Ocean Travel, Military, and Immigration Archival Collections
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Discover more about what your ancestors experienced during their lifetime by exploring the vast collections of GG Archives. Our comprehensive collection of articles, brochures, ephemera, and photographs can help enrich your family history with a more complete social and cultural context.
GG Archives has been a reliable resource for genealogists, family historians, and researchers worldwide since 2000. Our images, documents, and reports have been utilized by students, researchers, historians, teachers, and others for over years, providing valuable insights into the past.
Excellent Resources Available to Everyone!
Ocean Travel - Daily Life Aboard a Steamship
Learn about life onboard steamships through our collection of historical articles, richly illustrated with photographs and illustrations. Explore our catalog collections, which showcase all of the memorabilia created for each voyage, ship, or steamship line. Our catalogs contain direct links to passenger lists, brochures, tickets, voyage contracts, luggage tags, postcards, sports and entertainment programs, track charts, deck plans, menus, onboard newspapers, magazines, books, voyage log extracts, passenger letters, ship letterhead, cap tallies, photographs, and illustrations.
Passenger Lists (1870s through 1960s)
Our extensive collection of souvenir steamship and ocean liner passenger lists, spanning from the late 1870s to the early 1960s, with the majority between 1900 and 1939, is easily accessible. You can browse these collections by steamship line, ports of call, year of voyage, geographic region, or by ship, making your exploration a breeze. Notable collections include the Canadian Pacific, Cunard Line, French Line, Hamburg-America, Holland-America, North German Lloyd, United States Lines, and the White Star Line. The collection also features significant Ports of Call such as Boulogne-sur-Mer, Bremen, Cherbourg, Hamburg, Liverpool, New York (Ellis Island), and Southampton.
RMS Titanic Collections - Online Exhibit
We have an extensive exhibit that covers the White Star liner Titanic. It was the largest ship ever built in 1912. The exhibit is profusely illustrated and covers a range of topics like planning, building, and launching of the ship, its officers, crew members, provisions, cargo, manifests, and passenger lists. It also includes information on fashions, anatomy of the disaster, victims, survivors, aftermath, book collection, ephemera, and reproductions, magazines, and journals, movies, and motion pictures, collectibles, and memorabilia, memorials, documentary videos, and our vast image library.
Military Archives of the GG Archives
Our collection of military memorabilia is famous for its Bootcamp yearbooks, mainly for the US Navy, but also including the US Army and the US Marine Corps. While our collections have a strong focus on the US Navy, we also possess significant materials pertaining to World Wars I and II. The majority of our collection consists of books, yearbooks, magazines, brochures, historical documents, and periodical articles.
US Immigration through Primary and Other Sources
The Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives contain essential documents and information about the mass migration of immigrants from European countries to North America. The immigrants from Europe primarily gained access to the United States through the North Atlantic ports of entry, which ranked in order of importance as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Almost three-quarters of all immigrants came through New York at Ellis Island. Further information about immigration, as well as the social, economic, and other factors, are covered under separate topics.
Bangor Punta Corporation (1964-1984)
Bangor Punta Corporation, sometimes known as BP and traded on the NYSE under BNK, was an American conglomerate and a Fortune 500 Company from 1964 to 1984. The corporation owned several well-known companies, primarily in the pleasure craft, firearms, and general aviation industries, making it an important historical and business knowledge source. Its significant divisions included Smith & Wesson, Piper Aircraft, Starcraft, Cal Boats / Jensen Marine, O'Day Sailboats & Yachts, and Luhrs. Bangor Punta Corporation's impact was so significant that it was the subject of two US Supreme Court decisions during its relatively short twenty-year existence. This website gives students and researchers a comprehensive understanding of this influential corporation and its industries.
Vintage Fashions 1880s - 1930s
The GG Archives' vintage fashion collections include photographs, articles, and period advertisements covering fashions and related topics. The fashion student may gain a greater understanding of the styles provided for the affluent and the common under-classes.
Epicurean - Historical Foods, Dining, and Wines: The Art of Fine Dining
The term "Epicurean" or "Epicure" originated from the Greek philosopher Epicurus, who believed that simple things, including good food, bring pleasure. Epicureans enjoy consuming excellent food and wine. This section offers a comprehensive analysis of culinary arts from the 1900s, including information on table and wine service, fine dining, entertainment, and vintage recipes from that era. Our Menu Collection, compiled from numerous voyages of Ocean Liners and Steamships of a bygone era, closely relates to the Epicurean philosophy.
The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919
During the 1918 flu pandemic, the term "Spanish flu" was coined because only Spain reported about it in the press. Other countries kept silent to avoid causing panic. In the United States, around 28% of the population (which was about 105 million people at that time) contracted the flu, resulting in the deaths of 500,000 to 675,000 people. The Rosenau Experiment, conducted at Harvard University between 1918-1919, studied the influenza virus, including its causes, effects, complications, prevention, and cure. It was announced that Harvard University's laboratories would carry out extensive research on the topic.
Developing a genealogy website that caters to a broad audience with limited resources is a challenging task, particularly when the aim is to offer historical materials and ephemera for free. Although our website may not boast the same level of coverage as larger online genealogy companies like Ancestry.com, we have made significant progress through our site's vast collections of ephemeral materials.
Our Images are Free to Use for Your Family History and Personal Needs.
- You'll find about 25,000 images with no watermark.
- Discover stunning graphic cover images in our Ocean Travel Archival Collections.
- View one of the largest online collections of steamship passage contracts, tickets, and receipts.
Testimonials
"The Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives contain a wealth of information on emigration and immigration in the age of the passenger steamship. In addition to this section of tickets other information about fares can be found by browsing Steamship Tickets"
-- Current Value of Old Money by R. Davies
"This archive offers access to more than 10,000 documents and photographs, including passenger lists, original immigrant passage contracts, steamship brochures, immigration related documents and much more and it's the work of one person - Paul K. Gjenvick."
-- Website Review, Diane L. Richard in Internet Genealogy, December/January 2018
"Explore this delightful site further to learn more about the ships and the emigrant experience aboard. Valuable information appears in unexpected places."
-- Our Ancestors at Sea by Sue Lisk in Internet Genealogy, October/November 2019
High Resolution Images and Reprints
For more than years, the GG Archives has been an invaluable resource for researchers, production companies, authors, and genealogists worldwide. Our extensive collection of high-quality images and historical documents has been used in movies, television programs, and student film projects, including the popular Discovery Channel production “Treasure Quest—The Silver Queen.”
Founded in 2000 by Paul K. Gjenvick, MAS, archivist, and curator, the GG Archives has received numerous awards for our outstanding services. We are proud to offer a wide range of high-resolution images of historical documents dating from the 1800s to 1954, including passenger lists, brochures, photographs, and other materials. Our services are available to anyone who needs them, and our digital image fees are affordable.
If you are looking for an excellent resource for historical images and information, look no further than the GG Archives. Our reliable, efficient, and comprehensive services will provide you with the information you need, when you need it. Check out our ordering information for more details on our services and fees.
