Photo Library
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CBP Officers-Landports Image Library
A CBP officer checks an individual's luggage after being x-rayed.
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CBP officer checks finger prints of individuals entering the US.
CBP officer checks finger prints of an individual entering the U.S.
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Photo Gallery: Thomas Melvill, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville (Photo 2)
Henry A. Smythe, collector of customs for the Port of New York 1866-1869
Herman Melville met Henry Smythe in Switzerland, which proved to be the means by which Melville finally managed to acquire a federal job in the New York Custom House. Smythe was appointed collector of customs for the collection district of New York on May 10, 1866. In lieu of obtaining the usual political endorsements, Melville applied for a job directly to Smythe, and he was rewarded with an appointment as a customs inspector in the surveyor's office on Dec. 5, 1866. Accused of corruption, Smythe barely managed to hold on to his collectorship and was forced out of office after four years, whereas Melville toiled on the piers for 19 years until his retirement in 1885.
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CBP officer checks documents at the Sweetgrass MT point of entry
CBP officer checks documents at the Sweetgrass MT point of entry
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Photo Gallery: Nathaniel Hawthorne (Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804-1864)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
1904 engraving from an oil portrait by Osgood shows Hawthorne at age 36, during the period he was employed as a customs measurer of coal and salt in the Boston Custom House from 1839 to 1841.
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Photo Gallery: Thomas Melvill Item (Bottle containing the tea Thomas Melvill found in his boots after the Boston Tea Party in 1773)
Bottle containing the tea Thomas Melvill found in his boots after the Boston Tea Party in 1773.
The Tea Party participants went to great lengths to ensure no one kept any of the precious tea. When Melvill returned to his home he discovered there were tea leaves in his boots, and so he placed the leaves in a vial and surreptitiously held them for the remainder of his life. Handed down in the Melvill family, the leaves were donated to Boston's Old State House Museum in 1899 by a descendent, Miss Mary Melvill.
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Photo Gallery: Herman Melville (Herman Melville 1819-1891)
Herman Melville (1819-1891)
1885 portrait by Rockwood, 17 Union Square (West), New York; George Gardner, photographer. This photograph shows Herman Melville at the time of his retirement as a customs inspector at the Port of New York.
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Photo Gallery: Thomas Melvill, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville (The Custom House at Salem, Mass.)
The Custom House at Salem, Mass.
Nathaniel Hawthorne served as customs surveyor for the Port of Salem in this customhouse from 1846-1849. The Surveyor's office was located on the first floor, to the left of the main entrance, with large windows overlooking Derby Wharf, where Hawthorne would gaze in anticipation of a ship's arrival.
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Vintage Postcard
Vintage postcard - franked in 1909 - shows the U.S. Custom House on Main Street in Franklin, Vt., with Customs Deputy Collector and Inspector Adolphus Dewing Whitney and the U.S. Customs Service flag displayed.
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1940s Inspection Station
1940's photograph of the U.S. border inspection station at Morses Line, Vt. The border station was built in 1935 on the west side of Morses Line Road (State Route 235.) A small office for the Customs and Immigration inspectors stationed at the port is accessed from door opening off the canopied driveway. Residential quarters for the officers and their families consisted of living rooms and kitchens at the rear of the first floor, which were accessed by enclosed private entrances on both sides of the building; bedrooms and bathrooms were located on the second floor An identical size border inspection station was constructed in Alburgh Springs, Vt. in 1937, and it too is still in operation today.
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Beebe Plain
Beebe Plain, Vt. and Beebe Plain, Que. are unique in that the international border runs down the center of Canusa St. separating American residents on the south side of the street from their Canadian neighbors across the street on the north side. In the above postcard photo, the American and Canadian postmasters stand outside their respective post offices. The boundary marker stands to the right of the center steps leading to the U.S. post office - a similar situation found in the Morses Line store, where the marker was in the center of the two sets of entry steps.