Naval War College
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The U.S. Naval War College is the oldest naval war college in the world and the highest professional educational institution in the navy. Established in 1884 by Navy Department General Order No. 325, the Naval War College today consists of four resident schools, a Center for Distance Education, and a Center for Naval Warfare Studies for gaming and advanced research in current strategic and naval questions. The graduate course curriculum comprises elements of strategy, management, and naval operations, and is taught during a ten-month academic year. Although courses taught at the college are open only to selected officers of the armed forces and officials in other government agencies, the college’s collections and archives are open to the public; interested parties should write to the president of the college. The college is accredited to award a Master of Arts degree in National Security and Strategic Studies.
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[edit] Address and Contact Info
Address: Center for Naval Warfare Studies, 686 Cushing Rd., Newport, RI 02841-1207
Phone: (401) 841-2270
Fax: (401) 841-3579
E-mail: john.hattendorf@nwc.navy.mil
Web page for Center for Naval Warfare Studies and Maritime History Department: http://www.nwc.navy.mil/cnws/
Web page for Naval War College Museum: http://www.nwc.navy.mil/newportlinks/museum/museum.aspx
Web page for Archives and Naval Historical Collection: http://www.nwc.navy.mil/library/historicalcollection.aspx
Research Dean: Robert Rubel
Chair, Maritime History Department, and Director, Naval War College Museum: Professor John B. Hattendorf
Archivist and Head, Naval Historical Manuscript Collection: Dr. Evelyn Cherpak E-mail: evelyn.cherpak@nwc.navy.mil
Online Finding Aid: Presently unavailable on line; printed copies are available on request.
[edit] Hours and usage restrictions
The collection is open to all researchers between the hours of 0800 and 1630, Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays. The Naval War College is located on the U.S. Naval Station, Newport, Rhode Island. Security measures are in effect. Prospective visiting researchers interested in using the collections should write in advance to make the necessary arrangements for a visit: Naval Historical Collection U.S. Naval War College, Code 1E3 686 Cushing Road Newport, RI 02841-1207
Further information may be requested by telephoning (401) 841-2435; fax (401) 841-7790, or e-mail NHC@nwc.navy.mil
[edit] Collection Summary
The Henry E. Eccles Library of the Naval War College, located in Hewitt Hall, houses a collection of about 500,000 items. The collection is particularly strong in subjects of interest to the naval profession: naval and military science, history and strategy, management, economics, international law, international relations, oceanography, and contemporary world issues. The college’s archives and manuscript collection is a part of the Eccles Library but is located in Mahan Hall. The concepts of the college’s founders, as well as the evolutionary development of the administration and the curricular programs of the Naval War College, are documented in over 1,200 linear feet of Naval Historical Collection archival records. Holdings include administrative correspondence and memorandums, staff studies, reports and surveys, student theses, papers, faculty and guest lectures, college publications, intelligence and technical research source collections, conference records, and photographs. The materials are divided into record groups, all of which have been inventoried.
Manuscript holdings of the Naval Historical Collection consist of more than 250 collections of personal papers and corporate naval records, and over 600 single manuscript items. Significant naval warfare collections include the papers of former college presidents Stephen B. Luce, Alfred Thayer Mahan, Charles H. Stockton, William Veazie Pratt, Raymond Ames Spruance, and Richard G. Colbert. Regional collections include historical files of the Newport Naval Training Station, the Newport Naval Base, the Quonset Naval Air Station, and the Naval Torpedo Station, formerly on Goat Island in Newport’s inner harbor. All collections have been cataloged and inventoried and a number of collection registers have been printed and are available on the college’s web site.
Oral histories, newspapers, pamphlets, and naval history subject files constitute other categories of materials available in the Naval Historical Collection.
The Naval War College Museum is one of the U.S. Navy’s 12 official historical museums and is part of the system of museums that is managed under the director of naval history at the Naval Historical Center, Washington, D.C. The Naval War College Museum is located in Founders Hall, a National Historic Landmark. The building was where the college began in 1884 and where the second president and lecturer on naval strategy, Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, delivered his famous lecture series on The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660–1783, first published in 1890. In addition, the museum maintains a loan exhibit to nearby Fort Adams State Park.
The museum collects and preserves materials relating to the history of the art and science of naval warfare and the naval heritage of the Narragansett Bay, and makes use of these materials for educational exhibitions and associated programs. Generally speaking, museum exhibitions seek to identify the milestones in the evolutionary development of war at sea; explain the importance of the sea as a factor in the formulation and achievement of national policy objectives and as the arena wherein decisions are made through diplomacy and arms; and describe the eventful relationship of the U.S. Navy with Narragansett Bay and with the people of Rhode Island from the birth of the nation to recent times.
The museum serves as the corporate memory of the navy in the region and of the college, as well as a clearinghouse for information on U.S. Navy history for the interested public and scholars in the southern New England area. The museum collection is open to study by graduate students and specialists. The museum director, a subjects area specialist, counsels researchers, delivers talks, and publishes articles in newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals.
The main listing of materials in the Naval Historical Collection is
- A Guide to Archives, Manuscripts and Oral Histories in the Naval Historical Collection".
In addition, there are two additional subject guides:
- A Guide to Research Source Materials on Women in the Naval Historical Collection
- A Guide to Research Source Materials on Latin America and the Caribbean in the Naval Historical Collection
And the following registers of collections of the papers of individuals:
- Anderson, Bern, RADM
- Baruch, Barnard M., Jr., CAPT
- Bates, Richard W, RADM
- Belknap, George E., RADM & Belknap, Reginald R., RADM
- Burgess, W. Starling
- Chadwick, French Ensor, RADM
- Colbert, Richard G., ADM
- Eccles, Henry E., RADM
- Fahy, Edward J., RADM
- Gibson, Andrew E.
- Hayward, John T., VADM
- Hewitt, H. Kent, ADM
- Hudson, Manley O.
- Kabler, William L., RADM
- Kalbfus, Edward C., RADM
- King, Ernest J., FADM
- Laning, Harris, RADM
- Layton, Edwin T., RADM
- Luce, Stephen B., RADM
- Mahan, Alfred T., RADM
- McCarty Little, William, CAPT
- Miles, Wilma S.
- Mullin, William L., LT
- Pratt, William Veazie, ADM
- Rosinski, Herbert F.
- Schlie Family Papers
- Semmes, Benedict J.
- Sims, William S.
- Smith, Roy Campbell, CAPT
- Snyder, Charles P., ADM
- Spruance, Raymond A., ADM
- Stockton, Charles H., RADM
- Taussig, Joseph K.
- Umsted, Scott
- Wellings, Joseph H., RADM
- Worthington, Robert K. R.
[edit] Usage Discussion
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