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Seaman First Class William G. Kelly, USN

An Inventory of His Collection in the Navy Department Library

Table of Contents

Overview of the Collection

Biographical Note

Scope and Contents

Arrangement

Detailed Description of the Collection

Scrapbook Compiled During Service with the Asiatic Fleet, circa 1931-1938

Photographic Album of China Including Peking, Tien Tsin and the Great Wall of China, circa 1930

Restrictions

Index Terms

Administrative Information

Overview of the Collection

Repository: Navy Department Library
Creator: William G. Kelly
Title: William G. Kelly Collection
Dates: 1930-1942 (inclusive)
Dates: 1931-1938 (bulk)
Quantity: 1 box
Abstract: Scrapbook compiled by Seaman First Class (1/c)William G. Kelly while serving with the Asiatic Fleet in the 1930s, and a photographic album containing various views of the sights in Peking and the Great Wall of China.

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Biographical Note

William G. Kelly enlisted in the US Navy on 2 July 1929. After being sworn in at Salt Lake City, Utah, Kelly was sent to San Diego, California for eight weeks of basic training, which he completed on 13 September 1929. He remained at San Diego on telephone detail until 16 December when he shipped out on USS Chaumont for transit to the Asiatic Station. On 14 February 1930, (1/c) Kelly joined USS Luzon, then assigned to the Yangtze Patrol. He served with that ship until 1933 when he was assigned to USS Henderson. He made two cruises with Henderson before returning to the United States in 1935. From 1935 to 1939 he served in a number of billets that included duty at NAS Pensacola, NAS San Diego, and a cruise with USS Nitro. On 24 April 1941, Kelly was assigned to USS Wasp. No further information is available on his subsequent service with the US Navy.

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Scope and Contents

The collection consists of one scrapbook compiled during Kelly's service with the Asiatic Fleet, and a photographic album containing pictures of various places and sights in Peking, as well as pictures of the Great Wall of China.

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Arrangement

The scrapbook and album are housed in one archival box.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Scrapbook Compiled During Service With the Asiatic Fleet, circa 1931-1938.
A 140-page scrapbook containing cartoons, newspaper clippings, photographs, poems, ticket stubs, and other items of ephemera collected by Seaman 1/C Kelly during his service with the Asiatic Fleet in the 1930s. A chronology of important dates in Kelly's service can be found in the back pages of the scrapbook.

Photographic Album of China Including Peking, Tien Tsin and the Great Wall of China, circa 1930.
Album containing approximately 180 (2 1/2" x 4") black and white photographs of various historic sites in Peking along with pictures of the Great Wall of China and other areas including:
The Forbidding [sic] City, Peking
The Winter Place, Peking
The Coal Hill, Peking
The Great Wall of China
The Ming Tombs, Peking
The Palaee Private Court, Peking
The Tien Tsin
The Shih Chia Chuang
The Shan Hai Kuan
The Summer Palace, Peking
The Jade Stone Fountain, Peking
The Middle-South Place, Peking
Lama Temple
Peiping Observatory, Peking
The album also contains a loose envelope containing 8 color postcards showing views of Tien Tsin.

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Restrictions

Restrictions on Use

Manuscripts are unavailable for loan and must be consulted in the library. Photocopying of manuscripts is generally prohibited, though the use of digital cameras by researchers to reproduce non-copyrighted materials is permitted. Permission to photocopy a limited number of pages may be granted by the reference staff, contingent upon the physical state of items. All photocopying of materials shall be done by the reference staff, or under their close supervision. The use of personal scanners by non-library staff personnel must be approved by the reference staff on a document-by-document basis (Reference: Naval History and Heritage Command Instruction [NAVHISTCENTINST] 5070.1C.).

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Index Terms

This record series is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.

Personal subject:

Kelly, William G.

Corporate subject:

United States. Navy. Asiatic Fleet

Subject term:

Sailors--History--20th Century
Scrapbooks

Geographic term:

Peking (China)--Photographs

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Cite as: Historical Manuscripts, Navy Department Library, Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, DC, Willilam G. Kelly Collection.

Processing Information

The collection was processed and a finding aid prepared by Thomas Wildenberg in April 2004.

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Published: Fri Jul 20 10:24:35 EDT 2018