Naval Academy Museum - The First 100 Years

IMPORTANCE OF THE 1945 MUSEUM

“Miss le hand has shown me your note, and I told her that I wanted to answer it myself.

“As you know, I have been very enthusiastic about the splendid Museum at the Naval Academy, and there is no doubt in my mind that it should be extended so as to display more models and prints and paintings of the United States Navy ships. This is especially necessary in view of the increase of the number of midshipmen.”

The author of the above letter, our late President and Commander in Chief, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was fully qualified to have told the story of the Naval Academy Museum during its first 100 years and, had his life been spared, I am certain that he would have relished the assignment. The quotation is an extract from a note written to the Curator early in the present war, being one of several he wrote when something new in naval history or kindred subjects turned up.

The late President’s interest in our present Museum will be referred to again. The reference above concerned the possibility of allocating $750,000 to “extend” and enlarge the Museum as a war measure, using funds granted him under the wartime acts of Congress. The idea in the President’s mind was that some youngsters, regular or reserve midshipmen, might be so inspired as to become the Decaturs and Cushings of World War II. The war to date—in the air, in submarines, in destroyers, in PT boats, in minesweeping craft, and in the many categories of landing vessels (now 80 per cent of the Navy’s ships), gives hundreds of examples of how very right Mr. Roosevelt was in visioning the part to be played by young officers in this war. This was what the President had in mind when he wrote “This is especially necessary in view of the increase of the number of midshipmen.”¹ His vision was truly prophetic.²

Vice Admiral Randall Jacobs, Chief of Naval Personnel, in addressing the Fifth Class of reserve midshipmen to graduate from the Naval Academy, pressed home to them the background of tradition under which they pursued their studies and the privileges they had been given here—privileges extended to no others in the land. He especially emphasized the fact that from the four preceding classes of reserve midshipmen, three members had already been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.³

SPIRITUAL AND INSPIRATIONAL VALUES

Perhaps it was more than a coincidence that the first Curator of the Naval Academy Lyceum [Museum] was also the first Chaplain of the Naval Academy. The first reference to substantiate this is contained in the following quotation, which indicates his duties as a Curator: “The Reverend Mr. Jones, Chaplain of the Naval School at Annapolis.”⁴ He reported for duty (as “Instructor in English branches”) under the first Superintendent, Commander Franklin Buchanan, U. S. Navy, on Wednesday, October 15, five days after the Naval School formally opened in 1845. (At one time— 1851—Jones was the official Librarian, although Professor Chauvenet was the first Librarian.)

Thus at the very beginning of the Naval Academy was emphasis placed on moral and spiritual values in the molding of military character, as evidenced by the fact that under the Chaplain’s charge were the naval relics and trophies. Exhibited in the Lyceum, they were important visual aids in the teaching of naval history and ever present reminders of the deeds of valor of our youthful Navy’s heroes.

I am firmly of the belief that the principle established a century ago is fundamental, and since my orders as permanent Curator were issued nearly eight years ago (December 11, 1937), I have kept this principle steadily in mind. Sometimes in a joking, but not irreverent way, Chaplain Thomas and I refer to one another as the “Assistant Curator” and the “Assistant Chaplain”—for our missions are identical; the inculcation of moral and spiritual values in the midshipmen during their formative years. Further, the Curator considers himself as but another arm of the Superintendent and of the Commandant of Midshipmen, and to a lesser degree of the Academic heads of departments, especially English, History and Government. What this conception of the Museum’s mission has led to will be referred to later.

CHAPLAIN GEORGE JONES, U. S. NAVY

George Jones, the first Curator, had considerable experience afloat as a teacher of navigation to midshipmen and there was an interesting biographical sketch of him printed in the U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, pp. 1399-1400, October, 1935. (90th Anniversary, U. S. Naval Academy.)

THE LYCEUM [MUSEUM]

The Naval Academy is one unit of the Federal Government where no official correspondence has been destroyed or removed. A few years ago, thanks to Rear Admiral Randall Jacobs (Chief of the Bureau of Navigation), the complementary records and correspondence for the years 1845-88 were transferred from Washington to the Academy. I am sure I read at the time that “among the first orders issued by Franklin Buchanan—and on the same day—were those establishing the Library and Lyceum,” yet unfortunately the documentation cannot now be found.

According to records, however, the first building erected (80'X33') after 1845 was in the summer of 1846. It was built for a “dining-hall, athenaeum, kitchen, etc.” The Library was on its second floor. On the 21st of January 1847 “a naval ball was given in the new messhall.”⁵ In the present Museum is a printed invitation to this ball attended by “the Secretary of the Navy and the Naval Committees of both Houses.”⁶

Reading these early records there can be no doubt that the first official building to house the Lyceum was known as the “gunnery-room and recitation hall” begun during Commander Stribling’s administration (1851-53) and finished under his successor’s, Commander L. M. Goldsborough (1853-57.)

However, from two records, namely, the delivering of trophy flags on February 9, 1849, to Chaplain Jones by Secretary Mason, and a letter from the Chief of Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography, Navy Department, to the Superintendent, dated June 30, 1851, reading in part “Chaplain George Jones, the Librarian of the Academy, may be sent to New York to purchase books” it is certain that Jones must have used the Library to house and display (or store) the trophy flags received in early 1849. Therefore it would appear that the first building erected after October 10, 1845— begun in 1846 and completed in January, 1847—where the naval ball was held—was actually the first building used as a Lyceum as well as a Library.

Manuscripts in the Museum show that, as early as 1847, consideration was being given to obtaining a “Collection in Mineralogy, Fossils, and Recent Shells” as a “means of instruction in the Naval School” to be used in connection with the course in the Department of Natural Philosophy. Among these manuscripts is an original letter dated Paris, May 8, 1854, to Secretary of Navy James C. Dobbin, giving the history of the famous Vattemare ship models (including the Ville de Paris of 120 guns) in which Alexandre Vattemare presented the five models; also included among them is the authority granted by the Navy Department, Washington, December 20,1860, to purchase “the ancient model of the Genoese 80 gun ship.” Every midshipman since 1860 has seen these two large ship models, the Ville de Paris and the Genoese Dante (17th Century) in the Department of Seamanship. (See U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, Vol. 56, No. 4, Whole No. 326, for the history of the Vattemare models.)

MUSEUMS AS EDUCATIONAL AIDS

Not until after four centuries did the British nation obtain its own National Maritime Museum at Greenwich (1934). The Museum at the Naval Academy was legally established by the Congress on March 26, 1938, and the building was constructed with funds donated by the Navy Athletic Association ($150,000) and the Naval Institute ($50,000). It is the only Federal naval museum in the country.

When I was asked by Admiral Church to write this article, I read the Naval Institute’s “90th Anniversary U. S. Naval Academy,” October, 1935, issue from cover to cover and failed to find mentioned even the word “Museum,” except at the end in Secretary's Notes, where acknowledgments were made to those who had permitted photographs to be published. Perhaps this is as good an illustration as any that could be given of the changes which are and have been taking place in our ideas of museums.

A museum, until a few years ago, was almost universally thought of as a place exhibiting antiquarian objects, mostly uninteresting, surrounded by a background of old age, cobwebs, and superannuated persons in charge. This conception is no longer true, as is evidenced by the fact that more money has been spent since 1930 on museums, historical societies, and libraries (containing priceless rare books and manuscripts) than in all the previous years combined. Today the directors, as well as the curators, of our largest museums are among the best trained and paid in the professional world. In consequence, a policy common to all is to keep their institutions fresh and varied by special exhibits; and by a system of rotating their accessions to make their museums so interesting that visitors must come again and again to see what is new.

In recent years leading American universities and colleges have set up one or more museums, functioning as an integral unit in their educational systems. The Naval Academy Museum is approaching the same status. The year 1939 brought the Curator and the new Museum directly in contact with the midshipmen of the new 4th Class. The class was addressed by me in the late summer, a lecture sponsored by the Department of English, History, and Government. Further progress was made when the members of the 4th Class were required to visit the Museum in groups supervised by an instructor. During the past academic year the Curator addressed the 4th Class, at the invitation of the Commandant of Midshipmen, on the history of the Naval Academy, and discipline in relation to traditions and customs of the service.

Perhaps the report of a recent Board of Visitors best expresses the function of our Museum:

The Board believes that the Naval Academy Museum is a valuable visual aid in the program of instruction and should receive adequate support. The immediate needs of this department are for more space, air conditioning, and a budget item for the purchase of specimens.

The foregoing is a very good indication that our nation is at last coming of age, and its citizens are becoming conscious of their cultural heritage—in other words, how we got this way.

1830-1919

It is interesting to note that a few naval officers in the early 1830’s were farseeing enough to establish at the Navy Yard in Brooklyn an organization which was incorporated under the name of the United States Naval Lyceum. Its membership consisted of naval officers, as regular members, and associate members in civil life, the latter being distinguished persons in the official and private life of our nation. The organization was run in turn by officers during their tour of shore duty at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Members at sea sent to the Lyceum at Brooklyn accessions of almost every description, collected from all parts of the world. Among the latter were books, coins, priceless hand-carved war clubs from the South Pacific,⁷ rare maps and charts, manuscripts, autograph letters (signed by distinguished persons of various nationalities in both civil, official, and Navy life); weapons of various kinds, etc. Included in the foregoing list were even tombstones from Egypt 2,000 years B.C., Egyptian mummy coverings, old coins from Carthage, and pieces of marble from the crumbling Parthenon. When the Naval Lyceum disbanded in 1888, its accessions were donated to the Naval Academy.

From time to time during the intervening years some of the items were unpacked and exhibited at various places in the Academy and subsequently withdrawn and stored.

Soon after the Lyceum was established, some of the Navy Department bureaus and shore establishments sent historic naval relics to the Academy. Included among them were not only the famous DONT GIVE UP THE SHIP flag, but all the Navy’s battle trophy flags captured up to that time— (1849). These flags, together with the ones subsequently captured (at Manila and Santiago, 1898), are all here, and, except for those now on display in the Museum, are housed in glass exhibit cases in Mahan Hall and Recreation Hall.⁸

Another fine Lyceum, and almost as old as Brooklyn’s, was that at the Boston Navy Yard, established nearly a hundred years ago and known as the Boston Naval Library and Institute. Its accessions were donated to the Naval Academy in 1921 when that organization disbanded.

Two valuable collections are “the Malcolm Storer Collection of Naval Medals (more than 1,240 dating back to 1536) presented by the late Malcolm Storer, and the “Washingtonia” presented by the late R. T. Crane, Jr., of Chicago—of great historic and intrinsic value.

Nearly 1,000 engravings were presented by C. T. Harbeck from his marine section of the Harbeck Collection.

Another fine collection, presented by the Washington Gun Factory, was the Civil War Collection of shells and projectiles. Many fine oil portraits had come to the Naval Academy of our first eight Presidents, and of most of our early naval heroes—the works of artists Gilbert Stuart, R. Salmon, A. Clark, Robert Hinckley, A. B. Durand, John Wesley Jarvis, Thomas Sully, Chester Harding, George Chinnery, and J. Wood.

M. F. Corné, L. P. Crépin, and Thomas Birch were represented by oil paintings of famous early naval actions.

Of particular interest is the collection of famous swords in the custody of the Naval Academy Museum, this collection containing the swords of John Paul Jones, Paul Revere, Stephen Decatur, Marquis de Lafayette, Franklin Buchanan (Commander of the Confederate ironclad Merrimac), George Dewey, and Oliver Hazard Perry, to mention just a few.

So much for the accessions of historic interest assembled at the Naval Academy prior to the establishment of the new Museum, except to add that most of the naval shore establishments from the early 1830’s until the 1910’s had small lyceums. Eventually the most interesting of their accessions were sent to the Academy and finally, by orders of Admiral William D. Leahy, U. S. Navy, Chief of Naval Operations, the remainder were sent to the Naval Academy Museum during 1938-39.

1919-1937

In the Museum’s files today there is correspondence showing the part played by Franklin D. Roosevelt and his early interest in a Naval Academy Museum. Soon after the conclusion of World War I he wrote a personal letter to the Superintendent (Rear Admiral Archibald H. Scales, U. S. Navy) calling attention to the desirability of starting [now] a regular museum, using the historic items previously mentioned (then mostly crated and stored). Writing as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, he suggested his Harvard classmate, Professor Sydney Gunn of the Department of English, History, and Government, as Curator.

Admiral Scales acted promptly and set aside for this purpose five small recitation rooms on the ground floor, south corner, in Maury Hall. The late Professor Gunn, followed by Professor Herman Krafft (Retired), did a prodigious amount of work (handicapped by lack of space and assistance) in inventorying, cataloguing, and labeling all the historic objects which remained of those accumulated throughout the years. Many valuable items were missing.

Succeeding Superintendents, Rear Admirals Henry B. Wilson, Louis M. Nulton, Samuel S. Robison, Thomas C. Hart, and David F. Sellers, enthusiastically supported the Museum in Maury Hall. Upon Krafft’s retirement during the administration of Rear Admiral Hart, naval officers attached to the Academic Departments were successively part-time Curators (Lieutenant (j.g.) J. F. Dahlgren, Lieutenant Wade De Weese, Lieutenant Commander W. E. Doyle, and Commander H. J. Ray.) This was the situation when Rear Admiral David F. Sellers obtained the donation of $200,000 from the Athletic Association and the U. S. Naval Institute to build the new museum building.

Quite a few naval officers were heard to remark, when I first reported for this duty, that it had been a mistake to build our Museum with private funds—that Congress should have appropriated the money. A moment’s reflection will convince anyone that a Congress (or a Parliament) appropriates money according to items on a priority list. And in time of peace no Navy Department (or Admiralty) will ask for appropriations for anything else until it has all the ships and personnel it thinks it needs. Even after four centuries the British National Maritime Museum was made possible only by private funds.

It is well known that our late and lamented President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was greatly interested in naval history in general and our own naval history in particular. The establishment a few years ago by Congress of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park, New York, represents the nation’s testimonial of the high regard in which the late President was held for his leadership, statesmanship, and interest in naval history.

Shortly after the new Museum was opened, President Roosevelt inspected it (June, 1939) from top to bottom, spending a full hour; and by his questions and observations concerning the various accessions, he displayed his keen interest in the Museum as well as his knowledge of naval history. For instance, in passing a white marble bust at a distance from which no one could read its label, he turned to me and said, “The Sailor King?” and quickly added “William the Fourth.” Frequently he would stop and admire the prints in the Beverley R. Robinson Collection, particularly when he saw one of which he had a duplicate.

The Curator has several additional personal notes from the late President showing the latter’s concern for the welfare of the midshipmen and their Museum. No visitor to the Museum has ever displayed keener interest.

ACCESSIONS SINCE 1937

Since the present Curator’s assignment in December, 1937, approximately $2,000,000 worth of accessions have been donated to the Museum (not including the $1,000,000 Collection of the Colonel Henry H. Rogers Ship Models received in 1938). Among such accessions are:

(1)    The magnificent Beverley R. Robinson Collection of more than 600 Naval Battle Prints, including valuable naval books and a provision in the donor’s will whereby a trust fund from half his estate is to be created for the benefit of the collection.

(2)    The important Christian A. Zabriskie Collection of priceless manuscripts which include:

(a) The Farragut papers, 10 slip-case volumes. (Included therein is the autograph signed Report of the Battle of Mobile Bay with its deletions, corrections and additions in Farragut’s handwriting also. From this document the signed smooth copy was sent to the Secretary of the Navy.)

(b) Forty-five autograph letters signed by Lord Nelson (1798-1805) to the Queen of Naples, the King of the Two Sicilies, and to Sir John Acton—many unpublished.

(c) The key document for the Perry Expedition to Japan 1852-54, signed by President Millard Fillmore, November 11, 1852.

(d) The original telegram sent by Acting Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter to Secretary of the Navy announcing the surrender of Vicksburg to the U. S. Forces. This was Lincoln’s first news of the fall of Vicksburg, July 4, 1863.

(e) The original and famous contemporary oil painting of the John Paul Jones victory of the Bon Homme Richard over H.M.S. Serapis, by Sir Richard Paton.

(f) The priceless Robert Fulton Collection (13 pieces all in Fulton’s autograph—invention of the steamboat, paddle wheels, submarine Nautilus, floating battery, etc.). The genesis of steam navigation, and the modern mine, torpedo, and submarine. With sketches, drawings (some in 3 colors), and mathematical calculations. Presented by Christian A. Zabriskie.

(3)    The John L. Senior Collection consisting of many John Paul Jones items, including the $50,000 (appraised value) original commission signed October 10,1776, by John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, Philadelphia, issued to John Paul Jones as a Captain in the Navy of the United States. This is now in the Crypt of the Naval Academy Chapel. The John L. Senior Moscow Papers—photostats of the John Paul Jones correspondence—French and Russian—with Potemkin and Catherine the Great—with English translations. Presented by John L. Senior.

(4)    The magnificent collection of 205 mezzotint portraits (contemporary) of all the heroes of the U. S. Navy up to and including the War of 1812, plus those of all of the British naval officers who served in the waters of the western hemisphere. With this collection are a dozen old Des Barres Charts used on the bridges of the British man-of- war operating off the New England coast during the Revolutionary War. These were presented by Mrs. E. S. Cushman and her brother, Francis Robinson, in memory of their grandfather, Francis Robinson, who was a midshipman at the Naval Academy during the Civil War.

(5)    The Rosenbach Collection of 78 priceless manuscripts on the birth of the Navy. It begins with five slip-cases of the specifications and contracts for the first two ships ever built for the U. S. Navy—the Boston and the Hancock, all in the autographs of John Hancock, Robert Morris, and Thomas Cushing and ending with the 23 original telegrams sent by Grant to Porter during the months of June, July, covering the siege of Vicksburg. Included in it are: the first general court- martial convening order ever signed (by the first Commander in Chief, Esek Hopkins), the first orders ever issued for a United States squadron to engage the enemy, and an ad interim commission issued to John Paul Jones appointing him a Commissioner of the United States to the Dey and Government of Algiers to negotiate a treaty to ransom the American captives—signed by the first President of the United States and the first Secretary of State, during the first term of the first President, June 1, 1792. The gift of John L. Senior, the U. S. Naval Institute, and thirty- seven “friends of the U. S. Navy.”

(6)    The gold-hilted sword presented by Louis XVI to John Paul Jones. Presented by Edward C. Dale and now in the Chapel Crypt.

(7)    The two steel dies of the Congressional Gold Medal awarded by Congress October 16, 1787, to John Paul Jones. Now in the Crypt. Returned by the Government of France through the efforts of Rear Admiral David F. Sellers and the present Curator. The dies were executed by one of the world’s most famous medallists—Augustin Dupré.

(8)    A gift from the Friends of the U. S. Navy (valued at $100,000) of five naval paintings and Captain Samuel Chester Reid’s desk on which he designed the present U. S. flag.

(9)    The great collection of paintings known as the “Thirteen Historical Marine Paintings” by Edward Moran. Believed to contain two of the finest seascapes in this country by an American artist. Presented by Paul E. Sutro.

(10)    The famous Gilbert Stuart portrait of “Captain James Lawrence” (DONT GIVE UP THE SHIP). Presented by George M. Moffett.

(11)    An original plaster bust of John Paul Jones by one of the world’s greatest sculptors, Jean Antoine Houdon. Ordered by Jones for presentation to a European friend during 1780-92. Now in Chapel Crypt. Gift of the Friends of the United States Navy.

(12)    The William F. Kurfcss Collection of Jonesiana, containing a number of items not known to be in any other collection of John Paul Jones. Also important Lord Nelson letters. Presented by W. F. Kurfeas.

(13)    Fine oil paintings by distinguished artists of:

George W. DeLong; Lieutenant Edwin J. DeHaven; Elisha Kent Kane; Albert Gleaves; James Lawrence; Charles Wilkes; George H. Perkins, Hugh Rodman; a bust portrait of Admiral Sims; Harry E. Yarnell; Rear Admiral Joseph Smith; Thomas O. Selfridge; Edward Preble; Commodore James Biddle; bust portraits of John Barry; George W. Melville; Farragut; etc.

(14)    The Jeannette Expedition Collection—bequeathed by Emma DeLong, the widow of George W. DeLong of the ill-fated Jeannette Expedition. Complete and including DeLong’s private journal up to the time of the loss of ship and his two “ice journals”—140 days on the ice and on way to the Lena Delta, Siberia.

(15)    Alonzo Chappel’s “Stephen Decatur’s Conflict with the Algerine” from the Chester Dale Collection. Presented by Chester Dale.

(16)    First commission ever issued to a lieutenant by and with the advice and consent of the Senate—to Charles Stewart, signed by John Adams.

(17)    The original model of the screw propeller (6 blades) in England 1835, by the hands of John Ericsson, inventor and designer of the Monitor 27 years later. Presented to Admiral Harry E. Yarnell by an admirer and in turn presented by him to the Museum.

(18)    Farragut’s Oath of Office when sworn in as a midshipman, he not being quite 9J years old.

(19)    The Votive Ship Model suspended high over the entrance to the new Chapel extension— presented by the alumni of the Naval Academy (1941) who were members of the Construction Corps on the occasion of the amalgamation of the Construction Corps and Line of the Navy.

(20)    The very fine work of art—the miniature group (diorama) of John Paul Jones on board the Bon Homme Richard at the moment Jones is shouting his defiant “I HAVE NOT YET BEGUN TO FIGHT,” by Dwight Franklin, the foremost sculptor today in miniature.

(21)    Entire new systems of indirect lighting in the Crypt of the Naval Academy Chapel (1945).

(22)    Two solid gold vases ordered by the late Empress Dowager of China as prizes to two battleships at Amoy, China, November 3, 1908, during visit of eight battleships on the around the world cruise (1907-1909) of the sixteen battleships. One recovered from the White House and the other from the Smithsonian Institution.

(23)    The first Distinguished Flying Cross awarded by the Congress. (Posthumously to Eugene Ely for first to land on and fly from the deck of a vessel in an airplane.) Presented by his father Major General N. B. Ely, U. S. Army.

(24)    First aerial camera in U. S. Navy—transferred from Anacostia Naval Air Station by orders of Rear Admiral H. J. Towers, U. S. Navy, when Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics.

(25)    Complete collection of models of first naval airplanes—presented by the Bureau of Aeronautics, Rear Admiral J. H. Towers, U. S. Navy.

(26)    White marble bust of the colossal head of Napoleon I after the statue of Napoleon I by Antonio Canova. Presented by Mrs. F. P. Sands and family.

(27)    Collection of first photographs of naval action, Santiago July 3, 1898. Taken by Naval Cadet Cyrus R. Miller, U. S. Navy, U.S.S. Oregon, and presented by him.

(28)    Original model of the Kingsbury Thrust Bearing, presented by Mr. Albert Kingsbury to George Westinghouse, and in turn by Henry F. Schmidt.

(29)    Autograph letter signed by Acting Lieutenant Samuel Dana Greene, U. S. Navy, First Lieutenant of Monitor addressed to his mother and father, describing Monitor’s voyage from New York to Hampton Roads and historic battle with the Merrimac. Never published in full until Museum permitted Midshipmen’s Trident to publish it. Presented by Greene’s two surviving children, brother and sister, G. de B. Greene and Mrs. John Stevens Conover.

(30)    Manuscript Document (witnessed) of an agreement when War of 1812 began, between Commodores John Rodgers and Stephen Decatur, to share and share alike, all prize money and in case of the death of the one, the widow to receive the share—so long as the war shall last. Possibly the second or third earliest form of life insurance in this country.

(31)    Facsimile size colotype of the Bill of Rights. Presented by Barney Balaban who presented the original (one of 14 contemporary copies) to the Library of Congress (1945).

(32)    The first lawn tennis championship cup (Seabright) in the United States. Won by W. A. Larned and presented by his sister, the late Mrs. Albert H. MacCarthy. Larned worked for years with the architect of the new Naval Academy, Ernest Flagg, and did all his practicing for championship events on the courts of the Naval Academy.

(33)    Complete sets of all official decorations and medals with ribbons of the Army and Navy. Presented by the Bureau of Naval Personnel.

(34)    A fine collection of automatic pistols—foreign and domestic—presented by H. P. Abbott.

(35)    Many manuscripts of great naval historic importance—too numerous to list. Acquired by gift and purchase.

(36)    A nearly complete Museum Reference Library, first editions of important naval books and the 1000-volume famous Henry B. Culver Library on Naval Architecture and Rigging of 17th Century Sailing Ships.

Space does not permit further listing of the hundreds and hundreds of additional valuable donations.

WORLD WAR II ACCESSIONS

Every midshipman visits the Museum at least once officially his plebe summer and is made familiar with the layout of its exhibits and the highlights of its accessions. It may be of interest to point out a few of the most interesting accessions that have been received since World War II began. Among these are:

(1)    The aircraft carrier Enterprise’s rubber life raft in which the three aviation personnel were adrift for 34 days covering more than 1,000 miles in the Southwest Pacific before they were rescued. Presented by Captain George Murray, U. S. Navy (now Vice Admiral).

(2)    Early V-mail letters (and other letters) from Admirals Nimitz and Halsey.

(3)    The sword of the Japanese naval commandant taken by Lieutenant Colonel Evans F. Carlson’s Raiders during the first raid on Makin Island (1942). Presented by Colonel Carlson to Admiral Nimitz and in turn by Admiral Nimitz to the Museum.

(4)    The sword and scabbard of the first Japanese commissioned officer captured in this war. Courtesy of Rear Admiral Thomas Withers, U. S. Navy.

(5)    A Japanese imperial rescript bearing the seal of the Mikado, salvaged from a Japanese submarine sunk by a U. S. Navy squadron of destroyers under command of Captain Thomas M. Shock, off Guadalcanal.

(6)    A Nazi flag captured off the coast of Normandy during the invasion of that coast, June 9, 1944. Presented by Rear Admiral Alan G. Kirk, U. S. Navy.

(7)    The first United States flag hoisted and the first Japanese flag taken on captured Japanese territory in this war, both presented by the late Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox.

(8)    The Battle Flag of the first aircraft carrier Hornet (from whose deck the Doolittle flyers first flew to raid Tokyo), and flown during the subsequent battles of the Coral Sea, Midway, and when that ship was lost off the Santa Cruz Islands in the southwest Pacific in the fall of 1942. Presented by Vice Admiral Mitscher to Mrs. Frank Knox, the Hornet's sponsor, and in turn by her to the Museum.

(9)    The banner of the U. S. submarine Barb flown when returning to port after patrol, showing by means of miniature flags sewed on it the decorations received by her and her officers and men, and the number of enemy vessels in various nationalities and categories sunk by the submarine during the present war. The Barb was commanded by Commander Eugene Fluckey, U.S. Navy. Lent by Commander Fluckey.

(10)    Japanese 7.7 machine gun from Guadalcanal. Presented by Admiral W. F. Halsey, U. S. Navy.

(11)    Quart bottle of Japanese Asahi beer from Guadalcanal. Presented by General Alexander A. Vandegrift, U. S. Marine Corps, to Commander V. W. Grady, U. S. Navy (U.S.S. Saratoga) and in turn by Grady to the Museum. (An interesting story behind this gift.)

(12)    Headquarters marker of Japanese general commanding at Attu in the Aleutians. Presented by Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, U. S. Navy.

(13)    Japanese bell (well shot up) from front of headquarters of Japanese Admiral Commanding Seaplane Bases in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands. Presented by Vice Admiral John H. Towers, U. S. Navy, Deputy Commander in Chief, U. S. Pacific Fleet.

(14)    Rug from the U.S.S. Juneau, found floating between Guadalcanal and Tulagi after her sinking from action of Japanese forces coming down “the slot.” Presented by Commander Service Squadron, South Pacific Force.

(15)    Japanese bell from Majuro Atoll. Presented by the Headman of the village of 75 natives—in appreciation of kindness to his people after the bombardment. Gift accompanied by letter in Marshalese, “Pidgin English,” and Japanese.

(16)    Relics from Japanese suicide bombers.

(17)    Invasion money, paper. All kinds from Bataan to Hollandia and Leyte and of those used in European theater.

(18)    Pieces of enemy shells fired into U. S. battleships Massachusetts (Casablanca, November 8, 1942) and South Dakota (off Guadalcanal on night of November 14, 1942).

(19)    Another outstanding accession of World War II is the first, and perhaps only, black surrender flag in history. Terms of the V-E armistice with Germany required all Nazi submarines to fly a black flag upon surrendering. First to do so was the U-858 off Cape May, New Jersey, and Rear Admiral Milo F. Draemel, U. S. Navy, Commandant of the Fourth Naval District, immediately sent the flag (a dark crew’s blanket was used) to the Museum.

(20)    Another famous sub flag is that of the U-505, which was boarded by men of a U. S. Navy escort carrier force and captured, the first time we have boarded a foreign enemy man-of- war since 1815. It was presented by Captain D. V. Gallery, U. S. Navy, commanding officer of the force, upon instructions from Admiral Jonas Ingram, U. S. Navy, Commander in Chief of the U. S. Atlantic Fleet. Captured June 4, 1944, when Admiral R. E. Ingersoll, U. S. N., was Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet.

It should be mentioned in passing that the Museum of the Naval Academy is still the legal repository of all flags, standards, and colors taken by the Navy from their enemies in time of war. A Presidential order, signed by James K. Polk, on February 9, 1849, directs that such historic relics shall be deposited “in the Naval School at Annapolis.” The order, based on an Act of Congress of April 18, 1814, is still in force, and has resulted in the acquisition of many famous enemy flags—a source of inspiration to new classes of midshipmen as well as older officers revisiting the Academy.

Another function of the Museum is as a source of authentic background information and photographs for visiting writers, artists, editors, and others having a legitimate interest in the traditions and customs of the Navy. The trained Museum staff makes every effort to answer scores of inquiries concerning historical subjects received by mail and telephone daily—some from other departments of the Academy and many more from editors and publishers throughout the land and even from foreign countries. A measure of this is the volume of correspondence handled by the Museum—which has almost doubled in the Centennial Year.

RECORDS AND TRANSCRIPTIONS

Among the unique collections in the Museum are two which I began nearly five years ago, the idea coming to me when a classmate, the late Richard Wainwright, gave me a special recording made by the Victor Company in 1908 at San Francisco, when “Fighting Bob” Evans hauled down his flag and retired for age. It records his Farewell Address to the Navy.

One is the collection of more than a thousand phonograph records telling the history of our country in music and song together with all the popular war songs from “Yankee Doodle Dandy” to those of this war. The idea behind this collection is that in addition to having a musical record of the war songs, there might be similar records of the popular songs of each decade—these should prove of interest for future generations of naval officers. For example, an alumnus graduating during the present World War might return to the Naval Academy forty to forty- five years later to see his midshipman grandson in the future Bancroft Hall, and, after listening to the songs on the radio in the future midshipmen’s room, the grandfather would be able to say “Let us go over to the Museum. I would like you to hear what I listened to when I was a midshipman.” (And they could hear the voices of Bing Crosby, Kate Smith, Frank Sinatra, and such comedians as Jack Benny, Baby Snooks, Edgar Bergen, and Charlie McCarthy, etc.) In the phonograph collection are also records of the theme songs of the famous band and orchestra leaders and their recordings.

The other collection includes transcriptions of all the important broadcasts referring to World War II, the Navy and the Naval Academy, made since early 1941; included therein are all the important war addresses of the late President Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, the first important public address of Secretary Knox after his return from Pearl Harbor—to the Class of 1942 graduating December 19, 1941, the voices of Admirals King, Nimitz, Russell Willson, Halsey, Beardall, and Chaplain Thomas. The Office of Public Information, and the various leading radio networks, have donated more than 1,500 transcriptions concerning radio broadcasts of historic naval actions in this war, the voices of commanding officers, and heroes of the Fleet, as well as regular network programs concerning the Navy and naval subjects. The Museum now has more than 1,600 such transcriptions— the only complete collection of radio broadcasts concerning the Navy in existence. We even have George Hicks’ famous spot news broadcast from on board the U.S.S. Ancon during the June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion of Normandy off the French coast. We have the only disc recording of Josef Stalin’s voice in the U.S.A.—June 21, 1942, when he heard Hitler had invaded Russia.

CONCLUSION

The lay reader of history is familiar with Napoleon’s statement of the relative value of the morale factor in war—that it is equal to all others in the proportion of three to one; students of naval history are not so familiar with Nelson’s same numerical evaluation of this factor (made contemporarily with but not aware of Napoleon’s) when he told his “band of brothers” that no captain can go far wrong if he attacks at one time not more than three Frenchmen. It is not generally known that our own inspirational hero (John Paul Jones) also made the same numerical evaluation of the morale factor before either Napoleon or Nelson, because the letter in which he wrote it lay for more than a century in the files of the State Department. Paul Jones arrived at the Texel October 3, 1779, after the engagement with the Serapis. He remained there until December 27, 1779, despite the pressure of the British, French, and Dutch authorities to force him to depart while the British ships lay outside waiting to take him. Jones wrote to the French Ambassador on one occasion in reply to the latter’s insistence that he depart: “as there are eight of the enemy’s ships lying in wait for me at the south entrance and four more at the north entrance of the port, I am unable to fight more than three times my force.”

The greatest factor in leadership is that of morale and each of our early naval heroes received and transmitted in turn by example to their successors, those inspirational qualities of leadership which gave to our Navy the fighting spirit it has always possessed—but it must be stated that such traditions, like fine porcelain, can be produced only by going through the hottest fire. (Incidentally, it was the lack of this fire that caused the German Navy to crack the last time; and has again—it never had any worthy traditions.)

The mission of the Naval Academy Museum is, frankly, to inspire the midshipmen, to give them a better appreciation of the brave deeds, the genuine sacrifices, the firm discipline, and the loyal adherence to traditions of a great fighting service of a peace- loving people.

Another potent sentimental factor is tradition, which is very valuable in itself to stimulate morale directly, and is also useful to the same end indirectly through feelings of loyalty which are fostered by it. Merely because they are not generally well known to the service, the very fine traditions of the American Navy are almost valueless to the present day personnel. There is every reason why this important moral asset should be utilized to the limit of its possibilities.—Knox, On Morale.