Martha's Vineyard Museum

Table of Contents

Summary Information

Biography/Historical Note

Scope and Content of Collection

Administrative Information

Related Materials

Index Terms

Collection Contents

Descriptive Summary

Repository	Martha's Vineyard Museum, Gale Huntington Research Library 59 School Street P.O. Box 1310 Edgartown, MA 02539 (508)627-4441
Call Number	RU 446
Creator	Dunham, Ruth F. Hine, C. G. (Charles Gilbert), 1859-1931
Title	Daughters of the American Revolution collection of C. G. Hine albums and Ruth F. Dunham album
Date	1873-1884
Extent	5 volumes + 1 folder (0.784 cubic feet)
Language	The materials are in English.
Abstract	This collection contains four photograph albums created by Charles Gilbert Hine, 1859-1931, between 1883 and 1884, and one 1873-1878 seaweed specimen album created by Ruth F. Dunham. The albums were formerly in the collections of the M. V. Sea Coast Defense Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.) museum in Tisbury, Massachusetts.

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use and Reproduction Restrictions

Requests to reproduce material from this collection should be directed to the library's staff. Reproduction fees may apply.

Acquisition Information

Gift of the Martha's Vineyard Preservation Trust in 1999. (Accession no. 1999.005)

Custodial History

According to a bookplate pasted in one of the albums, C. G. Hine donated these works to the Sea Coast Defense Chapter, D. A. R. (Daughters of the American Revolution). The D. A. R. occupied the Nathan Mayhew Schoolhouse on Main Street in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts for fifty years. The building operated as a nautical and historical museum. Between 1995 and 1996 the M. V. Seacoast Defense Chapter D. A. R. vacated the building and de-accessioned their collections. These collection materials were abandoned in the former museum building. The Nathan Mayhew Schoolhouse is now managed by the Martha's Vineyard Preservation Trust, the donor of this collection.

Bibliography

New-York Historical Society Museum and Library. "Guide to the Charles Gilbert Hine Photograph Collection." New-York Historical Society, 2011. http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/nyhs/hine/ (accessed April 23, 2013)

Publication Information

Martha's Vineyard Museum

Gale Huntington Research Library
59 School Street
P.O. Box 1310
Edgartown, MA 02539
(508)627-4441

Processing Information

Finding aid prepared by Insley Julier April 2013. Machine-encoded by Nathaniel Janick April 2014.

 Creation of this finding aid was sponsored by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Related Materials

Related Materials

See also, RU 445, C. G. Hine Albums and Publications; RU 447, C. G. Hine Scrapbook and Newspapers; and, RU 21, Henry Beetle Hough Collection. Additional objects and archival materials were donated to the Martha's Vineyard Museum by the M. V. Seacoast Defense Chapter D. A. R. museum in 1995, at the time of that institution's dissolution. See accession no. 1995.073.

Biography/Historical Note

Charles Gilbert Hine, 1859-1931, known as C. G. Hine, was a publisher and editor of insurance periodicals, an author of local history and an amateur photographer. He resided in the tri-state area and on the island of Martha's Vineyard. He was born on September 12, 1859 in New Albany, Indiana to Charles Cole Hine, 1825-1897, and Mary Hazard Avery, 1822-1907. He had two siblings; Thomas A. and Edward A. In 1868, C. G. Hine's father, Charles Cole Hine became owner and editor of an insurance publishing house in New York City and he moved his family to a Newark suburb, Woodside, New Jersey. The company produced publications of insurance forms and policies, as well as, trade periodicals, including the Insurance Monitor. The family spent their summers on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts where C. G. Hine's grandparents had a house.

In 1873 Charles Gilbert Hine's father purchased a large parcel of land on the Lagoon Pond in Tisbury, Massachusetts. The area was then known as Cedar Neck. Hine's father hoped to profit from the purchase, and he subdivided the acreage into 98 building lots. The development was not a success however, and the Hine family occupied the property in relative seclusion until the 1920s when the property was sold. They built their summer home on a point of land extending into the Lagoon Pond, which is now known as Hines Point. In November 1898, the Hine's home was destroyed in a storm and in 1899 the family rebuilt on a different site, using salvaged materials from the original house.

Charles Gilbert Hine and his brothers, Thomas Avery Hine, 1855-1933 and Edward A. Hine, learned the insurance publishing trade from their father. When C. C. Hine died in 1897, his sons assumed management of the company which became, C. C. Hine's Sons Company. Charles G. Hine was appointed President, Thomas A. Hine, Treasurer and Edward A. Hine, Secretary. Their offices were located at 100 William Street in New York City.

Charles C. Hine also taught his sons photography and the family's Vineyard home included a darkroom. The Hine brothers developed a great appreciation for the medium and, with their father, became founding members of the Newark Camera Club. An 1889 issue of The American Amateur Photographer lists C. G. Hine as the club's Director (an annual appointment), and during the early 1890s he served for several years as Secretary of the club. Hine combined his passion for photography with his business connections in the publishing industry, privately printing a number of works describing family excursions to the White Mountains and Nova Scotia, and the history of New York, New Jersey and Martha's Vineyard. He titled this series Hine's Annuals. As a historian and photographer Hine took particular interest in the geographic areas in which he lived or worked and his texts and images depict or describe; New York City, NY; Kingston, NY; Staten Island, NY; Woodside, NJ; the Hudson River; Martha's Vineyard, MA and his family's property at Cedar Neck, Martha's Vineyard.

Around 1910 C. G. Hine moved to Staten Island, New York. Hine married Sarah Tilden in 1915 and the pair moved to East Orange, New Jersey. In later years, in ill-health, Hine came to live on the island at the recommendation of his doctor. However, he retained his residence in New Jersey. He died June 6, 1931 and was buried in Newark, New Jersey.

Little is known about Ruth F. Dunham. She may be the Ruth F. Dunham, 1836- who married reverend Elijah W. Dunham. By 1870, Ruth and Elijah Dunham had two children, Caleb and Grace, and resided in Easton, Massachusetts. They later, by 1880, moved to Plymouth, Massachusetts. There is no known connection between this branch of the Dunham family and the island of Martha's Vineyard, however Ruth F. Dunham evidently visited the island between 1873 and 1878.

Scope and Content of Collection

This collection contains four photograph albums created by Charles Gilbert Hine, 1859-1931, between 1883 and 1884, and one 1873-1878 seaweed specimen album created by Ruth F. Dunham. The albums were formerly in the collections of the Sea Coast Defense Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.), museum in Tisbury, Massachusetts.

The C. G. Hine albums contain black-and-white photographs depicting Martha's Vineyard landscapes and dwellings, as well as a large number of images of sailing, sailboats and coastlines. Most of the photographs were shot by Hine on his family's property in Cedar Neck, while others depict the towns of Tisbury and Aquinnah (then known as Gay Head). One 1883 album also includes images of the destruction caused by the Great Fire of 1883 in Tisbury. These albums contain little text, although some photographs have been identified with captions in pencil. The works appear to be professionally bound in cordovan leather with black accents on the corners and spine. The titles are stamped on the cover in gold text and the heavy-weight, card stock pages have decorative, printed gold rectangular frames with the photographs pasted or tipped in. Hine illustrated the albums with his own photographs, which he was able to develop in a darkroom located in the family's Martha's Vineyard home. The collection includes a few loose black-and-white photographs, which may be detached from the albums, and one hand colored cabinet card and a postcard.

The Ruth F. Dunham album contains specimens of marine algae and seaweed collected and mounted on card stock. The marine plants have pencil annotations indicating the month, year and location of collection, but the types of marine algae and seaweed are not identified. The specimens were collected primarily on the island of Martha's Vineyard however a few examples were gathered in the Watch Hill area of Westerly, Rhode Island and Plymouth, Massachusetts. Most of the specimens were collected in Edgartown and on South Beach between 1873 and 1874. There are also some samples from Aquinnah (or Gay Head), Chappaquiddick and an unidentified location know as, Highland. In the late 1870s through the 1890s, seaweed collecting was a popular pastime on the island. Several marine plant experts visited Martha's Vineyard to gather specimens during this period and there were also a few local collectors in Edgartown. The fact that Dunham made no attempt to identify these samples indicates that her interest in the album was likely aesthetic instead of scientific. Only the first half of the album has been filled. A few of the specimens have detached from their cards and are wanting. The volume is leather bound, with the creator's name stamped in gold on the cover and two hinged, metal clasps attached to the boards. The pages are a gray, gilt-edge cardstock, with pre-cut slits for inserting 10 x 6 cm specimen cards.

Due to their fragile condition and damaged bindings, the albums have been rehoused in protective enclosures and archival containers. The enclosures bear museum object numbers on the front cover for identification purposes.

Arrangement

The volumes are arranged by object number. One file containing loose items removed from the albums to an archival folder for preservation reasons has been filed last.