‹ The Hall of RecordsEntered into the record July 28, 2026

HISTORICAL RECORD · A DEMONSTRATIONLetters1819 to 1891

Filed under

Inspector of Customs in New York [B1]Raymond M. Weaver, Herman Melville: Mariner and MysticInternet Archive, from a Cornell University Library copyclass B · read 2026-07-28

Lifted off the leaf

The record

Weaver's biography records nineteen years on the customs rolls. It also records a second manuscript, left among his papers, unpublished. [B1]Raymond M. Weaver, Herman Melville: Mariner and MysticInternet Archive, from a Cornell University Library copyclass B · read 2026-07-28

Herman Melville

The record holds Herman Melville's appointment as Inspector of Customs in New York, a post held for nineteen years, and the manuscript that outlasted it: Billy Budd, finished near the end of his life and left unpublished at his death. [B1]Raymond M. Weaver, Herman Melville: Mariner and MysticInternet Archive, from a Cornell University Library copyclass B · read 2026-07-28

Entries

The record in order

1819
Born
Born August 1, 1819, at No. 6 Pearl Street, New York City. [B1]Raymond M. Weaver, Herman Melville: Mariner and MysticInternet Archive, from a Cornell University Library copyclass B · read 2026-07-28
1847
Married
Married Elizabeth Shaw, August 4, 1847. [B1]Raymond M. Weaver, Herman Melville: Mariner and MysticInternet Archive, from a Cornell University Library copyclass B · read 2026-07-28
1851
Moby-Dick published
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale published in New York by Harper and Brothers. [A1]Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, first American edition (Harper and Brothers, 1851)Duke University Libraries, via the Internet Archiveclass A · read 2026-07-28
1852
Pierre published
Pierre; or, The Ambiguities published by Harper and Brothers, New York. [A2]Pierre: Or, The Ambiguities, first edition (Harper and Brothers, 1852)Internet Archive, digitized from a Google Books copyclass A · read 2026-07-28
1866 to 1886
Inspector of Customs
Appointed Inspector of Customs in New York on December 5, 1866. The record carries two accounts of the closing date, so this span states 1866 to 1886 and no single day. [B1]Raymond M. Weaver, Herman Melville: Mariner and MysticInternet Archive, from a Cornell University Library copyclass B · read 2026-07-28
1891
Died
Died September 28, 1891, at 104 East 26th Street, New York, with the manuscript of Billy Budd among his papers. [B1]Raymond M. Weaver, Herman Melville: Mariner and MysticInternet Archive, from a Cornell University Library copyclass B · read 2026-07-28
1924
Billy Budd first printed
Billy Budd reached print for the first time, in a volume issued by Constable and Company, thirty-three years after his death. [A3]Billy Budd and Other Prose Pieces (Constable and Company Ltd, 1924)Internet Archiveclass A · read 2026-07-28

Record boundary

What the sources establish

Sources read: 6
Primary or institutional: 5
Distinct sources cited on this page: 4
Works of record: 3

Where the sources do not settle a question, this record does not answer it. Nothing above is inferred from anything else on the page.

What the record declines

The customs post is sometimes quoted with a precise government title, such as 'Customs Inspector, District of New York' or 'Port of New York,' as if lifted directly from a payroll record.

No source checked for this record prints that exact phrasing. The record uses only the wording Weaver's biography gives, Inspector of Customs in New York, and Melville's own later description of the job in his own words. [B1]Raymond M. Weaver, Herman Melville: Mariner and MysticInternet Archive, from a Cornell University Library copyclass B · read 2026-07-28

Checked: Weaver's 1921 biography, the source for the appointment, was searched directly; it states Inspector of Customs in New York and nothing closer to a formal title. A companion verification pass in the MORE OF YOU campaign's Filed Under series reached the same conclusion on 2026-07-28 and struck the phrase for the same reason.

The customs post is sometimes given an exact end date, December 31, 1885 or January 1, 1886, stated as settled fact.

The record carries two accounts and does not resolve them. Weaver's biography states the post ran until January 1, 1886; other accounts give December 31, 1885. This record states the span as 1866 to 1886 and stops there. [B1]Raymond M. Weaver, Herman Melville: Mariner and MysticInternet Archive, from a Cornell University Library copyclass B · read 2026-07-28

Checked: Weaver, page 407, checked directly by full-text search; the discrepancy with other accounts is recorded here rather than adjudicated.

Billy Budd was published in Melville's lifetime, or soon after he finished it.

The record shows the opposite. Weaver's biography describes the manuscript as completed within months of Melville's 1891 death, and it did not reach print until 1924, in a volume issued by Constable and Company, thirty-three years later. [A3]Billy Budd and Other Prose Pieces (Constable and Company Ltd, 1924)Internet Archiveclass A · read 2026-07-28

Checked: Weaver's account of the manuscript's completion, and the Internet Archive's holding of the 1924 first print edition, both checked directly.

Melville died in complete and total obscurity, with no notice at all taken of his death.

The record does not support the absolute claim. Weaver's biography records that The New York Times printed an editorial on his death within days of missing the first news of it, even as the same account records the funeral as attended by only 'a meagre scattering of relatives and family friends.' A quiet death late in life is well documented here; a complete absence of notice is not. [B1]Raymond M. Weaver, Herman Melville: Mariner and MysticInternet Archive, from a Cornell University Library copyclass B · read 2026-07-28

Checked: Weaver, pages 376 and 415, checked directly by full-text search.

The record

Herman Melville has a source page.

The same renderer a customer's published page mounts, drawing the same facts this room holds the sources for. Everything below is its apparatus.

View the record →sourceofyou.com/herman-melville

One record, two views

The apparatus

What stands behind the record: the works and who holds them, the claims this record refuses, every source read and when, and the gate stack this figure passed before a page was compiled.

Works

Works of record

Each work is listed with the institution that holds it and the rights statement that institution publishes, quoted as written.

1851

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale [A1]Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, first American edition (Harper and Brothers, 1851)Duke University Libraries, via the Internet Archiveclass A · read 2026-07-28

First American edition, Harper and Brothers, New York; the scan cited throughout this record.

Held by: Duke University Libraries, via the Internet Archive
Rights, as published: Public domain: an 1851 US publication. The Internet Archive record describes the item as the first American edition, Harper and Brothers, call number Riess M531M.

1852

Pierre; or, The Ambiguities [A2]Pierre: Or, The Ambiguities, first edition (Harper and Brothers, 1852)Internet Archive, digitized from a Google Books copyclass A · read 2026-07-28

Published by Harper and Brothers, New York, the year after Moby-Dick.

Held by: Internet Archive, digitized from a Google Books copy
Rights, as published: Public Domain Mark 1.0, as stated verbatim on the item page.

1924

Billy Budd and Other Prose Pieces [A3]Billy Budd and Other Prose Pieces (Constable and Company Ltd, 1924)Internet Archiveclass A · read 2026-07-28

First print appearance of Billy Budd, thirty-three years after Melville's death, in a volume issued by Constable and Company.

Held by: Internet Archive
Rights, as published: No rights statement is published on the item page; the work is public domain by US publication before 1930, and Melville died in 1891.

Sources

Class A is primary or institutional archival material. Class B is scholarly secondary work, cited with edition and page, and used only where class A could not be reached. Every source below was read at the URL given, on the date given.

[A1]Class A
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, first American edition (Harper and Brothers, 1851)
Duke University Libraries, via the Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/mobydickorwhale01melvread 2026-07-28
Public domain: an 1851 US publication. The Internet Archive record describes the item as the first American edition, Harper and Brothers, call number Riess M531M.
[A2]Class A
Pierre: Or, The Ambiguities, first edition (Harper and Brothers, 1852)
Internet Archive, digitized from a Google Books copy
https://archive.org/details/melvillepierreread 2026-07-28
Public Domain Mark 1.0, as stated verbatim on the item page.
[A3]Class A
Billy Budd and Other Prose Pieces (Constable and Company Ltd, 1924)
Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/billybuddotherpr0000hermread 2026-07-28
No rights statement is published on the item page; the work is public domain by US publication before 1930, and Melville died in 1891.
[B1]Class B
Raymond M. Weaver, Herman Melville: Mariner and Mystic
Internet Archive, from a Cornell University Library copy. Herman Melville: Mariner and Mystic (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1921), read via the Internet Archive's full-text search of item cu31924014249373. Cited by page: p.21 and p.24 (customs employment span), p.38 (birth), p.281 (marriage), p.376 and p.415 (death and its notice), p.262 and p.414 (Billy Budd's completion and Melville's own words for the customs post), p.407 (appointment date, closing date, and age at resignation).
https://archive.org/details/cu31924014249373read 2026-07-28
No rights statement is published on the item page; the work is public domain by US publication before 1930.
[A4]Class A
Letters Received by the Secretary of the Treasury from Collectors of the Customs, Series H: New York: July 2-December 26, 1866
National Archives and Records Administration
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/637807052read 2026-07-29
Use Restriction(s): Unrestricted. Access Restriction(s): Unrestricted.
[A5]Class A
Herman Melville
Library of Congress
https://www.loc.gov/item/2004672065/read 2026-07-29
No known restrictions on publication.

Clearance

How this record was cleared

Every record in the Hall passes the same gate stack before a page is compiled, and the result is published rather than merely filed.

Died: 1891
Public domain basis: Melville died in 1891. His works cited here were first published in 1851, 1852, and (Billy Budd) 1924, all more than ninety years before this record. Every scan and quotation is drawn from public-domain holdings on the Internet Archive, accessed 2026-07-28.
Estate and licensing screen: Checked 2026-07-28 directly against CMG Worldwide's site search (no result for Herman Melville) and Authentic Brands Group's public brand portfolio (no result for Herman Melville). A check of Greenlight's roster could not be completed (the site's certificate failed to validate during this session) and is recorded as unresolved rather than clear. No licensing agent or enforcing estate was found for Herman Melville by any check that completed.
Trademark screen: Checked 2026-07-28: no third-party 'Herman Melville' brand or product line appears in the CMG Worldwide or Authentic Brands Group portfolios checked above. A direct US trademark register search (USPTO TESS/TSDR, Trademarkia) could not be completed in this session, as both were unreachable by automated fetch; this is recorded as an incomplete check, not a clear one. This record makes no commercial use of any name or mark beyond citing library and archive holdings.
Dignity screen: The customs post, the delayed newspaper notice of his death, and the modest scale of his funeral are presented only as documented context, never as a hook. No claim is made about Melville's feelings, motives, or state of mind at any point; the one passage describing his late-life obscurity is quoted from Weaver in Weaver's own words, kept in quotation marks, not stated in the record's own voice. Decline #4 exists specifically to stop an exaggerated version of that obscurity from standing as settled fact.
Gate stack run: 2026-07-28

The machine record

The structured representation this page is built from, printed field by field.

Every row below is a field of this figure's module, printed with its value and the citation key that settles it. Nothing here is summarised or inferred. It is shown as text for a reader: this page emits no machine-readable metadata, and it is excluded from the sitemap, from llms.txt, and from search indexes.

identity

slugherman-melville

handleherman-melville

nameHerman Melville

disciplineLetters

entered2026-07-28

accent#1F3A5F

claims

labelInspector of Customs in New York [B1]

turnWeaver's biography records nineteen years on the customs rolls. It also records a second manuscript, left among his papers, unpublished. [B1]

lifespan1819 to 1891 [B1]

statementThe record holds Herman Melville's appointment as Inspector of Customs in New York, a post held for nineteen years, and the manuscript that outlasted it: Billy Budd, finished near the end of his life and left unpublished at his death. [B1]

story[7]

story[0]Herman Melville was born August 1, 1819, at No. 6 Pearl Street, New York City. [B1]

story[1]Moby-Dick; or, The Whale was published in New York in November 1851 by Harper and Brothers. [A1]

story[2]He married Elizabeth Shaw on August 4, 1847. [B1]

story[3]On December 5, 1866, he was appointed Inspector of Customs in New York, a post Weaver's account holds him in until 1886, nineteen years by that span. [B1]

story[4]By Weaver's account, Billy Budd existed only in manuscript at Melville's death, and was completed three months before his death. [B1]

story[5]He died September 28, 1891, at 104 East 26th Street, New York. [B1]

story[6]Billy Budd reached print for the first time in 1924, in a volume issued by Constable and Company, thirty-three years after his death. [A3]

schedule[7]

schedule[0] [B1]

span1819

titleBorn

detailBorn August 1, 1819, at No. 6 Pearl Street, New York City.

schedule[1] [B1]

span1847

titleMarried

detailMarried Elizabeth Shaw, August 4, 1847.

schedule[2] [A1]

span1851

titleMoby-Dick published

detailMoby-Dick; or, The Whale published in New York by Harper and Brothers.

schedule[3] [A2]

span1852

titlePierre published

detailPierre; or, The Ambiguities published by Harper and Brothers, New York.

schedule[4] [B1]

span1866 to 1886

titleInspector of Customs

detailAppointed Inspector of Customs in New York on December 5, 1866. The record carries two accounts of the closing date, so this span states 1866 to 1886 and no single day.

schedule[5] [B1]

span1891

titleDied

detailDied September 28, 1891, at 104 East 26th Street, New York, with the manuscript of Billy Budd among his papers.

schedule[6] [A3]

span1924

titleBilly Budd first printed

detailBilly Budd reached print for the first time, in a volume issued by Constable and Company, thirty-three years after his death.

figures[4]

figures[0] [B1]

label19 years

detailSpan of the Inspector of Customs post, 1866 to 1886.

figures[1] [A1]

label1851

detailYear Moby-Dick was published, fifteen years before the customs appointment.

figures[2] [B1]

labelDec 5, 1866

detailThe date of the appointment as Inspector of Customs in New York.

figures[3] [A3]

label33 years

detailYears between Melville's 1891 death and Billy Budd's first printing in 1924.

works[3]

works[0] [A1]

titleMoby-Dick; or, The Whale

year1851

noteFirst American edition, Harper and Brothers, New York; the scan cited throughout this record.

urlhttps://archive.org/details/mobydickorwhale01melv

works[1] [A2]

titlePierre; or, The Ambiguities

year1852

notePublished by Harper and Brothers, New York, the year after Moby-Dick.

urlhttps://archive.org/details/melvillepierre

works[2] [A3]

titleBilly Budd and Other Prose Pieces

year1924

noteFirst print appearance of Billy Budd, thirty-three years after Melville's death, in a volume issued by Constable and Company.

urlhttps://archive.org/details/billybuddotherpr0000herm

answers[5]

answers[0] [B1]

qWhat did the record show Herman Melville doing between 1866 and 1886?

aIt shows him serving as Inspector of Customs in New York, appointed December 5, 1866, a post Weaver's biography holds him in until 1886, nineteen years by that span.

answers[1] [B1]

qHow did Herman Melville himself describe the customs post, late in life?

aIn a letter quoted in Weaver's biography, as "an outdoor custom house officer."

answers[2] [B1]

qWhat did Raymond Weaver's 1921 biography say about the state of the Billy Budd manuscript at Melville's death?

aIt says the novel was "finished within a few months before the end of Melville's life" and, elsewhere in the same book, that it was "completed three months before his death."

answers[3] [A3]

qWhen did Billy Budd first appear in print?

aIn 1924, thirty-three years after Melville's death, in a volume titled Billy Budd and Other Prose Pieces, issued by Constable and Company.

answers[4] [B1]

qWhat did the record find about Herman Melville's death?

aHe died September 28, 1891, at 104 East 26th Street, New York. Weaver's biography records that The New York Times missed the news at first and published an editorial on it a few days later.

declines[4]

declines[0] [B1]

mythThe customs post is sometimes quoted with a precise government title, such as 'Customs Inspector, District of New York' or 'Port of New York,' as if lifted directly from a payroll record.

refusalNo source checked for this record prints that exact phrasing. The record uses only the wording Weaver's biography gives, Inspector of Customs in New York, and Melville's own later description of the job in his own words.

checkedWeaver's 1921 biography, the source for the appointment, was searched directly; it states Inspector of Customs in New York and nothing closer to a formal title. A companion verification pass in the MORE OF YOU campaign's Filed Under series reached the same conclusion on 2026-07-28 and struck the phrase for the same reason.

declines[1] [B1]

mythThe customs post is sometimes given an exact end date, December 31, 1885 or January 1, 1886, stated as settled fact.

refusalThe record carries two accounts and does not resolve them. Weaver's biography states the post ran until January 1, 1886; other accounts give December 31, 1885. This record states the span as 1866 to 1886 and stops there.

checkedWeaver, page 407, checked directly by full-text search; the discrepancy with other accounts is recorded here rather than adjudicated.

declines[2] [A3]

mythBilly Budd was published in Melville's lifetime, or soon after he finished it.

refusalThe record shows the opposite. Weaver's biography describes the manuscript as completed within months of Melville's 1891 death, and it did not reach print until 1924, in a volume issued by Constable and Company, thirty-three years later.

checkedWeaver's account of the manuscript's completion, and the Internet Archive's holding of the 1924 first print edition, both checked directly.

declines[3] [B1]

mythMelville died in complete and total obscurity, with no notice at all taken of his death.

refusalThe record does not support the absolute claim. Weaver's biography records that The New York Times printed an editorial on his death within days of missing the first news of it, even as the same account records the funeral as attended by only 'a meagre scattering of relatives and family friends.' A quiet death late in life is well documented here; a complete absence of notice is not.

checkedWeaver, pages 376 and 415, checked directly by full-text search.

sources[6]

sources.A1 [A1]

clsA

institutionDuke University Libraries, via the Internet Archive

titleMoby-Dick; or, The Whale, first American edition (Harper and Brothers, 1851)

urlhttps://archive.org/details/mobydickorwhale01melv

accessed2026-07-28

rightsPublic domain: an 1851 US publication. The Internet Archive record describes the item as the first American edition, Harper and Brothers, call number Riess M531M.

sources.A2 [A2]

clsA

institutionInternet Archive, digitized from a Google Books copy

titlePierre: Or, The Ambiguities, first edition (Harper and Brothers, 1852)

urlhttps://archive.org/details/melvillepierre

accessed2026-07-28

rightsPublic Domain Mark 1.0, as stated verbatim on the item page.

sources.A3 [A3]

clsA

institutionInternet Archive

titleBilly Budd and Other Prose Pieces (Constable and Company Ltd, 1924)

urlhttps://archive.org/details/billybuddotherpr0000herm

accessed2026-07-28

rightsNo rights statement is published on the item page; the work is public domain by US publication before 1930, and Melville died in 1891.

sources.B1 [B1]

clsB

institutionInternet Archive, from a Cornell University Library copy

titleRaymond M. Weaver, Herman Melville: Mariner and Mystic

urlhttps://archive.org/details/cu31924014249373

accessed2026-07-28

rightsNo rights statement is published on the item page; the work is public domain by US publication before 1930.

editionHerman Melville: Mariner and Mystic (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1921), read via the Internet Archive's full-text search of item cu31924014249373. Cited by page: p.21 and p.24 (customs employment span), p.38 (birth), p.281 (marriage), p.376 and p.415 (death and its notice), p.262 and p.414 (Billy Budd's completion and Melville's own words for the customs post), p.407 (appointment date, closing date, and age at resignation).

sources.A4 [A4]

clsA

institutionNational Archives and Records Administration

titleLetters Received by the Secretary of the Treasury from Collectors of the Customs, Series H: New York: July 2-December 26, 1866

urlhttps://catalog.archives.gov/id/637807052

accessed2026-07-29

rightsUse Restriction(s): Unrestricted. Access Restriction(s): Unrestricted.

sources.A5 [A5]

clsA

institutionLibrary of Congress

titleHerman Melville

urlhttps://www.loc.gov/item/2004672065/

accessed2026-07-29

rightsNo known restrictions on publication.

clearance

died1891

diedSrcB1

pdBasisMelville died in 1891. His works cited here were first published in 1851, 1852, and (Billy Budd) 1924, all more than ninety years before this record. Every scan and quotation is drawn from public-domain holdings on the Internet Archive, accessed 2026-07-28.

estateChecked 2026-07-28 directly against CMG Worldwide's site search (no result for Herman Melville) and Authentic Brands Group's public brand portfolio (no result for Herman Melville). A check of Greenlight's roster could not be completed (the site's certificate failed to validate during this session) and is recorded as unresolved rather than clear. No licensing agent or enforcing estate was found for Herman Melville by any check that completed.

trademarkChecked 2026-07-28: no third-party 'Herman Melville' brand or product line appears in the CMG Worldwide or Authentic Brands Group portfolios checked above. A direct US trademark register search (USPTO TESS/TSDR, Trademarkia) could not be completed in this session, as both were unreachable by automated fetch; this is recorded as an incomplete check, not a clear one. This record makes no commercial use of any name or mark beyond citing library and archive holdings.

dignityThe customs post, the delayed newspaper notice of his death, and the modest scale of his funeral are presented only as documented context, never as a hook. No claim is made about Melville's feelings, motives, or state of mind at any point; the one passage describing his late-life obscurity is quoted from Weaver in Weaver's own words, kept in quotation marks, not stated in the record's own voice. Decline #4 exists specifically to stop an exaggerated version of that obscurity from standing as settled fact.

checkedAt2026-07-28

HISTORICAL RECORD · A DEMONSTRATION

A demonstration record, compiled from public archives. Every line on this page carries its source. Herman Melville did not write it; the institutions cited here did.

Corrections are wanted, and they are treated the way a falsehood on any Source of You page is treated: they jump the queue. If a line here is wrong, or a source is misread, write to hello@sourceofyou.com and the page comes down while it is checked.