Box: 1, 1856 - 1889

The papers of Leander Owen contain journals, photographs, personal and professional correspondence, and newspaper clippings. The papers document the whaling captain’s voyages to, and experiences in, the Arctic and describe the difficulties of the American whaling industry. The collection also contains images of Owen’s life, family, and home in Vineyard Haven, Martha’s Vineyard, as well as his claim against the government for the deafness he suffered during the Civil War. Of note in the collection is a journal, written in 1880, which documents the first whaling trip ever made into the Arctic by a steam whaler.