Introduction

This material relating to Tristan da Cunha arrived in the Archives in 1988 from Samuel P. Eastman, a California collector with a lifelong interest in the island. He was persuaded to deposit his accumulation of Tristania at Saint Louis University by Professor of Sociology Charles E. Marske, who was serving at the time as caretaker of the Peter A. Munch/Tristan da Cunha Collection.  The Eastman items were meant to supplement the Munch/Tristan Collection, and Marske interfiled them with this material.

At the time of processing it was decided that in order to restore provenance those items that had been donated by Eastman would be separated from the Munch/Tristan Collection to form an Eastman/Tristan Collection.

Perhaps of greatest interest in this small collection is the 1948-1959 run of the Tristan da Cunha News Letter published by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith headquartered in London. Also here is an original copy of the Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine issue of 1818 that contains an article on "King" Jonathan Lambert of Tristan. Eastman also donated Tristan books and philatelic materials that form related collections.

Biographical Sketch

Samuel P. Eastman (C.1910-    )

Samuel P. Eastman, a fourth-generation Californian whose pioneer forebears rounded Cape Horn on their way to the West Coast, was born in San Francisco and worked in real estate all his life.  In 1929 he entered Stanford University, where both he and his brother were on the track team.  While at Stanford Eastman pursued his interest in Asian culture by taking all the courses on the Far East that were available: two in history and two in anthropology.

After graduating from Stanford Eastman undertook an around-the-world tour with a college friend, thus early evincing that delight in travel that he later shared with his second wife Roberta. His first wife and their children, a boy and a girl, were, as he himself phrased it, "card-carrying" Catholics. The daughter attended Jesuit Santa Clara University, while the son's children were in parochial schools. Eastman's daughter counted among her friends many priests who visited her in Aspen, Colorado to ski or hunt. Eastman's ties to the Catholic Church through his family, along with his respect for the scope of the collection of Tristania donated to Saint Louis University by Peter A. Munch, may have influenced him to leave his own collection to the University.  He had, he said, been contemplating donating it to Stanford.

Eastman first became intrigued with Tristan as a boy of 13 when he read an article about the island.  He then wrote to a London bookseller requesting items on Tristan. Most of his Tristan book collection was built in this way. He remembered that on his post-college tour of the world he dropped into his favored London bookseller and asked for Tristan material. The staff at once recognized him as their American client Mr. Eastman, since he was their only customer for this genre.

According to Eastman in a letter of December 6, 1988 to Charles E. Marske, curator of the Munch/Tristan Collection during this time, there was a direct link between Eastman and Tristan. He remembered: "Many years ago I sent a wooden Celtic cross to the Tristan church. My mother was on the Cunard liner 'Carinthia' which anchored off Tristan--the Islanders came aboard at which time she gave it to them--this was in 1936, I think. It was given to me by an Episcopalian padre when I told him I was sure the people would like it (perhaps they didn't because I never heard from them)."

(Most of the biographical information above was taken from a report by J. Barry McGannon, S.J. on his visit to Eastman at his home in Portola Valley, California on September 16, 1988. Portola Valley is just west of Palo Alto.)

Series

The collection is divided into the following five series:

1. Clippings
2. Correspondence
3. Newsletters
4. Pamphlets
5. Publications