Mystic Seaport

Mystic Seaport is in Connecticut and proclaims itself to be the 'Museum of America and the Sea'.

It was founded in 1929 and has a substantial online presence. Although I wouldn't describe the site(s) as counter-intuitive, it took a fair amount of sifting and retracing of steps to get an appreciation for just what's available. I'm sure I'll return here in the future - but it will be with some hesitation (maybe it's just me or today or something). The website is partly funded by and connected to the Library of Congress.

This is the link to a full list of Mystic Seaport's digital holdings by subject. The compilations online are partly itemization lists of collections and partly digital examples. But there is everything from fully uploaded books to crew journals to passenger lists to maps and charts, to correspondence to scrapbooks to inventories and bills of sales, to ship plans and much more besides. There is a host of material available for any maritime aficionados, that's for sure.
(I'm getting server errors trying to load any of the prints at present)

The images above are from the sailing card collection .....

"Agents or owners commonly advertised the availability and loading of their vessels in the local newspapers, but by the mid-1850's the colorful sailing cards began to appear in the windows of shipping firms, banks, and public shops along the waterfronts in ports like New York and Boston."