Naval History and Heritage Command

American Philosophical Society
105 South Fifth Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106-3386

Bache, Albert D.
Papers, 1862-1869

The first diary was kept during the American Civil War, when Bache was captain's clerk on board USS Hartford; the second and third were kept while Bache was an assistant paymaster on board USS Iroquois, of the Asiatic Squadron.

3 volumes

Bache Family
Papers, 1770-1923

Correspondence of members of the family of Richard and Sarah Franklin Bache, with some references to Benjamin Franklin and his estate. There is also a family genealogy.

50 items

Bainbridge, William
Papers, 1811-1830

3 items

Barron, James
Papers, 1823-1825

3 items

Barry, John
Papers, 1777-1783

21 items

Byrd, Richard E.
Papers, 1936-1950

3 items

Cassin, Charles L.
Papers, 1745-1878

Cassin was a U.S. Navy physician and grandson of Commodore Stephen Cassin, USN. The C.L. Cassin correspondence, including family letters, is primarily routine navy orders and letters of recommendation. There are several notebooks and diaries: notes from Pennsylvania Hospital clinical lectures, 1867-1869 (2 vols.); diaries, 1865-1875 (7 vols.); a volume of poetry; and general study notes. There is also early material on the Cassin family.

70 items and 11 volumes

Dale, Richard
Papers, 1780-1845

The collection contains letters of Commodore Dale to the Secretary of the Navy, William Bainbridge, Samuel Barron, William Eaton, David Humphreys, Rufus King, British, Algerian, and Tripolitanian officials, 1801-1802; also a miscellaneous collection of letters of Charles Biddle, James Biddle, Mahlon Dickerson, John Paul Jones, John Y. Mason, Oliver H. Perry, Edward Preble, Benjamin Stoddert, Thomas Truxtun, and others, 1780-1845; and Dale's journal on a voyage to Canton, 1787-1788.

1 volume

DuPont, Samuel F.
Papers, 1861

1 item

Humphreys, Joshua
Papers, 1789-1837

10 items

Humphreys, Samuel
Papers, 1822-1853

8 items

Jones, John Paul
Papers, 1777-1785

287 items

Kane, Elisha K.
Papers, 1830-1860

This collection contains many types of material: correspondence; letterbook; sketches of arctic and other scenes (there are many sketches scattered throughout the numerous bound volumes); notebooks of polar exploration; medical notebooks; journals of trips to North Carolina, Philippines, Africa, Asia Minor, Egypt, Mexico; logbooks; lectures; lecture notebooks on medicine, geology, mineralogy, geometry, etc.; medical notebook; and a journal kept while a resident physician at Blockley Hospital, Philadelphia.

7 feet 

Lenthall, John
Papers, 1837-1853

3 items

Maury, Matthew F.
Papers, 1843-1860

23 items

Melville, George W.
Papers, 1897-1898

7 items

Nautilus, USS
Collection, 1931

The Nautilus Collection is comprised of approximately 60 photographs, plus assorted newspaper clippings, postcards, and a few other miscellaneous items. The photographs document the voyage of USS Nautilus from Camden, New Jersey, to the Brooklyn Naval Yard, and New London, Connecticut, across the Atlantic to the Arctic regions. The collection includes formal and informal photographs of the submarine, its interior, and ice floes, along with portraits of many of the ship's officers.

0.25 feet

Peary, Robert E.
Papers, 1886-1897

6 items

Perry, Oliver H.
Papers, 1813

3 items

Rodgers, John
Papers, 1820

1 item

Smyth, William H.
Papers, 1827-1864

This is a miscellaneous collection of letters, almost all written to Smyth by prominent scientists. The topics discussed are many, including astronomy, microscopes, nautical almanacs, and submarine excursions. The seventeen letters to Herschel form the largest group. Also to be found are such interesting single letters as that from Thomas Graves, reporting what HMS Beagle (Charles Darwin's voyage) was encountering in South American waters.

86 items

Truxton, Thomas
Papers, 1785-1797

2 items

U.S. Naval Academy
Records, 1856-1859

5 items

U.S. Naval Lyceum
Records, 1838

1 item

U.S. Naval Observatory
Records, 1861-1899

11 items

U.S. Naval War Records Office
Records, 1898

1 item

U.S. Navy
Records, 1840-1948

12 items

Whipple, Abraham
Papers, 1778-1786

8 items

Wilkes, Charles
Papers, 1838-1850

15 items

Winlock, Joseph
Papers, 1857-1875

During the period of this letterbook, Winlock was the Superintendent of the American Ephermeris and Natural Almanac, Head of the Department of Mathematics at the U.S. Naval Academy, and Director of the Harvard College Observatory, as well as being a professor of astronomy at Harvard. There is much in his letters about his various posts, conflicts and personalities, and the politics of science. There are also many references and comments about scientific technology of the day, and of such people as Matthew F. Maury. There are numerous letters to Alexander D. Bache, James Henry Coffin, Charles Henry Davis, and William H. Willcox.

1 volume