Brooklyn Museum - A Whaleship on the Marine Railway at Fairhaven - Clifford Warren Ashley - overall

Clifford Warren Ashley (December 18, 1881 – September 18, 1947) was an American artist, author, sailor, and

knot A knot is an intentional complication in cordage which may be practical or decorative, or both. Practical knots are classified by function, including hitches, bends, loop knots, and splices: a ''hitch'' fastens a rope to another object; a ' ...

expert.

Life

Ashley was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, son of Abiel Davis Ashley and Caroline Morse. He married Sarah Scudder Clark in 1932, with whom he had two daughters, one of whom is practicing painter Jane Ashley. He also adopted his wife's daughter from a previous marriage. He died in Westport Point, Massachusetts.

Education and early work

Taking an interest in art while still in high school, he went on to attend the Eric Pape Art School in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. In the summer of 1901 Ashley, along with friends N.C. Wyeth and Henry J. Peck, studied under George Noyes in Annisquam, Massachusetts. In the fall, he went on to become a student of

Howard Pyle Howard Pyle (March 5, 1853 – November 9, 1911) was an American illustrator and author, primarily of books for young people. He was a native of Wilmington, Delaware, and he spent the last year of his life in Florence, Italy. In 1894, he began ...

's school in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington (Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina ...

. Pyle helped secure commissions for his students, and Ashley's early work included

book frontispiece A frontispiece in books is a decorative or informative illustration facing a book's title page—on the left-hand, or verso, page opposite the right-hand, or recto, page. In some ancient editions or in modern luxury editions the frontispiece fe ...

s and illustrations for magazines such as ''

The Delineator ''The Delineator'' was an American women's magazine of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, founded by the Butterick Publishing Company in 1869 under the name ''The Metropolitan Monthly.'' Its name was changed in 1875. The magazine was publis ...

'', '' Leslies'', ''

McClure's ''McClure's'' or ''McClure's Magazine'' (1893–1929) was an American illustrated monthly periodical popular at the turn of the 20th century. The magazine is credited with having started the tradition of muckraking journalism ( investigative, wa ...

'', and '' Success''. Ashley had both a knowledge of and interest in

sperm whaling Sperm whaling is the hunting of the marine mammals for the oil, meat and bone that can be extracted from their bodies. Sperm whales, a large and deep-diving species, produce a waxy substance that was especially useful during the Industrial Revolu ...

due to his upbringing in New Bedford. In 1904 he was commissioned by

Harper's Monthly Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

to write and illustrate a two-part article on whaling. This project necessitated him becoming even more familiar with the topic. To this end he set sail aboard the bark ''Sunbeam'' for six weeks, beginning in August of that year. During the voyage he witnessed the hunt and killing of three whales. Upon publication, the

master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

of the ''Sunbeam'' praised the articles, stating, "I think it is the best whale story I ever read ... The illustrations are so true to life that even the Old Barnacles here cannot find fault with them."

Writings

Ashley is perhaps most famous for ''

The Ashley Book of Knots ''The Ashley Book of Knots'' is an encyclopedia of knots written and illustrated by the American sailor and artist Clifford W. Ashley. First published in 1944, it was the culmination of over 11 years of work. The book contains 3,857 numbered en ...

'' (1944), an encyclopedic reference manual with directions for and illustrations of thousands of

s. He was the first author to publish several knots, including what are now called Ashley's stopper knot and

Ashley's bend Ashley's bend is a knot used to securely join the ends of two ropes together. It is similar to several related bend knots which consist of two interlocking overhand knots, and in particular the alpine butterfly bend. These related bends diffe ...

. However Ashley's initial foray as a knot author occurred with the 1925 publication of a series of articles in a

Street & Smith Street & Smith or Street & Smith Publications, Inc. was a New York City publisher specializing in inexpensive paperbacks and magazines referred to as dime novels and pulp fiction. They also published comic books and sporting yearbooks. Among t ...

pulp Pulp may refer to: * Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit Engineering * Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture * Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper * Molded pulp, a packaging material ...

called ''Sea Stories Magazine''. While far less expansive than his later magnum opus, the articles have stylistic elements that Ashley would use again. This includes symbols adjacent to some illustrations to indicate the characteristics or shortcomings of particular knots. In 1935 Cyrus Day, a knot author and correspondent of Ashley's, cited the series of six articles in his own work as, "...the best discussion of knots available in English, but out of print, and difficult to obtain." The ''Sea Stories'' articles were collected, reset and published by the International Guild of Knot Tyers as ''The Sailor and His Knots'' in 2012. In 1922, Ashley was granted Patent US1433868A for "A novel method whereby sennits of any desired cross-sectional shape may be plaited without the necessity for a core." The explanation given in the Ashley Book of Knots is, "...when my attention was called to the fact that Matthew Walker alone of all past knot tiers still holds credit for his invention, I went to the trouble of patenting my sinnet.” Ashley also wrote ''The Yankee Whaler'' (1926) and ''The Whaleships of New Bedford'' (1929), studies of sperm whaling in New England in the late 18th century and early 19th century.

Memoria

Mount Ashley, standing south of the

Bay of Isles The Bay of Isles is a bay wide and receding , lying between Cape Buller and Cape Wilson along the north coast of South Georgia. It was discovered in 1775 by a British expedition under James Cook and so named by him because numerous islands ...

South Georgia Island South Georgia ( es, Isla San Pedro) is an island in the South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. Stretching in the east� ...

, is named after Ashley.

References

External links

*
The Clifford W. Ashley files
Helen Farr Sloan Library, Delaware Art Museum

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ashley, Clifford 1881 births 1947 deaths American illustrators American instructional writers People from New Bedford, Massachusetts American maritime historians American marine artists