The Samuel Van Aken Collection

Collection — Box: MSS Box 220

Identifier: MSS 2021.0026

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Collection comprises a selection of steamboat articles written by Sam Van Aken of Athens during World War Two, as well as other miscellaneous writings of his and materials related to his life and career. Also included in the collection are a handful of Van Aken's articles which were transcribed and mailed by Clarice Weeks Millspaugh of Catskill, NY to Forrest Van Loon Ryder upon his request while incarcerated at the South Carolina State Pennitentiary in Columbia, SC. Mrs. Millspaugh also mailed transcribed materials by other steamboat historians to Mr. Ryder to aid in his steamboat modeling projects and scholarship.

Dates

1889 - 1960

Biographical / Historical

Samuel Van Aken [1867-1947] was born in a small riverfront hamlet in Ulster County, New York and entered the martitme trade at a young age. He became an accomplished ships carpenter and self-styled "Marine Designer" employed at several shipyards and boat building companies including the John E. Matton and Sons Company at Cohoes. The last decades of his career were occupied at shipyards in Athens, his last employer being the Imperial Lifeboat and Davit Company during the period they manufactured lifeboats during World War Two. Mr. Van Aken enjoyed authoring articles on steamboats and life in riverfront communities, and had articles published in the Ulster County News, the Catskill Examiner-Recorder, and the Catskill Daily Mail most notably. Many of his articles for the Daily Mail took a correspondant theme, being written as letters to "Dear Betsy" - Betsy being Elizabeth Boice who was a reporter and manager at the Daily Mail for many decades.

Mr. Van Aken's articles appear in three forms within this collection, either as typewritten transcriptions prepared by Mrs. Clarice W. Millspaugh, clipped news articles compiled by an unknown source, or as photocopied sheets duplicated from what was likely Mr. Van Aken's personal scrapbook. The typewritten transcripts were prepared by Mrs. Millspaugh for F. Van Loon "Fluffy" Ryder, a safe cracker and rare book thief who took up scale steamboat modeling while incarcerated and returned home to Coxsackie in his later years where he continued the hobby until his death. For more information about Fluffy Ryder and his work please see the F. Van Loon Ryder Memorial Collection.

Extent

.2 Cubic Feet (One legal size metal-edge document box.) : Typewritten articles on onionskin, handwritten letters, and glued news clippings. ; Various

Additional Description

Arrangement

Materials are arranged into three categories: Personal materials and miscellaneous writings of Sam Van Aken; Steamboat Articles of Sam Van Aken; and materials related to the Correspondence of Clarice Millspaugh and F. Van Loon Ryder. Within the first two groupings materials are arranged chronologically when possible, and the last series is sorted as it was kept in Mrs. Millspaugh's mailed packet.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Materials were discovered in the Vedder Library's vertical subject files and may originate as part a donation from the family of Mrs. Clarice Millspaugh or as part of the F. Van Loon Ryder Collection. As the provenance is unclear the materials were described as their own resource.