The Cater Andrews

THE CATER ANDREWS SEALING COLLECTION COLL - 203 Arranged & Described by Linda White Centre for Newfoundland Studies Archives Memorial University Library July 1996 Table of Contents Introduction...................................... 3 Biography......................................... 5 Provenance........................................ 6 Restrictions...................................... 6 Extent............................................ 7 Arrangement & Description ........................ 8 Series............................................ 8 File List......................................... 10 Box List.......................................... 108 INTRODUCTION The seal hunt in North America is as old as settlement. Native hunters regularly killed seals, using parts of them as food, clothing, shelter and tools. European involvement in hunting seals extends back to the days of earliest European contact. The hunt has been a source of great wealth for some, great tragedy for others; for most, however, it was a dangerous necessity in order to supplement meagre incomes. Ever adaptable to changing technologies, the hunt survived well into the twentieth century. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, the seal hunt off the north-east coast of Newfoundland became the subject of an international protest movement. Faced with boycotts of other Canadian products in European and American markets, the Canadian government closed the off-shore hunt in the early 1980s and imposed strict regulations upon the inshore hunt for seals. Protesters continue to demand a complete ban, claiming the survival of the species is at risk. In the late 1940s Newfoundland-born Cater Andrews began to collect materials for a history of the Newfoundland seal hunt. Over the three decades that followed he amassed a large collection of published and unpublished print materials documenting the seal hunt from its earliest recorded beginnings. As a complement to the print materials, he acquired a large photographic collection, documenting seals, sealing captains and crews both at home and at sea, ships, companies and communities involved in the seal hunt, and a host of miscellaneous images which provided additional insight into the hunt and the people who were part of it. Before he was able to complete his research and write his history of the seal hunt, Cater Andrews died. His family subsequently deposited his collection of materials in the Centre for Newfoundland Studies, with the proviso that it be restricted from general use until a book was produced from it. Dr. Shannon Ryan of Memorial University's History Department published three books based on the Cater Andrews Collection: Seals and Sealers: A Pictorial History of the Newfoundland Seal Fishery (1987), Chafe's Sealing Book: A Statistical Record of the Newfoundland Steamer Seal Fishery, 1863-1941 (1989) and The Ice Hunters: A history of Newfoundland sealing to 1914 (1994). He made extensive use of Andrews's research materials in compiling these books and used photographs from the collection. The material is now available to all researchers. It will prove a very valuable resource for persons engaged in research on the Newfoundland seal hunt, or on sealing in general. It should also prove helpful to those conducting community history research, especially on communities that were closely tied to the seal hunt, and provide a good starting point for biographical, biological, geographical, pictorial, architectural, and many other avenues of investigation involving eastern and northeastern Newfoundland. BIOGRAPHY Cater W. Andrews was born in Wesleyville in 1916, the son of Whitefield and Caroline Andrews. He had one sister, Jean, and five brothers, Cliff, Ben, Max, Don, and Edgar. Cater married Martha Iona Hill, the daughter of sealing captain, Sidney Hill. They had one daughter, Judy. Anderws was educated in Wesleyville and later taught school there. He also taught in Greenspond and Brigus. He graduated from Memorial University College, received a Bachelor of Science degree from Mount Allison University, a Master of Arts degree from the University of Western Ontario and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Toronto. Beginning in 1949 Andrews served three years as assistant professor of biology at New York University; in 1952 he returned to Memorial University as professor and head of the biology department. In 1963 he asked to be relieved of his administrative duties in order to return full time to teaching and research. In 1965 Andrews was awarded a $10,000 Canada Council grant to study the history and biology of the Newfoundland seal fishery. Over the next 13 years he did extensive research on seal biology and history, amassing a large body of data. It was his intention to write a comprehensive work on seals and sealing in the North Atlantic, concentrating on Newfoundland. When Cater Andrews died on November 25, 1978, he had just begun to write his manuscript. Three of his Memorial University colleagues, Dr. Fred Aldrich (Biology), Dr. George Story (English) and Dr. Leslie Harris (History) became literary executors of his estate; they arranged for Dr. Shannon Ryan of Memorial’s History Department to have access to Andrews’s research with an aim to completing Andrews’s work. Ryan eventually published three books on various aspects of the seal fishery. PROVENANCE The material in this collection was gathered by Cater Andrews during many years of research in the seal hunt. A short time after Andrews's death, in 1979, Jeanette Neeson, one- time employee of Memorial University's History Department, made a detailed listing of the material. In 1982, Martha Andrews and her daughter, Judy Mallam, made arrangements to deposit this material in the Memorial University Library. While physically housed in the library and with an understanding that it would eventually become the property of the library, the material was placed under the jurisdiction of three literary executors, University professors Dr. George Story, Dr. Leslie Harris and Dr. Fred Aldrich. It was restricted to all but Dr. Shannon Ryan of the University's History Department who was contracted to work on the material with an aim to publication. Ryan eventually published three separate volumes, a photographic history of sealers, an updated issue of Chafe's sealing book, and a definitive history of the Newfoundland seal hunt from its beginnings to the first world war. In 1989 legal title to the material was transferred to the University; Ryan continued to have restricted access until after his third volume was published in 1994. In the summer of 1995 the Centre for Newfoundland Studies moved the material into the archives and processing was begun in the fall. In June 1996 Dr. Melvin Baker, University Records Manager, transferred several boxes of papers containing Andrews’s research and publications on several Newfoundland fish species, and lecture notes and related materials from some of the biology courses he taught at Memorial University. These papers were with those of Dr. Fred Aldrich (1927-1991), who had been a colleague of Andrews in the Biology Department. RESTRICTIONS There are no restrictions on access to the material in this collection. Users should be aware that copyright rules and regulations may apply to these materials and should act accordingly. It is the responsibility of the user to obtain copyright clearance from the copyright holder(s). EXTENT 1.6 metres of textual material 23 boxes (4.5 x 6.5 x 12) - note cards 7 boxes (3.5 x 5.5 x 12) - note cards 5 boxes (7.5 x 5.75 x 12) - photographs and negatives 3 boxes (11.75 x 3 x 15) - photographs and negatives ARRANGEMENT and DESCRIPTION Jeanette Neeson's original inventory of the material in this collection was created during September and October 1979. Neeson spent several weeks in Andrews's study identifying and listing the materials. She produced a comprehensive inventory, but made no attempt at appraisal and selection. A copy of that inventory and her commentary on the materials is kept in the general administrative file for the collection. When the material was transferred to the archives the collection was appraised to determine what would be kept. A number of archivists, librarians and historians were involved in this process. For the most part, secondary materials, offprint items, photocopies of articles, books, reports, journals, etc., were transferred to the Centre for Newfoundland Studies book and periodical collections where they were checked against current holdings; new items were added. Periodical articles were checked against the Centre's Periodical Article Bibliography; new items were added and filed. One-third of the material in the collection was what Neeson classified as primary materials. This included very poor photocopies from microfilm of British Colonial Office and Privy Council papers and very deteriorated newspaper clippings. Since the Centre has microfilm copies of the British documents and all Newfoundland newspapers, it was decided not to keep this material. Photocopies were made of some of the newspaper clippings. It was decided to keep Andrews's original research, his note cards, bibliographies, correspondence and drafts of his proposed history of the seal hunt. By far, the major portion retained was the very extensive and comprehensive photograph collection. It includes both originals and copies, positives and negatives, glass plates and coloured slides; it numbers in the thousands. Some of the images had been identified by Andrews, but many more

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