Contact the Society for Archive Help, Grants, and Gifts

Reach the Society With the Right Context

A good inquiry saves everyone time at the dock.

When people write to us about Joshua Slocum, the Spray, or a solo circumnavigation record, the most useful messages usually have three parts: what you are asking, what you already know, and what you hope the Society can confirm. That gives us a starting bearing before we look through notes, correspondence, registry material, or older research files.

One example comes up often: a family has a clipping about a sailor who claimed a long solo passage, but the clipping gives only a year and a home port. If the message includes the sailor’s full name, vessel name, port, approximate dates, and a scan of the clipping, we can review the question much more responsibly than if we receive only, “Was my grandfather a circumnavigator?”

How to Reach Us

We use email first because it leaves a clean record of names, dates, attachments, and follow-up questions. We do not publish a phone number or street address for general inquiries.

We welcome questions and feedback, but a short, specific note usually receives a better answer than a long bundle of unrelated material. If your question touches several areas, lead with the main one. We can sort the rest after that.

For Archive, Spray, and Slocum Research Questions

Archive questions tend to sit between family memory and recorded maritime history. Treat both with care.

If you are asking about Captain Joshua Slocum, the rebuilding of the Spray, published editions of Sailing Alone Around the World, lecture accounts, photographs, or related ephemera, tell us exactly what you have in front of you. A title page, inscription, photographer’s mark, newspaper masthead, or penciled date on the back of a photograph can matter.

For background before writing, you may wish to read the Society’s material on Captain Slocum, The Spray, and the Society Archives. Those pages answer some common questions and may help you frame a sharper request.

What to include in an archive note

• The item type, such as letter, photograph, logbook, clipping, book, model, or chart.
• Names written on or associated with the item.
• Dates, ports, publishers, edition statements, or vessel names.
• Clear images of identifying marks, if you can safely make them.
• Your question: identification, donation discussion, citation help, or historical context.

We can often point you toward the next sensible step. We cannot, from a brief description alone, authenticate every object or settle every provenance question.

For Solo Circumnavigator Registry Notes and Corrections

Registry work rewards patience. A voyage may be remembered by a nickname, a boat may have changed names, and a landfall can appear differently in a newspaper account than in a sailor’s own log.

If you are submitting a correction or asking about a possible listing, start with the voyage. Give the sailor’s full name, vessel name, rig if known, departure and return ports, approximate dates, and the nature of the voyage. If the question involves nonstop, singlehanded, assisted, staged, or partially crewed sailing, say so plainly. Those distinctions matter in maritime recordkeeping.

Material connected with Solo Circumnavigators may include published books, club records, press accounts, family papers, or direct testimony. Some evidence is strong on dates but weak on route. Other evidence captures the spirit of a voyage but leaves gaps in documentation. We try to make those differences visible rather than smooth them over.

For Donors and Volunteers

Many useful gifts arrive quietly: a packet of correspondence, a photograph with a harbor name on the back, a careful transcription, or a volunteer willing to compare two conflicting spellings in old accounts.

If you are considering a donation of records, books, images, models, or related objects, contact us before shipping anything. Tell us what the material is, how it came to you, its condition, and whether there are restrictions we should know about. Photographs of the material in place are usually enough for a first conversation.

Volunteers can help with transcription, indexing, public history notes, and review of voyage references. The best fit depends on available projects and the volunteer’s comfort with old handwriting, nautical terms, or careful citation. Not every task is glamorous. Some of the most valuable work is simply making a name findable.

When you write about helping

• Say whether you are offering material, time, subject knowledge, or technical help.
• Describe any maritime, archival, library, teaching, or research experience.
• Tell us your realistic availability.
• Note whether you prefer remote work or occasional project-based help.

For donor and volunteer questions, use [email protected].

For Grant and Community Partnership Inquiries

Grant conversations need more than enthusiasm. They need scope.

If you represent a school, museum, library, sailing organization, historical society, or community group, tell us the purpose of the proposed project, the audience, the timeline, and what role you imagine for the Society. A classroom program about Slocum’s voyage differs from a digitization proposal, and both differ from a harbor exhibit about singlehanded sailing.

For grant inquiries, include the funder name if known, draft deadline, expected deliverables, and whether the Society would be applicant, partner, advisor, lender, or content reviewer. That distinction keeps responsibilities clear before anyone starts writing promises into an application.

Send partnership and grant notes to [email protected]. If the inquiry is exploratory, say that. Early conversations are welcome when the practical limits are named honestly.

What We Can—and Cannot, Confirm

The Society can help interpret records, compare accounts, identify likely research paths, and explain why a detail matters in Slocum or solo-circumnavigation history.

We may be able to comment on whether a document resembles known material, whether a voyage claim fits established registry language, or whether an item deserves closer archival review. We can also tell you when a question falls outside our holdings or when another repository may be a better harbor for the inquiry.

We cannot guarantee market value, provide legal ownership advice, issue certified appraisals, or confirm a family story without evidence. We also avoid stretching a record beyond what the surviving material supports. That restraint can feel unsatisfying, but it protects the sailor, the donor, and the historical record.

For a fuller sense of the Society’s purpose, see About the International Joshua Slocum Society.

Before You Send Personal or Voyage Information

Assume that names, family details, vessel histories, and unpublished images deserve careful handling. Send only what is needed for the first review.

If your message includes living persons, private family correspondence, recent voyage details, or sensitive donor information, mark that clearly in the email. Do not include financial account numbers, identity documents, or private addresses unless we have specifically discussed why they are needed. In most cases, they are not needed at all.

For website privacy terms, read the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. For ordinary correspondence, plain judgment still matters: copies first, originals later only by agreement, and enough context to keep the record attached to the right story.

When in doubt, write a short note first. A well-framed question is the cleanest line you can throw across.