Question: What’s in a Name?
Answer: Quite a bit, it turns out, as in the case of a prize vessel in the Museum’s watercraft collection, Fiddler (MSM #1959.1266) an early Buzzard’s Bay 15’ Class designed in 1898 by Nathanael G. Herreshoff. The Herreshoff name alone would call attention.
In a recently completed review of over 4,000 Curatorial accession files, funded by a grant awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Fiddler’s file raised a question. Every file for every collection object includes a document transferring legal ownership to the Museum and for Fiddler naturally included a physical description as well as known provenance. Additionally, almost as an afterthought, the owner added a single sentence, stating that Fiddler was raced in the early 1900’s by his mother, a name omitted. Obviously important to the history of the vessel and necessary to provide as complete a record as possible, the omission could not stand. In museum-speak, this is called ‘pulling on the string.’
Research quickly recognized Caroline Miller Dabney, mother of the donor as the woman who raced Fiddler to victory with her ‘petticoat crew’ in women’s racing regattas in the waters of Buzzards Bay, 1901-1906.
Contemporary newspapers accounts of races in the Bay also listed the Herreshoff 25’ Terrapin, raced by her father, Lewis S. Dabney, often winning on the same day!
MSM 1960.348 shows Fiddler, number E-11, skippered by Miss Caroline Dabney and her all-women crew. The Herreshoff 15 was a one design class with a knockabout rig, 24’ x 15’ x 6’9” x 2’3”. The Buzzards Bay 15 Class were delivered to members of the Beverly Yacht Club in Marion, Massachusetts, for the summer of the racing season of 1899. They were known as the E-Class at the Beverly Yacht Club. Printed along the top edge of the print: “Miss Caroline Dabney racing with her “petticoat crew”, 1901 – 1903.
Further pulling on the Dabney string played out not only with rewarding connections between Fiddler and women in the world of racing and yachting but also to other Dabney family members and further links within the Museum collection. And unexpectedly, a final tug revealed ties between the Dabney family name and the far-flung history of American whaling, a subject immanently well suited for further research in Museum resources; Records of the Holmes’ Shipyard, Manuscripts Collection 46, Dabney & Cunningham; the Kermit Family Collection, Manuscripts Collection 68, Dabney, John B.; the Records of N. & W.W. Billings, Manuscripts Collection 233, Dabney, C.H. and Dabney, Charles W..
To this day, the Dabney family is credited with a cultural and historical heritage still visible on the island through publications and online by organizations such as the Portuguese Historical Museum (portuguesemuseum.org), the Massachusetts Historical Society (the Dabney family papers, diaries and letters), the American-Portuguese Genealogical and Historical Society, Inc., and the Dabney’s House Museum run by the Regional Government of Azores, in Faial. The first U.S. consulate was established in the Azores in 1795 by George Washington and from 1806 – 1892 that diplomatic post was headed by three generations of the Dabney family. In 1806, John Bass Dabney of Boston was appointed Consul by President Thomas Jefferson and settled in Faial (Fayal), where he built the estate “Bagatelle” (the name of a Herreshoff yacht as well, owned by George Dabney). Eight Dabney-owned vessels and a chandlery promoted commerce between the Azores and the East Coast, even providing support to vessels during the Civil War.
While pulling on this particular string may not be completely finished, the file for Fiddler now incorporates new information, extended links and broader context and information about Caroline Miller Dabney Parker.
To that point: “History can never be truthfully presented if the presentation is purely emotional. It can never be truthfully or usefully presented unless profound research, patient laborious, painstaking, has preceded the presentation.” So said Theodore Roosevelt.
Written by Nancy Seager, Project Archivist, 2024
