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NHF-136 Admiral William Benson Collection

2 photos albums, approximately 90 loose photographs, and miscellaneous paper items from the naval career of Admiral William S. Benson, first Chief of Naval Operations. Images of ships, locations, and personnel, with the preponderance related to World War I era. Very few images of Benson himself. Some photos have been assigned NH numbers or removed to the NH collection.
Title: Admiral William Benson Collection
Caption: Collection Photo # NHF-136-G.01 - Mines in storage for the North Sea Mine Barrage during World War I
Description: 2 photos albums, approximately 90 loose photographs, and miscellaneous paper items from the naval career of Admiral William S. Benson, first Chief of Naval Operations. Images of ships, locations, and personnel, with the preponderance related to World War I era. Very few images of Benson himself. Some photos have been assigned NH numbers or removed to the NH collection.
Accession #: NHF
Catalog #: NHF-136
Donor: Naval Historical Foundation
Copyright Owner: Naval History and Heritage Command
After this Year: 1864
Before this Year: 1933
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NHF-136-A
Photo album related to 7” Tractor Mount Mark V, showing the gun at the Washington Navy Yard and a testing ground.

NHF-136-B
Photo album about the 14” Naval Railway Battery Mark I. Assembly and testing of battery at Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Deployment and action at St. Nazaire, France. Personnel include Franklin Roosevelt, Admiral C.P. Plunkett.

NHF-136-C
6 photos taken on board USS Utah (BB-31) circa 1911, showing crew with rifles, dancing, posing on deck.

NHF-136-D
9 photos of damaged USS Cassin (DD-43) during repairs in England, after being torpedoed by U-61, 15 October 1917.

NHF-136-E
4 photos of captures of German submarine U-53 by USS Fanning (DD-37), November 1917. Shown are the submarine, as well as her crew under guard on board the US destroyer.

NHF-136-F
3 photos of a review stand in front of the New York Public Library during a parade at the end of World War I. Shown are Admiral William Benson, Franklin Roosevelt, Admiral Albert Gleaves, Major General George Barnett, and new York Mayor John Francis Hylan.

NHF-136-G
11 photographs circa World War I: Italian Piaggio seaplanes at Cattaro on the Adriatic; tombstone of Simeon W. Cummings, Assistant Engineer of CSS Alabama; mines in storage for the North Sea Barrage; breaking ground for Shipbuilding Ways, Philadelphia Navy Yard, 21 September 1914 with Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels; unidentified hall decorated for a Navy function; USS Shawmut (ID #1255) laying mines; USS O-2 (SS-63); unidentified harbor with docks full of ships.

NHF-136-H
8 photographs circa World War I: USS Iowa (BB-4); USS Dolphin (PG-24); Kronprinz Wilhelm and Prinz Eitel Friedrich at Philadelphia Navy Yard, March 1917; oversize photo of USS Utah (BB-31) at New York Navy Yard 1911.

NHF-136-I
3 oversize photographs: 5 inch gun crew of USS Leviathan (SP-1326) in action; US submarines moored alongside each other in England or Ireland – USS L-3 (SS-42), USS L-11 (SS-51), USS L-10 (SS-50), USS L-4 (SS-43), USS L-9 (SS-49).

NHF-136-J
13 photographs of personnel: carte-de-visite John G Hundonio, USNA 1875; Admiral Benson putting in first bolt of USS Henderson (AP-1) at Philadelphia Navy Yard circa 1916; dinner for Major Brigadeiro Armando Figueira Trompowsky, Chief Brazilian Air Staff with attendees Colonel Charles Mettler, Commodore H.H.J. Benson, Colonel Hugo de Cunha Machado; Francis Key Murray; Rear Admiral Walter S. Anderson, USN, greeted by Captain H.H.J. Benson, USN, July 1944; dinner for President Angarita Medina of Venezuela January 1944 including US Ambassador Frank Corrigan, Captain Benson, and others; Major General John Lejeune; Naval Affairs Committee and Chiefs of Navy Bureaus, 1918, Identified are William A. Braisted, William Benson, Congressman Smedley Butler, Secretary Josephus Daniels, Congressman L.R. Padgett, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George Barnett USMC, Ralph W. Earle, Captain, Brigadier General Charles H. Laucheimer, Samuel McGowan, Commander H.G. Sparrow. Third row: David W. Taylor. Back row: Leigh Palmer, Captain O.W. Koester, Brigadier General George Richards USMC.

NHF-136-K
33 photographs of locations visited by Admiral Benson: Montevideo, Hawaii, Bahia, Sandy Hook, Portgual, along with photo showing USS Trenton, USS Vandalia, USS Nipsic, after Samoan Hurricane. Photo of Edwin Booth, actor and brother of John Wilkes Booth.

NHF-136-L
Miscellaneous paper materials: book, “History of the Dodecanese Through the Ages – Its Services to Mankind and Its Rights”; program for post-retirement Testimonial Dinner for Admiral Benson; program for banquet for Rear Admiral Uriel Sebree; 1912 newspaper article “Little David’s Engineer Here: Jas. H. Tomb Braved Death in Torpedo Boat; 4 photos of unidentified funeral procession in Washington D.C.. possibly from Benson’s funeral, though rear handwriting says “Leonard”;  engraving from Rapin’s History of England “The Volunteers of London review in Hyde Park, by His Majesty King George the Third.”

Topic
Document Type
  • Photograph
Wars & Conflicts
  • World War I 1917-1918
File Formats
  • Image (gif, jpg, tiff)
Location of Archival Materials