Photo of the Ludington and Armstrong Families at Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, 1896

The collection consists of materials related to Robert W. Armstrong (1828-1902), a Baltimorean who worked as a whaler in the South Pacific for ten years from 1849 to 1859. Items include Armstrong’s handwritten autobiographical account that chronicles his experiences in the whaling industry and his time living overseas. The collection also includes a 2018 transcription of the autobiography by the great-great-grandson of Armstrong, Alexander R. Brash.

Armstrong's autobiography covers topics such as his struggles with alcoholism in the United States; the initial crossing from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean around Cape Horn; his visits to locations such as Peru and the South Pacific islands, including Samoa and Tonga; his time working as a logger in New Zealand; his final sailing trips to islands such as Fiji; and finally his return to Baltimore, Maryland.

This collection also includes photostatic copies of Armstrong’s logbooks, which were originally written between 1849 and 1859. Some pages are transcribed without the original photostatic copies included. The logbooks describe, among other topics, his interactions with various Pacific Island communities as he sailed throughout the Pacific Ocean. Pictures and information concerning the original logbooks are at the end of Alexander R. Brash's transcription of Armstrong’s autobiography.

The collection is also comprised of several pieces of correspondence between Armstrong and his wife, Eudocia, from around 1870; a January 1895 copy of “The Sailor’s Magazine,” which consists of a shortened version of Armstrong's autobiographical account; Armstrong’s will from 1902; a Polyglott Bible that Armstrong purchased while living in New Zealand that includes notes and papers throughout; Minnie Armstrong Ludington’s copy of "Daily Strengths for Daily Needs" containing many handwritten notes, newspaper clippings, and papers throughout the pages of the book; and a copy of "Religion and Eternal Life, or Irreligion and Perpetual Ruin, the Only Alternative for Mankind from the Sunday School Library of St. Andrew’s Church in Hopkinton, New Hampshire."

Additionally, the collection contains a family tree book assembled by G.F. (George Franklin) Ludington Jr., who was Robert Armstrong’s grandson through his daughter Minnie Armstrong Ludington. This book mainly concerns the Ludington family and consists of drawings of the family’s ancestral heralds and information concerning the origins of the family in England. It also has hand-drawn family trees for various branches of the Ludington family, including the Pierrepont, Armstrong, Ludington, Muller, Dorsey, Ball, Hills, and Story branches.

Lastly, this collection has six photographs of Robert Armstrong’s extended family, including multiple group family portraits from around the 1890s of both the Armstrong and Ludington families. Robert Armstrong’s eldest daughter, Minnie Eudocia Armstrong, married into the Ludington family and there are images of her son G. F. (George Franklin) Ludington Jr. and his family; including his two children, Nicholas and Nancy.