Oct 7: Sag Harbor Whaling Museum and Custom House

The Hunting Family and their Legacy

by Zach Roselle

One place we visited was the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum (the home of Benjamin Hunting II). We learned about the prominence of the Hunting family in the 18th and 19th centuries in Sag Harbor and East Hampton. Benjamin Hunting found his success in owning and sending out whaling ships. As a result, Mr. Hunting helped turn Sag Harbor into a rich and famous whaling town.

Mr. Hunting would send out a large ship with four to six smaller ships on board that would chase the whales. They would go wherever the whales were, often chasing them all over the world. This gave the whalers a rare opportunity to experience a large part of the globe which is something they would have never seen otherwise. The large ship would have 30-35 men and the smaller ships would then have six of those men on each. These ships would be out anywhere from two to four years until the hull was full of whale oil. On the main ship, they would process the whales that the smaller ships brought back to it. They would then come home and sell everything and split up the money, giving a third of it to the Huntings.

This is a photo of the house of Benjamin Hunting II which is now the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum. Whaling was obviously a money maker as the Hunting House was built from the profits of whaling oil. Benjamin Hunting II hired Minard LaFever to build the house who is the same architect who designed the Old Whalers’ Church in Sag Harbor.

On the left (top) is Benjamin Hunting who began sending out whaling ships in the late 18th century. His son, Benjamin Hunting II on the right, followed in his father’s footsteps and took charge of the whaling ships. Benjamin Hunting II was the owner of the house that is now the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum built.

This is a model of what one of the ships would look like. They would follow the whales and then let the smaller boats out to chase and kill the whales. The smaller ship would tow the whale back to the main ship, where they would harness the whale to the side of the ship and dissect the whale to harvest the parts. They would then store the goods in the hull of the ship.

This is a whaling tripot that is outside the Whaling Museum. These would be on board of the main ship and would be used to melt the blubber and make the oil. One pot would then overflow into another.

Architecture Inspired by ways of life and jobs: Whaling & Custom Master
by Lara Cordaro

Above is a picture of the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum. Built around 1845 for the Huntting family, architect Minard Lafever designed this to replicate the history and wealth of the family. If you look up at the roof of the building, you will notice a border of whaling knives, whale teeth, and blubber spades. This theme of whale hunting was depicted on the outside of the house, to show off the wealth of the Huntting family whaling business. Anyone at the time who would walk past the house could assume that the family inside were whalers and were very prominent within society

Above is a photo of Minard Lafever, an architect from New York, well known in the 19th century for a revamping of Greek design. In most of Lafevers’ work, the use of tall columns outside of the front door were installed as well as highly detailed and decorated rooftop, wall and ceiling mounts inside and outside of the houses or buildings.

This photo shows the attention to detail and effort Lafever put in onto the ceilings and door frames of Huntting house. While touring the house you will notice fine craftsmanship and attention to detail with each ceiling in the museum. If you look closely at the molding around the ceiling, you can make out the carving of hooks, or spear tops- tools commonly used during whaling.

This picture was taken from the main room of the house, just off of the main entrance. Lefever establishes a rich presence upon entering the room. He brings the viewers eye around every boarder and corner, while infiltrating whaling practices. With very bold and direct lines, and woodwork resembling blubber tops, and the oceans waves, Lafever is able to blend the messiness and dirty work of whaling into beautifully clean patterns to decorate the Hunttings’ house.

This is a photo taken from inside the Custom House, located across the street from the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum (the Huntting residence). Henry Derling lived in this house, working as a tax collector for imports at the Sag Harbor Port. This house however was not always located where it is now. Looking through the window in the photo you may notice a large white house, this is where Charles Edison lived. Confronted by a group of women wanting to preserve the house, Edison agreed to move the house onto his property, where it could be preserved. But because of the new location (to the front of the yard) and the nature of a custom masters’ job (dealing with large amounts of money adjustments had to be made. If you look closely at the photo you will notice the large shutter slides open and closed to block the window, and therefore provide safety and privacy when the custom master was at work.

Sag Harbor
by Jennifer Stahl

On October 7th, 2016 our class took a trip from Southampton to Sag Harbor. We split up into two groups, the group I was in took a tour of the Sag Harbor Whaling museum first followed by the Sag Harbor Custom house. Since whaling was a huge part of society on Long Island, rules and regulations were put into place when shipping goods such as whale oil between the United States and England. A custom master was needed to keep in check of imported and exported good; the custom house shows us the history and life behind the man who made that possible.

(This is a picture of our group in front of the custom house which was the United States “port of entry” in the year of 1789. This house was owned by Henry Packer Dering who was the first Custom Master in the United States and was appointed by President George Washington.)

In 1793 Henry Packer Dering married Anna Fosdick who was originally from Shelter Island. They had nine children together which lead to the expansion of the home. The house that is shown in the picture above was originally half the size and was expanded by attaching another house to it. This home depicts how a sophisticated family would live on Long Island; the house has a kitchen, pantry, washroom, sitting room, formal dining room, office, two bedrooms, two children’s rooms and a slaves/servant quarters which is in the attic.

(The picture above shows the second level of the house, as you can see there is a step up to the room. This picture also shows wallpaper that is throughout the house, the wallpaper is original.)

Childhood in an 18th Century Customs House
by Michelle Barbosa

The Customs house was a home located in Sag Harbor and owned by the Dering family after they purchased it in 1794. Other than deriving from an affluent family, the Dering family children lived lives much like many others at the time. The predominating lifestyle of the time shaped the ways in which children occupied their time and acted out routine chores. Life in the 18th century as a child was, as one might expect, markedly different from childhood today and yet when we examine the items on display in the Dering house we see many similarities to life today as well.

The Dering family often spent a lot of time in the kitchen of the home preparing a variety of meals. A common treat that was often prepared was pie; the Dering children loved pie just as much as children today do and would often get into the pies unbeknownst to the family if the treats were not kept away from them. For this reason, a large wooden pie safe (seen in the photo above) served to keep out pesky flies and children alike.

While pie safes kept older children out of trouble in the kitchen, the youngest ones who still needed to stay close to their mothers while they cooked needed to be kept safe in the dangerous kitchen as well. Child tenders (photographed above) acted as early ExerSaucers and kept curious babies away from the hot coals of the open fire while their mother cooked nearby. The child tender in the customs house even had small toys on display similar to those that all the children in the home likely played with as they grew up.

After a long day working outside or perhaps baking in the kitchen, the family would fill up a (rather small) bathtub and wash off the day’s grime. One might expect that the water would be changed after each family member washed up, but this was not the case at all; all members of the Dering family would use the same water to clean themselves! The bath tub would be filled and the first one to bathe would be the father, followed by the mother and then the eldest children all the way until the youngest child’s turn to bathe. You can imagine what the water in the small bath tub might look like after all eight members of the family had washed off!

The second floor of the home was where the family rested at night and where the children would have played with their toys if the weather was not particularly nice outdoors. The children’s rooms at the customs house display several oddities that would seem strange to us today. While the household pets of today are dogs or cats, the Dering family often kept pet squirrels in large cages seen situated on the floor in the photograph. While we may not consider squirrels to be a domesticated pet, pet squirrels and even mice (kept in similar, but smaller cages seen sitting on top of the bed in the photograph) were quite common back in that day. The Dering children would have also occupied their time playing with the rocking horse made of real horse hair if they grew tired of their squirrel for the time being.

One interesting feature in the Customs could be seen in the mother’s room; when viewing the room, visitors can see a door that connects the mother’s room to the children’s room so that she could keep an eye on the children throughout the night. Also, since the mother and father had separate sleeping quarters in those days, the youngest child would sleep in the mother’s room in the cradle on the floor when they were still young so that they could be tended to and nursed at night when necessary. One interesting thing to note are the chamber pots located in front of the connecting door (one larger, adult-sized chair and one smaller, child-sized chair); the chamber pots would be used if the weather was particularly cold or stormy and it was difficult to make it outdoors to use the restroom. While one might assume the Dering’s servants would empty the chamber pots, that level of work was considered beneath the servants, and it was actually the children who were responsible for emptying and cleaning the chamber pots. Meanwhile children today think they have it rough!

Sag Harbor
by Janette Lares

On the trip of Friday 7th October, one of the highlights for me was visiting the Customs House in Sag Harbor. The Customs House belonged to the Customs Master: Henry Packard Dering. Dering was responsible for collecting taxes on all imports – trading was quite extensive as we traded with Europe, the far East, and the West Indies – Dering also had authority to issue seaman certificates that stated the American Citizenship of a sailor at sea. Dering lived in this house with his wife and nine children, as well as their slaves.

A fellow student admires the outside of the customs house.

Pictured is a tool that was used to make apple cider. In the 18th century, apples weren’t exactly the sweet fruits we know today. Apples used to be quite bitter, not ideal for snacking on – but quite ideal for making cider.

Pictured is one of nine children’s beds. Notice the ropes seen below the blanket – mattresses were not yet a common commodity, so for children’s beds a system of ropes was used in place of a mattress. The tool seen on the bed was used to tighten the ropes whenever necessary – the phrase “goodnight, sleep tight” is said to have originated from such actions.

In the 18th Century, the North was very much a society with slaves. Unlike the South, however, slaves resided in the same house as their owners in the top floor of the house. The entrance pictured here is the entrance to the slave’s quarters – the door is somewhat concealed to blend in with the wall, with no distinctive door knob.


H.P. Dering’s Customs House of History and Culture
by Jade Blennau

The Customs House was the home to Sag Harbor’s “keeper of the port” or tax collector and his family. Henry Packer Dering and his family of 10 lived in the home, bought in 1793, and would later become a part of Long island’s history. Our tour of The Customs House was filled with stories and discoveries as we uncovered the many objects tell the story of the home’s history. H.P. Dering’s work for the government at the time gave him access to imports from all around the world that were otherwise rare. These items are commemorated in the home that showed off its worldly culture.

Here we see the Dering’s common living area stocked with books seats for any company that may drop by. H.P. Dering was a well-respected man in a public position that worked with businessmen, traders and farmers. Here we see the home revealing the families’ wealth and culture through the rugs, which were imported from India, candle sticks from England and wallpaper from France. As a tax collector at one of the most successful ports on the coast, the Derings were well-respected and active members of their community.

Here, we see the kitchen where meals were prepared over open fire. This had its obvious dangers for the family and the home. Fires were a major problem during this time period because of the extremely flammable wooden structures. Although there were dangers, fire was the only way to heat your home. If there was a fire in the town of Sag Harbor the community volunteer firefighters were expected fill a bucket with water or sand run to help immediately. If this was not done they were taxed 50 cents for not participating with their community in a time of need. Sag Harbor has the oldest volunteer firefighter program in New York State.

The families needed to spin their own cloth for clothes in this time period. Here we see supplies for spinning and sewing. The Derings most likely had their servants doing this work but it was still a valuable skill to teach young girls that would need to take care of families of their own one day. We also see hand woven baskets. These were made by women of the Shinnecock tribe and traded frequently.

This is the family’s bathing basin. The Dering family had 9 children, one having died very young. This meant that this basin was filled with water that was used to wash 10-11 people. Fathers usually were the first to use the water and the following was usually based on a pecking order down to the last child.

Scrimshaw
by James MacDonald

In deep sea whaling, when a whale was successfully hunted its blubber was taken and boiled away to be brought back to market, it’s meat and organs were either discarded or used as a food source and it’s skeleton and teeth, having no economic value, was left for the members of the crew. 100 hours of polishing was needed to mature a piece of bone before it could begin to be carved and molded into useful tools, figures, or art work known as scrimshaw. By rubbing ink into the bone pictures, writings, and other art could be etched onto the scrimshaw. Molding scrimshaw quickly became the best way for sailors to pass the time and be able to bring home mementos for their family during the long voyages at sea.