NIMITZ LIBRARY 25th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

THE ANNAPOLIS COLLECTION

Nimitz Library Special Collections
U.S. Naval Academy

In 1845, the United States Naval Academy Library consisted of 361 books, some of which had been purchased new, but many of which were sent from ships or naval yards around the country in response to a navy-wide request to help build the Library.  It is interesting to note that in 1848, Midshipman (and future Commodore) William Penn McCann wrote in a letter to his father: "There is a good library here, especially for Naval scholars." (Letters from Annapolis: Midshipmen Write Home by Anne Marie Drew, 1998. McCann's original letters are located in the Nimitz Library Special Collections and Archives Division.)

The following is a list of some of the books that McCann would have found in the original library collection.  These books are now a part of the "Annapolis Collection," located in the Special Collections of the Naval Academy Library. To assist in browsing, we have organized the list into the following broad subject areas:  General topics, History, Travel and Exploration, Law, Language and Literature, Mathematics, Science, Engineering, and Naval and Military Science. 
 
GENERAL TOPICS

• Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, 1832.
• Paley's Natural Theology by William Paley, 1845-47.
• Sacred History of the World by Sharon Turner, 1838-41.
• Statistics of the United States of America, 1841.

HISTORY

• Ancient History of the Egyptians by Charles Rollin, 1834.
• Appeal from the Judgements of Great Britain Respecting the United States of America by Robert Walsh, 1819.
• Constantinople and Its Environs by David Porter, 1835.
• Eloquence of the United States by Ebenezer Bancroft Williston, 1827.
• Guatimala, or, The United Provinces of Central America by Henry Dunn, 1828.
• Historical and Political Memoirs of the Reign of Lewis XVI from his Marriage to Death by Jean Louis Soulavie, 1802.
• Historical Disquisition Concerning the Knowledge Which the Ancients Had of India by William Robertson, 1794.
• History of America by William Robertson, 1796.
• History of Ancient Greece by John Gillies, 1835.
• History of England by Tobias George Smollett, 1828.
• History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688 by David Hume, 1828.
• History of Modern Europe by William Russell, 1822.
• History of the Jews by Henry Hart Milman, 1840.
• History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus by Washington Irving, 1828.
• History of the Navy of the United States of America by James Fenimore Cooper, 1840.
• History of the Reign of George III by Robert Bisset, 1828.
• History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V by William Robertson, 1796.
• History of the United States by David Ramsay, 1818.
• History of the War of the Independence of the United States of America by Carlo Giuseppe Guglielmo Botta, 1820-21.
• Indian Biography by Benjamin Bussey Thatcher, 1848.
• Letters of Horace Walpole by Horace Walpole, 1833.
• Life and Services of Commodore William Bainbridge by Thomas Harris, 1837.
• Life of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry by Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, 1840.
• Life of Frederic the Second, King of Prussia, by George James Welbore Agar-Ellis Dover, 1839-1841.
• Life of George Washington by John Marshall, 1804-07.
• Life of Napolean Buonaparte by Sir Walter Scott, 1827.
• Life of Oliver Cromwell by Michael Russell,1841.
• Memoir by Thomas Jefferson, 1829.
• Naval Battles of Great Britain by Sir Charles Ekins, 1828.
• Naval History of Great Britain by William James, 1837.
• Political and Civil History of the United States of America by Timothy Pitkin, 1828.
• Proceedings of the General Court Martial Convened for the Trial of Commodore James Barron, Captain Charles Gordon, Mr. William Hook, and Captain John Hall, of the United States' Ship Chesapeake by James Barron, 1822.
• Report of the Exploring Expedition of the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842 by John Charles Frémont, 1845.
• Universal History Americanized by David Ramsay, 1749-1815.
• Voyages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus by Washington Irving, 1831.

TRAVEL AND EXPLORATION

• Complete Genealogical, Historical, Chronological, and Geographical Atlas by C Lavoisne, 1821.
• Dictionary, Practical, Theoretical and Historical, of Commerce and Commercial Navigation by John Ramsay McCulloch, 1834?
• Geographical Dictionary, or Universal Gazetteer by Joseph Emerson Worcester, 1817.
• Historical Account of the Circumnavigation of the Globe, 1840.
• History of a Voyage to the China Sea by John White, 1823.
• History of Maritime and Inland Discovery by William Desborough Cooley, 1830-31.
• History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark by Meriwether Lewis, 1814.
• Journal of an Expedition to Explore the Course and Termination of the Niger by Richard Lemon Lander, 1832.
• Life of John Ledyard, the American Traveller by Jared Sparks, 1828.
• Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Beering's Strait by Frederick William Beechey, 1832.
• Naval Gazetteer by John Malham, 1812.
• North American Pilot, 1795.
• Portulano de la America Setentrional, 1809.
• Sir Edwards Seaward's Narrative of his Shipwreck by Jane Porter, 1831
• Three Years in the Pacific by William Samuel Waithman Ruschenberger, 1834.
• Travels and Researches of Alexander von Humboldt by Alexander freiherr von Humboldt, 1843.
• Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World by George Vancouver, 1801.
• Voyages from Montreal by Sir Alexander Mackenzie, 1802.

LAW

• Federalist, 1837.
• Law of Nations by Emmerich de Vattel, 1759-60.
• Maritime Law of Europe by Domenicl Alberto Azuni, 1806.
• Secret Proceeding and Debates of the Convention Assembled at Philadelphia, 1821.
• State Papers and Publick Documents of the United States, 1819.
• Treatise of Captures in War by Richard Lee, 1759.

LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

• American Dictionary of the English Language by Noah Webster, 1828.
• Diccionario de la Lengua Castellana Compuesto por la Real Academia Español, 1803.
• Dictionaire Synonomique de la Langue Française by Jean Charles Thibault de Laveaux, 1826.
• Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française, 1800?- .
• Grammaire des Grammaires by Charles Pierre Girault-Duvivier, 1844.
• Life and Writings of Samuel Johnson by Samuel Johnson, 1840.
• Life of Lord Byron by John Galt, 1845.
• New Dictionary of the Spanish and English Languages by Henry Neuman, 1823.

MATHEMATICS

• Anti-logarithmic Canon by James Dodson, 1742.
• Bulletin des Sciences Mathématiques, Physiques et Chimiques, 1830-1831.
• Elements of Analytic Trigonometry by Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler, 1826.
• Elements of Mechanics by John Radford Young, 1834.
• Elements of Plane and Spherical Trigonometry by John Radford Young, 1833.
• Elements of the Differential Calculus by John Radford Young, 1833.
• Elements of the Integral Calculus by John Radford Young, 1833.
• Essays, Political, Economical, and Philosophical by Sir Benjamin Thompson Rumford, 1798-99.
• Introduction to the Elements of Algebra by Leonhard Euler, 1828.
• Logarithmic and Trigonometric Tables by Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler, 1830.
• Mathematical Tables by John Radford Young, 1833.
• Recherches Sur l'analyse des Sections Angulaires by Louis Poinsot, 1825.
• Table of the Logarithms of the Natural Numbers by Charles Baggage, 1844.
• Tracts on Mathematical and Philosophical Subjects by Charles Hutton, 1812.

SCIENCE

• Astronomie Théorique et Pratique by Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, 1814.
• Astronomy by Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1834.
• Connaissance des Temps, 1841- .
• Essay on Magnetic Attractions by Peter Barlow, 1824.
• Mit Angaben für die Oppositionen der Planeten, 1800?.
• Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris for the year, 1796.
• Nouvelles Tables Astronomiques et Hydrographiques by Valentin Bagay, 1829.
• Sylva Americana or a Description of the Forest Trees Indigenous to the United States by Daniel Jay Browne, 1832.
• Traité Élémentaire d'astronomie Physique by Jean Baptiste Biot, 1841-57.
• Treatise on Heat by Dionysius Lardner, 1833.
• Treatise on Optics by Sir Drake Brewster, 1845.
• Wonders of the Heavens by Duncan Bradford, 1843.

ENGINEERING

• Essay on the Formation of Harbours of Refuge by John White, 1840.
• Memoir on Gunpowder by John Braddock, 1832.
• Practical Treatise on Rail-roads by Nicholas Wood, 1832.
• Report of Experiments on Gunpowder by Alfred Mordecai, 1845.
• System of Pyrotechny by James Cutbush, 1825.
• Treatise on the Origin, Progressive Improvement, and Present State of Silk Manufacture by George Richardson Porter, 1831.

NAVAL AND MILITARY SCIENCE

• Aide-mémoire a l'usage des Officiers d'artillerie by Jean Jacques Basilien Gassendi, 1844.
• American Artillerist's Companion by Louis de Tousard, 1808.
• Complete Collection of Tables for Navigation and Nautical Astronomy by José de Mendoza y Rios, 1805.
• Complete Navigator by Andrew Mackay, 1807.
• Construction ét Usage de Quelques Tables Particuliéres Pour Abréger les Calculs d'astronomie Nautique by J Mazure-Duhamel, 1825.
• Cours d'etudes Militaires by P Sar, 1836.
• Description and Use of the Longitude Scale by David Thomson, 1823.
• Description et Usage du Cercle de Réflexion by Jean Charles de Borda, 1816.
• Elements and Practice of Rigging, Seamanship, and Naval Tactics by David Steel, 1821.
• Essay on Naval Tactics by John Clerk, 1827.
• Exercises des Bouches a Feu en Usage dans la Marine, 1841.
• Expériences d'artillerie Exécutées à Gavre Par ordre du Ministre de la Marine, 1841.
• History of Marine Architecture by John Charnock, 1800-02.
• Instruction Sur le Canonnage à Bord by Auguste Jean Marie Préaux-Locré, 1837.
• Instruction Théorique et Pratique d'artillerie a l'usage des Élèves de l'école Militaire de Saint-Cyr by Charles Victor Thiroux, 1842.
• Manoeuvrier by Jacques Bouré de Villehuet, 1832.
• Manuel du Matelot Canonnier, 1843.
• Marshall's Practical Marine Gunnery by George Marshall, 1822.
• Military and Naval Magazine of the United States, 1836.
• Naval Monitor by Christopher Claxton, 1815.
• Naval Service by William Nugent Glascock, 1836.
• New and Universal Dictionary of the Marine by William Falconer, 1830.
• Ordnance Manual for the Use of Officers of the United States Army, 1841.
• Outlines of Naval Routine by Alexander Dingwall Fordyce, 1837.
• Pilote du Brésil, 1826.
• Pilote du Brésil, 1827.
• Practice of Courts Martial by Alexander Macomb, 1841.
• Recherches Sur l'artillerie in Général by Pierre Benjamin Texier de Norbec, 1792.
• Regulations for the Government of the Ordnance Department, 1839.
• Sea-service by Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, 1834.
• Suite des Expériences d'artillerie Executées à Gavre, 1844.
• Traité d'artillerie Navale by Howard Douglas, 1826.
• Traité d'artillerie Théorique et Pratique by Guillaume Piobert, 1845.
• Treatise on Naval Architecture Founded upon Philosophical and Rational Principles by William Hutchinson, 1794.
• Treatise on Naval Tactics by Paul Hoste, 1834.
• Treatise on Navigation by Edward Riddle, 1824.
• Treatise on Navigation by Steam by Sir John Ross, 1837.
• Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor by Darcy Lever, 1819.

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Last updated: 4 November 2005