SCI. Seamen's Church Institute

Scope and Content Includes minutes, correspondence, and reports related to SCI’s work as an advocate for seafarers’ rights, as well as materials related to waterfront labor activism and tensions in the Port of New York. Of particular note is correspondence between J. Augustus Johnson and Rev. Archibald R. Mansfield with the Department of Commerce and Labor, the War Department of the U. S. Navy and various Senators and Representatives regarding seafarers’ rights legislation. Also of note is correspondence...

Scope and Content The collection consists of the records of the Life Saving Benevolent Association of New York from 1849-2008. Records include LSBA’s acts of incorporation, charter, and by-laws. Materials also include correspondence, financial ledgers, meeting minutes, and a subscriber list. Much of the material consists of lists of LSBA award winners that document maritime rescues, as well as the amount of LSBA awards. Other records include LSBA Annual Statements, historical pamphlets, and...

Scope and Content Includes materials related to SCI’s Merchant Marine School and its predecessors, the Navigational and Marine Engineering School and the Navigational School. Of particular note are registrar materials, correspondence related to the J. Hooker Hamersley and correspondence from the War years of the Navigational and Marine Engineering School, including a letter addressed to Rev. Archibald R. Mansfield from then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, thanking SCI for providing...

Scope and Content Includes Missing Seamen’s files, correspondence and reports related to the Missing Seamen Bureau, founded in 1919 by Janet L. Roper and the Religious and Social Work Department to assist families and friends in locating missing seafarers. Missing Seamen’s files (1930-1978) include correspondence from people who had contacted the Institute hoping to locate a family member or loved one. Of particular note are Missing Men bulletins issued from 1920-1930 which were distributed to papers in ports...

Scope and Content Includes black and white and color photographs of people, places, and scenes documenting the history of SCI and the development of Lower Manhattan. Of particular note are photographs of the interiors and exteriors of SCI’s headquarters at 25 South Street, 15 State Street and 241 Water Street; SCI’s missionary outposts in Lower Manhattan; SCI’s chapels; Port Newark; the Merchant Marine School; the Women’s Council; art & artifacts; board members; employees; ships; seafarers; and New York...

Scope and Contents

Includes printed material either produced or collected by the Institute.

Scope and Content Includes materials related to SCI’s Department of Public Relations including correspondence, clippings and press releases related to the operations of the Institute. Also included are scrap books with clippings, correspondence, photographs, pamphlets and other ephemera related to SCI and the maritime community in general. Of particular note is correspondence related to SCI’s film and radio initiatives, including the promotional film “Home is the Sailor,” produced by SCI in the 1940s. Also...

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of seventeen boxes of scrapbooks. These scrapbooks contain bulletins, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and photographs, documenting the Seamen’s Church Institute and items related to maritime life and culture in New York City. For more information about the Seamen’s Church Institute’s scrapbooks, please see the Scope and Content notes for the individual scrapbooks.

Scope and Content Includes ledgers, correspondence and reports related to various departments within the Institute that provided services to seamen, including the Department of Special Services, the Alcoholics Assistance Bureau, the Credit Bureau, the Employment Bureau, the Post Office Station for Seamen and the Seamen’s Bank for Saving. Also included are materials related to ship visiting. Of particular interest is correspondence related to the Byrd Antarctic Expedition of 1928, including direct...

Scope and Content Staff and Administration records consist of correspondence, minutes and reports related to various departments and individual staff members. Included are departmental reports from 1941-1978 and operations surveys from 1932-1960. Of particular interest is correspondence related to Janet L. Roper, who served as SCI’s House Mother from 1915-1943, founding the Missing Seamen Bureau in 1919. Also included is a manuscript copy of an unpublished biography of Roper written by Jonathan Finn, as well...