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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

The Navy Department Library

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Topic
Document Type
Wars & Conflicts
File Formats
Location of Archival Materials

Princeton University Library

Princeton, NJ

Princeton University Library
One Washington Road
Princeton, NJ 08544

 

Blair and Lee Families
Papers, 1764-1946

The papers of Francis Preston Blair contain correspondence with members of the Blair family, including his wife, Eliza Violet Gist Blair, letters received as editor of The Globe, articles for The Globe and lectures by him, and business and estate records. Also included is correspondence between Andrew Jackson, whom he supported politically, and other notable political figures.

The papers of Samuel Phillips Lee contain letters by his wife, Elizabeth Blair Lee, and other family members, letterbooks, documents, personal business papers, financial material relating to his farm in Silver Spring, Maryland, and his naval records. Lee was a career officer who rose to the rank of Admiral during the Civil War, and his naval records include reports from USS Vandalia; journals kept while on board USS Dolphin, the Mississippi Squadron, and on board USS Brandywine; logbooks from USS WashingtonNautilusLegareMarion, Vixen, and Oneida; and records of the North Atlantic Blockade. Elizabeth Blair Lee's papers consist of letters by her husband, especially during the period of the Civil War, father, friends, and relatives, as well as commonplace books, clippings, and material about her volunteer work.

The papers of Blair Lee contain family correspondence during his undergraduate years at Princeton, as well as lecture notes, exercise books, and essays during this period, correspondence regarding the primary and presidential elections of Woodrow Wilson, law and business papers, and scrapbooks of political clippings. Andrew Alexander Blair's papers cover the years he was a student at Annapolis, an Ensign in the Navy, and later a chemist, and consist of correspondence between him and his parents, friends, and relatives, and papers of his Annapolis roommate, Samuel W. Very.

247.22 feet

 

Bowen, Harold G.
Papers, 1907-1955

Consists of selected papers of Vice-Admiral Bowen including speeches, articles, documents, printed matter, and manuscripts for his book Ships, Machinery, and Mossbacks, the Autobiography of a Naval Engineer. The papers primarily refer to his various activities as director of the Naval Research Laboratory (1939-1942), special assistant to the Secretary of the Navy (1939-1947), chief of the Office of Naval Research (1946-1947), and executive secretary of the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation. Included are files of naval engineering data and research concerning boilers, submarines, destroyers, turbines, radar, and naval patents, and material related to wartime industrial management, plant seizure, and the organization of Navy yards.

15.85 feet

 

Crabbe, Thomas
Papers, 1833-1857

Letter book, dated 1833-1857, kept by Rear Admiral Thomas Crabbe; letters concerning U.S. Navy; treaty with Greece made 1837; ministers and diplomatic agents of the U.S. in foreign countries; and dimensions of the U.S. frigate San Jacinto.

1 volume

 

Denby, Edwin H. 
Papers, 1823-1942

Consists of drawings, correspondence, photographs, documents, a genealogy, financial papers, and printed matter of Edwin Denby. There is also Denby family material including the journal of Denby's father, Edwin Robinson Denby, medical officer on board USS Wyoming in the Straits of Sunda, containing comments about the progress of the Civil War; a report by Dr. Denby about the sanitary conditions on board USS Lancaster, with a scrapbook kept by his wife, Laura Hooper Denby, regarding Dr. Denby's death from yellow fever and the outbreak of the disease among the sailors; a traveler's diary by Mrs. Denby; and a penmanship style book by Emma Woodridge.

5.13 feet

 

Eberstadt, Ferdinand 
Papers, 1868-1969

Consists of the papers of Ferdinand Eberstadt relating primarily to his extensive career in public service, including correspondence and related material, diaries, his report Unification of War and NavyDepartments and Post-War Organization for National Security, speeches, statements, documents, printed matter, photographs, scrapbooks, and family papers. There are files concerned with his work with the Reparations Conference in Paris as chairman, the Army-Navy Munitions Board, the War Production Board, the Atomic Energy Commission as assistant to Bernard M. Baruch, the National Security Resources Board, the Marshall Plan, and the Hoover Commission on Government Reorganization, of which he was chairman.

139.4 feet

 

Estaing, Charles Henri, comte d'
Papers, 1778-1789

Relation de la Compagne Navale ... en Amerique, manuscript, 1778-1789.  Manuscript, in cursive hand, containing an account by one of the officers aboard the fleet, whose name was withheld.

1 volume

 

Forrestal, James
Papers, 1940-1949

Consists of personal papers of James Forrestal relating primarily to the period when he was Secretary of the Navy (1944-1947) and the first Secretary of Defense. They contain materials concerning the administration of the Navy during World War II and the unification of the armed services after the war, including manuscripts of his speeches and writings, reports, scrapbooks, photographs (some of Iwo Jima), correspondence of Bernard M. Baruch, George F. Kennan, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and others, printed matter, and subject files.

83.66 feet

 

Lamson, Roswell H. 
Papers, 1845-1894

Consists of Lamson's correspondence, diaries, photographs, documents, memorabilia, and printed matter. The bulk of the collection is comprised of correspondence between Lamson and his wife, Kate Buckingham Lamson; letters to him by his mother, cousins, father, J. Lamson (in Oregon), and grandfather, Roswell Hawks; and copies in letterbooks of letters he wrote to them. Much of this correspondence covers the years he was a lieutenant and, later, captain during the Civil War serving on board several ships including USS WabashStepping Stones, and Gettysburg, and contains descriptions of military operations and naval encounters with the Confederate forces. There is also a notebook of naval terms with definitions and explanations kept by Lamson while a midshipman at Annapolis.

2.25 feet

 

Meredith, William T. 
Papers, 1863-1864

Consists of letters by Meredith to his fiancée, Mary Watson of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, from November 1863 to December 1864 during his service in the Civil War as paymaster on board Admiral Farragut's flagship Hartford. The letters were written from the ship as it lay off New Orleans, Fort Jackson (Mississippi), and Pensacola (Florida), and in Mobile Bay (Alabama).

0.25 feet

 

Philadelphia Naval Shipyard
Records, 1831-1865

Consists of letters to commanders of the Philadelphia Navy Yard, including James Barron, George C. Read, and Charles Stewart, by Secretaries of the Navy or their assistants, and members of the Navy Commissioners Office, the Bureaus of Yards and Docks, Construction, Provisions and Clothing, Ordnance and Hydrography, and Equipment and Recruiting. Many of the letters deal with the application of steam to Navy sailing vessels and the construction of new ships, including USS JamestownMississippiMissouriPrincetonSusquehannaSt. MaryUnion, and Wabash.

0.45 feet

 

Potter, David
Papers, 1950s

Consists of manuscripts for four unpublished works by David Potter: Blow High, Blow Low!, concerning Potter's adventures as a naval officer on board USS Manila during the Philippine campaign of 1899-1901; Frederick Funston, A First-Class Fighting Man, a biography of Major-General Frederick Funston, with a bibliography of Funston-related materials and a copy of Funston's report of his expedition (1893-1894) through Alaska and the British Northwest Territory which he made while he was a special agent for the U.S. Department of Agriculture investigating the flora of the Yukon Valley; Songs of the Sulu Sea (ca. 1924), a compilation of verses previously published separately under the pseudonym of "Edward Barron"; and Potter's narrative interpretation of letterbook journals written by William Potter while he was Captain-Commandant of the New Jersey Militia during the War of 1812, entitled The Adventures of Major William Potter.

0.5 feet

 

Revel, Joachim du Perron, Comte de
Papers, 1780-1802

Brouillon du journal de Ma Campagne sur le Languedoc, manuscript, 1780-1802.  Autograph manuscript volume containing a description of the fleet commanded by le comte de Grasse during the American Revolution, a summary of Revel's activities, a journal in form of a ship's log kept aboard the ship Languedoc, which continues as a journal, and notes dated 1802.

1 volume

 

Rockey, Kenneth H. 
Papers, 1912-1959

Consists of selected papers of Kenneth Rockey, including memoranda, correspondence, and reports from the period when he served as chairman (1942-1944) of the Navy Price Adjustment Board on the development and administration of defense contract renegotiations during World War II and post-war economic policy and planning. For this service Rockey was awarded the Distinguished Civilian Service Award from Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal. A supplementary file contains papers from his Princeton University days (1912-1916) and papers relating to his banking and business interests. A small addition to the papers includes further correspondence of the Price Adjustment Board and a photograph of Rockey.

8.05 feet

 

Ruschenberger, C.W. 
Papers, 1882

Lecture notes on torpedoes, compiled by Lieutenant C.W. Ruschenberger, U.S. Navy.

1 volume

 

Southard, Samuel L.
Papers, 1785-1848

Samuel Southard was a jurist; statesman; associate justice, New Jersey Supreme Court, 1815-1820; Senator from New Jersey, 1821-1823 and 1833-1842; Secretary of the Navy, 1823-1829; Governor of New Jersey, 1832-1833.

Consists primarily of correspondence received by Southard relating to his political affairs and legal practice, with some drafts of his replies, covering mainly the years 1820 to 1840. There is also some personal and family correspondence. The papers are an important source for general political history, the Whig party, and New Jersey politics during Southard's career. The documents section contains a large amount and variety of material reflecting Southard's wide interests in economics, politics, and religion, and provides a factual account of affairs during his appointments as trustee of the Princeton Theological Seminary, Secretary of the Navy, and Governor of New Jersey. The papers include an alphabetical file of Southard's legal cases, memoranda, speeches, financial papers, journals, deeds, wills, and documents relating to Cherokee Indian affairs, slavery, Robert Fulton, canals and railroads, the Morris Canal & Banking Company, New Jersey affairs, and congressional publications. Papers of other persons, consist of letters exchanged between members of Southard's family, from about 1825 to 1848, including his wife, Rebecca, daughter, Virginia, and sons, Henry and Samuel.

72.95 feet

 

Stockton Family
Papers, 1701-1942

Consists of an open file of manuscripts of various members of the Stockton family of Princeton, New Jersey, from a 1701 deed to notes on Nassau Inn written in 1942. Most prominently represented are Richard Stockton, Annis Boudinot Stockton, Richard Stockton, and Robert Field Stockton. Included are wills, deeds, correspondence between Stockton family members, letters to such persons as Benjamin Rush, Aaron Ogden, Phineas Bond, and Garret D. Wall, poems of Annis Boudinot Stockton, a deed of manumission (1829) for a slave belonging to R. F. Stockton, a letter (1917) by Theodore Roosevelt to J. Sterling Stockton, and miscellaneous legal papers.

0.9 feet

 

Stockton, Robert F.
Papers, 1843-1847

Letterbook, entitled "Appointments, Orders, Etc. by Commodore Robert F. Stockton, Aug. 12, 1843 to Feb. 16, 1847," containing copies of Stockton's letters written while commander of the shipsPrinceton and Congress during the War with Mexico, and as Governor of California.

1 volume

 

U.S. Navy
Records, 1855-1857

Order book, in unknown hand, listing officers of the vessels composing the African Squadron in the years 1855-1857 and the orders for the same; abstract journal of USS Jamestown, flagship of Commodore Crabbe during the years 1855-1857; reports of inspection of the vessels composing the African Squadron during the years 1855-1857; and abstract of the cruise of Jamestown, 1856-1857.

1 volume


Published: Thu Jun 26 15:54:32 EDT 2014