Series I: Papers

The collection contains documents, photographs, and books related to Baltimorean Robert W. Armstrong (1828-1902) and primarily concern his time as a whaler in the South Pacific, specifically around Australia and New Zealand. Materials include Armstrong’s handwritten autobiographical account based on his logbooks, which 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.

His 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 the United States. The autobiography ends with a section on Robert Armstrong’s self-entitled redemption alongside his continuing faith as he reflects on his life at 64.

This collection also includes a book of photostatic copies of Armstrong’s logbooks 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. His logbooks most likely served as the basis for his later autobiography. Pictures and information concerning the original logbooks are at the end of the transcribed copy of Armstrong’s autobiography.

The collection also includes several pieces of correspondence between Armstrong and his wife. Eudocia, from around 1870; a January 1895 copy of “Sailor’s Magazine” which consists of a shortened version of his autobiographical account; Robert Armstrong’s Will from 1902; a Polyglott Bible that Armstrong purchased while living in New Zealand which includes notes and a few handwritten papers throughout; Minnie Armstrong Ludington’s copy of Daily Strengths for Daily Needs with many handwritten notes, newspaper clippings, and papers throughout the pages of the book; 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. Ludington Jr., Robert Armstrong’s grandson through his daughter Minnie Armstrong Ludington. It mainly concerns the Ludington family. The book also contains drawings of the family’s ancestral heralds and information concerning the origins of the family in England. It includes 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 includes six photographs of Robert Armstrong’s family, including multiple group family portraits from around the 1890s (with accompanying identification) of both the Armstrong and Ludington families. The picture of the larger Ludington family was taken at Mountain Lakes, New Jersey in 1896. Robert Armstrong’s eldest daughter Minnie Eudocia Armstrong married into the Ludington family. Another photograph shows what looks like mostly the younger members of the Armstrong family. The remaining three photos all concern George Franklin Ludington Jr., Robert Armstrong’s grandson, his wife, and his two children Nicholas & Nancy. These pictures range from around 1930 to 1940. One picture shows what is most likely George and Minnie in front of a house. Another is a portrait of George in New York City around 1940. The last shows Nicholas and Nancy posing for a picture in New York City around 1936.