Naval Historical Center
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Naval Historical Center (NHC) is the official history program of the United States Navy. It is physically located at the Washington Navy Yard, and maintains a website of considerable value. Its historians analyze the services past and produce scholarly books on a variety of themes and subjects in naval history.
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[edit] Origins
The Naval Historical Center traces its lineage to 1800 when President John Adams requested Benjamin Stoddert, the first Secretary of the Navy, prepare a catalog of professional books for use in the Secretary's office. When the British invaded Washington in 1814, this collection containing the finest works on naval history from America and abroad, was rushed to safety outside the Federal City. Thereafter the library had many locations, including a specially designed space in the State, War, and Navy Building (now the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building) next to the White House.
When the library was placed under the Bureau of Navigation in 1882, the director, noted international lawyer and U.S. Naval Academy professor James R. Soley, gathered the rare books scattered throughout Navy Department offices, collected naval prints and photographs, and subscribed to professional periodicals. He also began to collect and preserve naval records, particularly those of the American Civil War. Congress initially recognized his efforts by authorizing funds for an office staff and combining the library and records sections into the Office of Library and Naval War Records.
Six years later the United States Congress appropriated the funds to print the first volume in a monumental documentary series, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Completed in 1927 with the publication of volume 31, the series marked the beginning of a responsibility to collect, edit, and publish historical naval documents, a mission that the Naval Historical Center continues to carry out in its American Revolution and War of 1812 documentary projects. In 1915 the appropriations for publications, the library, and naval war records were combined and the office received a new title--Office of Naval Records and Library.
Once America entered World War I, emphasis shifted to gathering documents on current naval operations. Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels directed Admiral William F. Sims, Commander U.S. Naval Forces Operating in European Waters, to collect war diaries, operational reports, and other historic war materials of naval commands in his London headquarters.
To handle World War I records in Washington, a Historical Section was established in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and housed in the new Navy Department ("Main Navy") Building on Constitution Avenue. When the war ended, Admiral Sims's London collection and photographs and motion pictures from the various Navy bureaus were transferred to the Historical Section. The library, by now holding more than 50,000 volumes, remained in the State, War, and Navy Building.
In 1921, a former member of Admiral Sims's wartime staff, Captain Dudley W. Knox, was named head of the Office of Naval Records and Library and the Historical Section. For the next twenty-five years he was the driving force behind the Navy's historical program, earning for the office an international reputation in the field of naval archives and history. The Historical Section was absorbed into Naval Records and Library in 1927. Knox's additional appointment as the Curator for the Navy envisioned a display of our nation's sea heritage in a naval museum in Washington. In 1961, Admiral Arleigh Burke, Chief of Naval Operations, established the U.S. Naval Historical Display Center (now the United States Navy Museum).
At President Franklin D. Roosevelt's suggestion, Knox began several documentary series. Seven volumes pertaining to the Quasi War with France and seven volumes relating to the war with the Barbary Powers were ultimately published. World War II halted plans for similar publications on the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, and World War I. During World War II, Knox turned his attention to collecting documents generated by naval operations in the global conflict. He immediately began a campaign to gather and arrange operation plans, action reports, and war diaries into a well-controlled archives staffed by professional historians who came on board as naval reservists.
To complement the developing World War II operational archives, the Knox group pioneered an oral history program whereby participants in the significant Atlantic and Pacific operations and battles were interviewed as soon as possible after their wartime engagements. When Pulitzer Prize winner and Harvard history professor Samuel Eliot Morison was commissioned by President Roosevelt to prepare the fifteen-volume History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, he relied not only on his own combat experience, but also on those records assembled in Knox's archives.
In 1944, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal established the Office of Naval History to coordinate the Morison project, as well as the wartime administrative histories being written by Navy commands, under the direction of Princeton professor Robert G. Albion. Knox served as Deputy Director of Naval History under the Director, Admiral Edward C. Kalbfus, but the Office of Naval Records and Library at first remained separate until March 1949 when it merged with the Office of Naval History to form the Naval Records and History Division of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. In 1952 it was renamed the Naval History Division.
The eventual home for the Navy's historians was the Washington Navy Yard in Southeast Washington, which in 1961 was converted from an industrial facility to an administrative center. The first component of the Naval History Division located in the yard was the Navy Museum (later the United States Navy Museum), established in 1961. In 1963, the Operational Archives moved to the Navy Yard. The other sections of the Naval History Division followed in 1970, occupying several scattered buildings.
An organizational change in 1971 shifted the Naval History Division from a headquarters establishment to a field activity called the Naval Historical Center, under the Chief of Naval Operations. Most of the Center's activities were brought together in 1982, when they moved into the historic building complex named to honor Dudley W. Knox, who perhaps did more than any other individual to strengthen the Navy's commitment to its historic heritage and traditions.
The present organizational structure was completed in 1986 when the Navy Art Collection and Gallery and the Naval Aviation History and Publication Division, both already located in the Washington Navy Yard, became part of the Naval Historical Center.
[edit] Major Branches
[edit] Senior Historian
The Senior Historian is the principal professional advisor to the Director of Naval History. He develops strategic plans and other guiding documents pertaining to the historical programs of the U.S. Navy and the Naval Historical Center. He also supervises the research, writing, and production of the Center's historical and serves as the primary contact for scholars wanting to use the Center's facilities for extensive research. The office administers grants, fellowships, scholarships, and internships; and organizes many of the seminars, conferences, and other outreach programs offered by the Center. The Senior Historian is also in charge of the center's History and Archives Division, which comprises three branches (Early History, Contemporary History, and the Operational Archives).
[edit] Contemporary History
Established in 1987, the Contemporary History Branch specializes in the history of the U.S. Navy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Branch historians focus on research, analysis, and writing, their book-length volumes appearing with some of the best publishers in the country. Shorter, more specific studies of particular incidents or issues are published by the Naval Historical Center in its U.S. Navy in the Modern World booklet series. The branch’s historical experience is both broad and deep, resulting in thoughtful studies of operational and strategic matters, national security affairs, critical aspects of research and development, the warfare environment, ethnic and racial issues, and cooperation with allied and foreign navies. Given its focus on the Navy's most recent events, Contemporary History conducts an extensive oral history program preserving the individual memory and adding an important source to the documents and artifacts essential to historical analysis. Staff historians serve regularly as authorities on modern naval history for the naval community and the public, provide historical context for policymakers, and represent the Navy to professional historical organizations.
[edit] Curator
The Curator Branch manages the Navy Department's vast collection of artifacts and photographs. The curator is responsible for the careful storage and display of priceless relics of the nation's nautical past. Anchors, bells, uniforms, and other artifacts from the collection are on loan to about 1,500 state and local governments, and nonprofit organizations. The branch's Photographic Section maintains a fully indexed collection of more than 200,000 photographs, an invaluable visual resource for scholars, popular writers, veterans, and the public.
[edit] Early History
The Early History Branch researches United States naval history through World War I. This section carries on the work in documentary editing that started with the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion (30 volumes, 1894-1922) and continued through Naval documents related to the quasi-war between the United States and France (7 volumes, 1935-38) and Naval documents related to the United States wars with the Barbary powers (6 volumes, 1939-44). Its current long-range documentary projects are Naval Documents of the American Revolution (11 volumes to date, 1964-), initiated under the editorship of William Bell Clark and William J. Morgan (historian) in the late 1950s and The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History (3 volumes to date, 1985). Both are based on the Center's extensive microfilm collection of documents gathered from the United States and abroad. Historians highlight the exploits of the early navy in shorter histories geared toward the education of the Navy's junior officers, enlisted recruits, and the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps. As a matter of course, the staff contributes articles to scholarly journals, prepares bibliographies, verifies official Navy manuscripts for historical accuracy, and directs researchers to the sources on America's naval past.
[edit] Naval Aviation History
The Naval Aviation History Branch of the Naval Warfare Division maintains aviation command historical records covering 1941 to the present and other documentation on naval aviation subjects. The Navy dropped its reporting requirements between January 1953 and June 1957 so few history reports for that time period exist. The branch also manages the Naval Aviation Insignia Program and the collection of officially approved insignia from World War II to the present. Staff historians conduct research and write books, monographs, and articles covering the entire history of naval aviation since 1911. The branch publishes the Dictionary of Naval Aviation Squadrons and The Naval Aviation Chronology, 1910-1995 and began work on a monograph series covering the Navy's active squadron communities.
[edit] Naval Aviation News
The branch, part of the Naval Warfare Division, publishes in full color the bimonthly Naval Aviation News that covers all aspects of naval air operations. Articles review the latest technological advances in aircraft and weapons systems and the influence of American naval air power in global events. Each issue includes a historical article and profiles aircraft, important aviators, and organizations that have an impact on the Navy's control of the air. Beginning with the November-December 1996 issue, look for the online version of NANews.
[edit] Navy Art Collection
The branch manages the Navy Art Collection of more than ten thousand works and runs the Navy Art Gallery. The collection includes rare eyewitness portrayals of the Navy's worldwide missions from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries. Occasionally, artists provided the only visual record of naval actions, and their works are a powerful testament to the sacrifice and valor of those who served in the Navy. Twenty World War II lithographs reproduced from oils and watercolors in the Combat Art Collection and forty paintings primarily from the Vietnam era are for sale. For prices and ordering information, consult Art Gallery web site. A traveling exhibit program, or artwork displays centered on a particular subject matter, naval action, or a single artist, allows museums and similar institutions to mount art shows in their public spaces. A guide to the loan exhibit program is available from the branch or the Center's Web site.
[edit] Navy Department Library
Begun in 1800 with the acquisition of books for use by the Secretary of the Navy, the Navy Department Library today contains more than 150,000 volumes on naval history and the development of the modern fleet. Acclaimed as having the most highly concentrated and accessible collection of historical literature on the United States Navy, the library's collections include valuable holdings on foreign navies, particularly the Royal Navy. One of the few major military historical libraries open to the public, the library's holdings include Secretary of the Navy reports, Navy registers, regulations, general and special orders, a 5,000-volume cruise book collection, and officers' biographies. Historical Manuscripts in the Navy Department No. 3 in the Naval History Bibliographies series, describes and highlights part of an important collection of manuscripts, most dating from the nineteenth century, contained in the library's Rare Book Collection. The library's web page provides to other military and government resources. The library participates in the Federal Depository Library and provides interlibrary loan service.
[edit] United States Navy Museum
Called one of Washington, DC's most user-friendly museums, the United States Navy Museum exhibits ship models, uniforms, medals, ordnance, photographs and fine art in the setting of the former Breech Mechanism Shop of the old Naval Gun Factory. Chronicling the U.S. Navy's history, the museum's collection includes an F4U Corsair aircraft, better known as Big Hog; a twin mount 5-inch .38-caliber gun; and a quad-40 millimeter antiaircraft battery. The research submersible Trieste, which explored the deepest part of the world ocean, Challenger Deep off the Mariana Islands, exemplifies the U.S. Navy's role in undersea exploration. Working periscopes and klaxon in the Submarine Room are among the hands-on experiences for visitors.
The comprehensive In Harm's Way exhibit chronicles the Navy's role in World War II from the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 to Japan's surrender in 1945. Its three sections examine the Pacific and Atlantic campaigns and life on the Home Front.
In celebrating the Museum's 40th anniversary curators mounted an exhibit on three centuries of museums in the Washington Navy Yard culminating in the Navy Museum today that embodies Admiral Arleigh Burke's vision of sharing the Navy's history and traditions with the world. The gift shop, located to the right of the entrance and operated by the Naval Historical Foundation, sells reproductions of the museum's unique artifacts and offers a wide selection of naval patches, buttons, posters, model ship kits, postcards and stamps.
[edit] Operational Archives
The Operational Archives maintains a select group of official operational records, historical documents, and manuscripts dating from 1946. In terms of subject matter, the records relate to naval operations, policy and strategy, and histories of specific commands, and officers' biographies. Among the materials are operational reports, plans, and records from the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and other commands; individual officers' papers; and oral history transcripts. Other personal paper collections cover the entire twentieth century, especially World War II. The archives holds a rich oral history collection dating from World War II. Official World War II operational records (after-action reports, war diaries, and operational planning material) and Tenth Fleet records (convoy and routing and ASW Assessment Committee) were transferred to the Textual Reference Branch, National Archives and Records Administration, Archives II, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740.
[edit] Ships History
The Ships History Branch, part of the Naval Warfare Division, collects the annual command histories of active U.S. Navy ships from 1955, has charge of ships' deck logs dating back 30 years, produces summary histories of ships going out of commission, and compiles and maintains research files on ships and craft of America's navy from its birth in 1775 to the present. The branch's work involves recommending names to the Chief of Naval Operations and the Secretary of the Navy for new-construction ships and craft, and evaluating shore station requests concerning the Navy's commemorative facility-naming program. The branch publishes the comprehensive Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, a multi-volume alphabetically arranged reference work containing histories of U.S. Navy ships, publishes occasional monographs, and handles inquiries concerning Navy ships, veteran matters, and related subjects.
[edit] Underwater Archaeology
The Naval Historical Center through its Director advises the Navy in matters related to historic preservation of naval ships, and ship and aircraft wrecks. A qualified underwater archaeologist oversees the Center's underwater archaeology program, which addresses issues of historic preservation, war graves, unexploded ordnance, potential use of recovered weapons systems, and illegal removal of property from wrecks. A policy fact sheet, available to the public, explains how sunken U.S. naval vessels and aircraft wreck sites should be treated and lists federal laws and regulations relating to them. The underwater archaeology branch keeps a database of Navy ship and aircraft wreck sites and operate a laboratory at NHC for conserving artifacts recovered from Navy underwater sites. Examples of artifacts undergoing treatment or already on display in the United States Navy Museum include USS Tecumseh's anchor and artifacts from USS Tulip, USS Housatonic, and CSS Alabama. The Conservation Lab is open for tours by appointment.
[edit] Recent Publications
- Breaking the Color Barrier: The U.S. Naval Academy's First Black Midshipmen and the Struggle for Racial Equality, by Robert Schneller, Jr. New York: New York University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8147-4013-8.
- Against All Odds: U.S. Sailors in the War of 1812, by Charles Brodine, Michael Crawford, and Christine Hughes, 2004. GPO Stock No. 008-046-00204-5, ISBN 0-945274-50-5.
- Sea Raiders of the American Revolution: The Continental Navy in European Waters, by E. Gordon Bowen-Hassell, Dennis M. Conrad, and Mark L. Hayes, 2003. GPO Stock No. 008-046-00202-9, ISBN 0-16-051400-2.
- Afterburner: Naval Aviators and the Vietnam War, by John Darrell Sherwood. New York: New York University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8147-9842-X.
- By Sea, Air, and Land: An Illustrated History of the U.S. Navy and the War in Southeast Asia, by Edward J. Marolda. 1994. GPO Stock No. 008-046-00145-6.
- Forged in War: The Naval-Industrial Complex and American Submarine Construction,1940-1961, by Gary E. Weir. 1993. GPO Stock No. 008-046-00151-1.
- Kinkaid of the Seventh Fleet: A Biography of Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, U.S. Navy, by Gerald E. Wheeler. Jointly published with the Naval Institute Press, 1996.
- An Ocean in Common: American Naval Officers, Scientists, and the Ocean, by Gary E. Weir. College Station: Texas A&M Press, 2001. ISBN 1-58544-114-7.
- Operation End Sweep: A History of Minesweeping Operations in North Vietnam, by Tensor Industries, edited by Edward J. Marolda. 1993.
- Revolt of the Admirals: The Fight for Naval Aviation, 1945-1950, by Jeffrey G. Barlow. 1995. GPO Stock No. 008-046-00158-8.
- Serving Proudly: A History of Women in the U.S. Navy, by Susan H. Godson. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2001. ISBN 1-55750-317-6.
- Shield and Sword: The United States Navy and the Persian Gulf War, by Edward J. Marolda and Robert J. Schneller Jr. 1999. Jointly published with the Naval Institute Press, 2001. ISBN 1-55750-485-7.
- Washington Navy Yard: An Illustrated History, by Edward J. Marolda. 1999. GPO stock number 008-046-00191-0.
- Where the Fleet Begins: A History of the David Taylor Research Center, by Rodney P. Carlisle. 1998. GPO stock number 008-046-00182-1.
[edit] Affiliated Organizations
[edit] Naval Historical Foundation
A nonprofit organization founded in 1926, the Naval Historical Foundation has a broad mission to preserve and promote U.S. naval history. Support for the Navy's historical programs, and in particular the United States Navy Museum, makes up a significant aspect of that mission. The Foundation performs a myriad of functions including collecting and preserving documents on American naval history and managing oral history, naval heritage speakers, symposia, and naval history writing programs.
Important cataloged naval documents are available to researchers at the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, Washington, DC. The Foundation solicits artifacts, photographs, and documents and ensures that they are donated to an appropriate repository within the Naval Historical Center. The Foundation operates a historical research service and a reproduction service drawing on the Center's extensive photographic and cruise book collections. The Foundation also runs the United States Navy Museum Gift Shop that features presentation gifts such as the Truxtun Bowl and The Navy coffee table book along with Naval Historical Center and Foundation books and pamphlets.
The Foundation, with the Naval Historical Center, publishes Pull Together, a full-color newsletter for Foundation members. Articles cover all aspects of American naval history, including narrative and eyewitness accounts of naval battles and operations, biographical studies, announcements of upcoming events, book notices and reviews. The editorial staff welcomes article submissions.
[edit] Naval Reserve Combat Documentation Detachment 206
Assigned to the Naval Historical Center since 1991, the unit deploys its teams to U.S. Navy, joint, and combined commands worldwide where they conduct oral history interviews, collect historically significant artifacts and records, and document operations through photography and art. Their collection effort contributes to the Navy's lessons learned and preserves the history of current naval operations during crisis response, wartime, declared national emergency, or in situations as directed. Teams have documented the Navy's role in the Persian Gulf War, Operation Restore Hope (Haiti) and Operation Allied Force (Kosovo); counter-narcotics actions in the Caribbean; fleet exercises, special warfare activities, Information Technology (IT-21); the attack on, and the rebuilding of USS Cole (DDG-67); the September 11, 2001 attack on the Pentagon; and the Global War on Terrorism. In 2001 eleven unit members were recalled to active duty to support the Naval Historical Center's documentation collection efforts related to Operation Noble Eagle and Operation Enduring Freedom. For Operation Iraqi Freedom and in support of the Navy's Task Force History, four unit members were recalled to active duty.
[edit] Naval Reserve Naval History Volunteer Training Unit 0615
This non-pay Naval Reserve unit provides project support to the Naval Historical Center in keeping with the larger goal of enhancing the Navy's effectiveness by preserving, analyzing, and interpreting its history and heritage. Unit members work on long-term historical projects with the NHC staff processing archival collections, conducting oral history interviews with Pearl Harbor survivors, and digitizing histories for the Center's Web site or for publication in print. VTU members also conduct end-of-tour interviews with key naval leaders.
[edit] Navy Cultural Resources Program
The Navy's Cultural Resources Program coordinates compliance with laws and regulations regarding historic preservation, terrestrial archaeology, and the Navy's interactions with Native American tribes. The program office at Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) headquarters also supports the Chief of Naval Operations' Ashore Readiness Division (OPNAV N46). The Deputy Federal Preservation Officer for the Navy, who heads the program office, assists the Department of the Navy's Federal Preservation Officer, an agency responsibility established by the National Historic Preservation Act and assigned as a collateral duty to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Environment).
[edit] Secretary of the Navy's Advisory Subcommittee on Naval History
This subcommittee of the overall Department of Defense Historical Advisory Committee meets annually to review the Navy's historical programs and to advise the Secretary of the Navy. It comprises historians, museum professionals, retired senior naval officers, business leaders, lawyers, and experts in the fields of art, information management, archives, and libraries. Since 1952, the subcommittee's presence in Washington and its yearly report to the Secretary has helped focus the attention of key Navy Department officials on the values and requirements of the U.S. Navy's historical programs.
[edit] References
- Naval Historical Center
- U.S. Naval Historical Center, Guide to the Naval Historical Center (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2000).
