Part I

Part I of the papers of the Palmer-Loper Family covers the years 1767 to 1930, with the bulk of the papers falling within the years 1840-1880. The collection reflects the close association between the Palmer and Loper families brought about by shared sailing and mercantile interests and the marriage of Alexander Smith Palmer's daughter, Elizabeth, to Richard Fanning Loper's son, Richard, in 1873. The papers include correspondence, logs and journals, financial and business records, miscellany, and printed matter.

The most prominent figure in Part I of the collection is Nathaniel Brown Palmer (1799-1877), a sea captain known for his discovery of the Antarctic archipelago and peninsula bearing his name. The Miscellany series contains several descriptions of his discoveries, including the version Palmer related to Frederick T. Bush, former United States consul in China, and an extract from the logbook of the Frederick, whose captain, Benjamin Pendleton, had directed Palmer to investigate the area for additional seal rookeries. The logbook of the sloop Hero, which Palmer commanded during this cruise, is also included among the group of ships' papers in the collection. Palmer's papers also contain documents touching on most phases of his career, from his years aboard sealing and whaling vessels, trans-Atlantic packet ships, and China clippers, to his mercantile and shipping interests pursued ashore following his retirement from active sea duty.

The papers of the younger brother, Alexander Smith Palmer (1806-1894), also a sea captain, who had sailed in his earlier years with Nathaniel and who later commanded packet ships in the Liverpool trade and shared commands of clippers in the China trade with his brothers, Nathaniel and Theodore, relate in part to his career at sea. However, most of Alexander's papers are concerned with his life after he gave up the sea and center on his family and on financial investments in shipping, particularly his ownership of various vessels. Little material in the collection pertains to his involvement in Connecticut politics.

Papers of Richard Fanning Loper (1800-1880) form the largest segment of Part I of the collection. Loper, who had sailed as second mate on the Hero with Nathaniel B. Palmer in 1820, enjoyed a varied career as sea captain, shipbuilder, owner and operator of shipping lines, and transport agent for the United States War Department. He also achieved recognition for his invention of a screw propeller which was tested for use by the United States Navy along with one designed by John Ericsson. His papers relate mainly to business and financial matters. Loper's contracts with the army and navy during the Civil War were later the subject of an investigation which ultimately exonerated him of charges of profiteering. Copies of documents relating to these charges are attached to the biography of Loper located in the Miscellany series.

Early correspondence in the General Correspondence series in the collection belongs to members of the Palmer family and includes both family and business letters. Family correspondence, mainly between Nathaniel, Alexander, and Theodore Dwight Palmer, with some letters from in-laws, contains descriptive details of voyages as well as family news. Business letters follow the careers of Alexander and Nathaniel Palmer from their sealing and whaling expeditions to the South Shetland Islands in 1822 to their voyages to China in the 1840s. Several letters contain comments on the clipper ship Houqua. References to the sailing of packet ships between England and the United States found mainly in the correspondence of Alexander and Theodore Palmer discuss business arrangements for voyages, cargo consignments, market conditions, and the arrival and departure of ships. After 1849, when both Nathaniel and Alexander Palmer had quit the sea, their correspondence centers on investments in cargoes and ownership of shares in ships.

Richard F. Loper's correspondence in Part I, which becomes predominant around 1874, focuses on his business interests in the years subsequent to his life at sea. A few letters concern his role in chartering vessels during the Civil War, but most relate to his shipbuilding activities and to the operation of his company, Loper and Dorman.

The latter part of the General Correspondence series contains numerous letters from the children of Alexander S. Palmer, particularly Nathaniel (“Natty”) Brown Palmer II (1840-1877) and Louis Lambert Palmer (1845-1887). Letters after 1880 belong almost exclusively to Louis L. Palmer and Richard Fanning Loper, Jr. (1850-1914). Other correspondents in Part I include Frederick T. Bush, John Schuyler Crosby, Edmund Fanning, Elizabeth (“Libby”) Dixon Palmer Loper, Benjamin Pendleton, Francis Hopkinson Smith, Charles T. Stanton, Thomas P. Stanton, and the business firms of A. A. Low & Brothers, Baldwin & Spooner, G. Woodhull & Minturns, Lawrence Giles Co., and Russell & Co.

Financial and business records constitute the largest series in Part I. Within this series, the group of ships' papers relating mainly to the vessels of the Palmer brothers is both noteworthy and voluminous. It includes letters of instruction, registration and ownership records, journals, logbooks and abstracts of logbooks, financial records, passenger lists, and miscellaneous nautical calculations. Among the more significant logbooks are those of the Annawan, a sealing ship captured off the island of Juan Fernandez and forced to sail to Chile; the sloop Hero; and the Southerner, a packet ship engaged in the Liverpool trade. Some logbooks contain entries for more than one ship. The logbook of the Garrick, for example, contains entries for the Southerner and an unidentified vessel. The logbook of the Mary of London was also used for the Olive Branch, and journals of voyages of the whaling ship Charles Adams are bound with journal of the schooner Penquin. Also contained within the series are files from Richard F. Loper's service as United States War Department transport agent and miscellaneous legal and real estate records of Louis L. Palmer, who had a law practice in Chicago.

Part II

Part II of the papers of the Palmer-Loper Family spans the years 1667-1986 with the bulk of the material concentrated between 1790 and 1930. The material supplements Part I of the collection, providing expanded insight into the personal and business affairs of two prominent New England maritime families. The papers include correspondence, subject files, financial and legal documents, genealogical notes, photographs, diaries, and printed matter.

The major series in Part II is the Correspondence file, which contains letters exchanged principally between family members over several generations. The correspondence generally pertains to family news but often includes discussions of business affairs, information on sailing vessels, and observations on local and national events. Prominent family correspondents include Nathaniel Brown Palmer, his brother, Alexander Smith Palmer, and Richard Fanning Loper. The letters of Nathaniel B. Palmer relate mainly to business and shipping matters. Letters between Alexander S. Palmer and his wife, Priscilla Dixon Palmer, daughter of Rhode Island Senator Nathan Fellows Dixon, and their children are numerous including an exchange of correspondence in early 1861 between Alexander Smith Palmer and his son Nathaniel ("Natty") B. Palmer II, who was employed in a mercantile house in New Orleans. As the secession crisis intensified and hostilities appeared imminent, Nathaniel Palmer described the heightened tensions in the city and efforts to recruit him for its defense. Although there is little material pertaining to Richard F. Loper, there are numerous letters relating to the family of his son Richard F. Loper, Jr. (1850-1914), and his wife, Elizabeth ("Libby") Dixon Palmer Loper.

Correspondence of other family members includes letters of Louis Lambert Palmer to his father Alexander S. Palmer pertaining to his attendance at preparatory school and Yale University and to his business activities and law practice in Chicago. William H. Loper, a career sergeant in the army engineers, wrote several letters describing his activities in Cuba during the Spanish-American War and experiences during two tours of duty in the Philippine Islands. The latter letters contain information on the forces of Emilio Aguinaldo and guerilla warfare in the Philippines at the turn of the century.

Also included are letters written primarily during the 1830s by naval officer Francis H. Gregory to Nathaniel B. and Eliza Palmer. Gregory, whose long naval career culminated in the rank of rear admiral, met the Palmers in 1832 at Callao, Peru, shortly after their ship had been commandeered and released by convicts escaping Chile's Juan Fernández Islands. Letters of Joseph W. Stanton, brother-in-law of Nathaniel B. and Alexander S. Palmer and plantation owner and merchant in New Orleans with close ties to the Connecticut maritime families, express Stanton's business and political concerns. In a letter dated November 9, 1864, to Nathaniel B. Palmer II , Stanton stated his disappointment at Lincoln's reelection, but then goes on to assert that "New England was the cause of this war and she has controuled [sic] its course and management.... But it will end in our [New England] loosing our monopoly in navigation and the commerce connected with it." He then reminded Palmer that his father, Alexander S. Palmer, held the same views. Other correspondents include Nathan Fellows Dixon (1812-1881), Nathan Fellows Dixon (1847-1897), Edmund Fanning, William Grant, Alexander Smith Palmer, Jr. (1843-1891), Theodore Dwight Palmer, and John Randolph Spears, the biographer of the elder Nathaniel Brown Palmer.

The Subject File in Part II contains printed matter, notes, correspondence, and other material relating to such topics as Antarctica, Stonington, Connecticut, and yachting. Noteworthy items include a census of Long Point, Stonington, conducted in 1776, and several receipts and other documents relating to the yacht Madgie, later renamed Magic, which Richard F. Loper piloted in the first successful defense of the America's Cup in 1870. Also contained in this file are copious genealogical notes and other documents concerning the Palmers, Lopers, and several related families.

Financial and legal records constitute the Miscellany series in Part II. Financial material includes balance sheets, receipts, and canceled checks; deeds, wills, patents, and other items comprise the legal records. Other notable items include brief diaries of journeys to New York and New Orleans by Priscilla Dixon Palmer, late eighteenth century sermon notes by Ira Hart, photographs and prints, and printed matter, including clippings pertaining to the Palmers and Lopers.

The Addition series includes correspondence, diaries, account books, deeds, financial records, and printed matter. Personal and business letters received by family members comprise the bulk of the correspondence. An exception is a draft letter apparently penned by Elizabeth Dixon Palmer Loper describing in detail the fatal voyage to China in 1877 of her uncle Nathaniel B. Palmer with her brother Nathaniel (“Natty”) B. Palmer II, a nephew of the elder Palmer and a victim of tuberculosis. Undertaken as a remedy, the journey so weakened Natty that he died at sea on May 16 on the return trip. Exhausted emotionally and physically, Nathaniel B. Palmer died also on June 21, only days after he returned with Natty's body to San Francisco. A letter from Robert Bennet Forbes, China merchant and shipowner, to Richard F. Loper in 1862 discussed supplying ships outfitted with Loper's patented propeller to the United States Navy. Other correspondents include Frederick Albert Cook, Francis H. Gregory, and William Herbert Hobbs. Elizabeth Dixon Palmer Loper's diary records her journeys with other family members through France and Italy in 1871-1872 and includes descriptions of major cities and attractions. Nathaniel (“Natty”) B. Palmer's journal from early 1861 documents his brief employment in New Orleans and describes the mounting war fever there. On his return trip to Stonington in May, he noted while passing through the upper South that “many planters are plowing up the cotton which is about two inches high, and putting in corn and wheat in preparation for the war.” Deeds and other legal and financial records further document family land transactions and fiscal matters in Stonington.