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Customs and Traditions   view

Awards and Medals

Birthday of the US Navy

Uniform, naval

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Display Ship Barry   view

Display Ship Barry Information

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Donations    view

The National Museum of the United States Navy is not accepting donations. However we are part of the Navy’s Museum System which is pleased to accept certain photographic, art, material and paper donations. Please direct all offers of donation to the Curator Branch at nhhccurator@navy.mil. Include in your correspondence, a description of what you are offering, how this came into your possession and if appropriate images of less then 1 megabyte. As a federal institution, the National Museum of the United States Navy is prevented from any appraisals.

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Education Programs   view

Teachers Resources

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Famous People  view

Father of the U.S. Navy


Related Resource: Navy Birthday Information

The importance of the sea as a highway, a source of food or a battlefield, if necessary, was well understood by the American colonists.  When the Revolution came, it was a natural impulse, therefore, that many men in numerous locations would play prominent roles in the founding of a national navy.  Thus, the Navy recognizes no one individual as "Father" to the exclusion of all others.  As it was the Continental Congress, convoked in Philadelphia, that created the Navy in their resolution of 13 October 1775, the members of Congress must collectively receive credit for the creation of the Continental Navy, the forerunner of the United States Navy.  The various attempts to credit individual naval officers with this act are misguided, for those officers received their commissions from the very body that created the Navy in the first place.  None of this, of course, detracts from the great contributions to our struggle at sea for independence made by General Washington, John Barry, John Paul Jones, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and others.

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Medals and Awards   view

Medal of Honor, Navy & Marine Corps Recipients

Medals, Campaign and Service

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Personnel   view

Oral History: Creating a Personal Memoir of Your Naval Service

Personnel Records: Service and Medical

Shore   view

History of the Washington Navy Yard

Visting the U.S. Navy Museum   view

Information for Visitors

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