated on the back
The catyawl again, in a print that looks like it was made as a copy of a copy of a copy
A substantial steam yacht anchored off Bristol
AVENGER (HMCo. #666) built for Bob Emmons in 1907
Possibly NAVAHOE (HMCo. #429) ca. 1901 when rigged as a yawl
The Bristol ferry BRISTOL again
A family horse, grazing on the lawn at Love Rocks
Unidentified schooner
Unidentified Cup defender on the ways at HMCo.
… evidently not COLUMBIA (HMCo. #499)
Unidentified sloop, possibly a New York 70
Unidentified steam yacht, likely photographed by Agnes from the family steam yacht ROAMER (HMCo. #215)
Two family boats: KILDEE (HMCo. #460) and Agnes’s canoe INEZITA (“Little Agnes”)
An unidentified but surely recognizable port – any ideas?
Unidentified four master
Unidentified sloop, possibly a New York 70
Unidentified sloop, possibly a New York 70
The full contents of the book; stamps give a sense of scale
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