Scope and Content Note
The papers of William Speiden (1835-1920) consist of journals that Speiden kept while serving as the purser's clerk on the USS Mississippi (side-wheel steamer), a flagship during the American naval expedition to Japan led by Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry from 1852 to 1854. The journals span the years 1852-1855, with inserts in the first volume of newspaper clippings dating from 1901 and 1946.
Speiden's father, William Speiden (1797-1861), served as the purser on the Mississippi during Perry's expedition to Japan. The younger Speiden provided a detailed account of the reception given to Perry and his party and of deliberations between Perry and representatives of the emperor of Japan held in Yokohama-shi, Japan. Speiden also described life at sea, calls at ports on the East Coast of the United States, investigation of fishing rights in Canadian waters, and stops made during the expedition to Japan, including Canton, China, the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, Hakodate-shi, Japan, Hawaii, Hong Kong, Macao, the Madeira Islands, Malacca, Mauritius, the Ryukyu (Loo Choo) Islands, Saint Helena, San Francisco, Calif., Shanghai, China, Shimoda-shi, Japan, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), and Valparaíso, Chile. The journals, bound in two volumes, include nearly fifty illustrations, some of which are Chinese pith paintings done in watercolor and gouache that were removed from the volumes for preservation purposes and are housed separately in Containers 2 and 3. Conservators replaced the originals in the journals with high quality facsimile reproductions. Artistic work in the journals is by Speiden, Edward McCauley, Anton Portman, William T. Peters, unknown Chinese and Japanese artists, and others.