Office of the Superintendent/Correspondence: Press Copies of Letters and Memorandums Sent by the Superintendent to Academy Officers, Instructors, and Cadets, 1884-1908: Finding Aid

History of the Office of the Superintendent

The plan of the Naval School at Fort Severn, Annapolis, Maryland, approved by the Navy Department August 28, 1846, provided that a Superintendent of the school be appointed by the Secretary of the Navy from a list of officers of a rank not higher than commander. The Superintendent was to have responsibility for the general management of the institution, including overseeing the course of study, professors, and other personnel connected with the Academy. He could appoint and remove all persons employed at the Academy except those for whose appointment or discharge special provision was made by the laws or regulations of the Navy or the Academy. He had general charge of the buildings, grounds, and ships belonging to the Academy. The Superintendent also formulated the code of rules and regulations for the internal government of the school to be submitted to the Secretary of the Navy for approval. After 1867, officers were assigned by the Navy Department to the Academy to serve as assistants or aides to the Superintendent. The Office of the Superintendent as described in the 1846 plan remained relatively unchanged throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Officers of ranks higher than commander, however, have served in the position. This series contains letters and memorandums sent by Superintendents Captain Francis M. Ramsay (1881-1886), Commander William T. Sampson (1886-1888 only), Captain Phillip H. Cooper (1894-1898), Rear Admiral Frederick V. McNair (1898-1900), Commander Richard Wainwright (1900-1902), Captain Willard H. Brownson (1902-1905), Rear Admiral James H. Sands (1905-1907), and Captain Charles J. Badger (1907-1909).

This series begins during the administration of Superintendent Captain Francis M. Ramsay (1881-1886). Ramsay's tenure oversaw substantial changes to the Academy's curriculum, and departmental and military organization. Seamanship drills and training were systematized, the conduct grade was introduced, midshipmen were quartered according to divisions as opposed to classes, and midshipmen officers were given charge over the maintenance of order and discipline in the dormitories. During Ramsay's administration significant numbers of "naval-cadets" (the contemporary title of midshipmen) either resigned or were discharged due to the limitations on commissioning new officers stipulated in the August 5, 1882 Personnel Act. The series ends with the administrations of Superintendents Captain Willard H. Brownson (1902-1905), Rear Admiral James H. Sands (1905-1907) and Captain Charles J. Badger. The administrations of these superintendents coincided with the greatest architectural expansion of the yard buildings and grounds ever in the Academy's history. The eminent New York architect, Ernest Flagg designed and implemented the master plan, overseeing construction in the French Renaissance style the buildings which make up the Academy today: Bancroft, Macdonough, Dahlgren, Mahan, Maury, Sampson, and Isherwood Halls, the Chapel, and the Superintendent's Residence, among other quarters and buildings. Construction commenced in March 1899 with a congressional appropriation of $1,000,000, and continued throughout the opening decade of the first century. By 1902 the Academy grew to over 125 acres. The expansion not only renewed and expanded the physical plant but more than tripled the size of the classes graduating after 1904.

In 1862 the Academy was placed under the Bureau of Navigation, but in 1867 the Secretary of the Navy assumed direct control of the school, leaving the Bureau of Navigation with a lesser role, as supervisor of its administrative and financial affairs. This role was eliminated in 1869 but was restored in 1889.

Description of Contents

This series contains press copies of letters and memorandums sent by the Superintendent to Academy officers, instructors and cadets. The correspondence relates to the instruction, discipline, and pay of the cadets and to the general administration of the Academy. The communications were sent not only to personnel located at the Academy but also to commanders of Academy ships, the Academy Paymaster, commandants of navy yards where Academy ships were located, and others. These volumes also contain copies of orders issued the Superintendent.

Major topics include naval-cadet appointments, admissions, leaves, health, hazing offenses, requests to attend alternate Sunday worship services, and desertions; cadet division athletic standings; textbooks, manuals, and courses of study; the designation of quarantine status for quarters of sick cadets, enlisted personnel, and faculty; academic and examination boards; transportation of naval-cadets and faculty; Naval Personnel duties, assignments, health, leaves, appointments and discharges; course and port calls of Academy vessels during summer cruises; construction of Academy buildings and quarters; and supply schedules, accounts, and requisitions. Some of the letters relate to the charge, subsistence, supervision, transportation, and release of prisoners of war held at the Academy during and at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War.

There are no records from January 1889-October 1894.

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically. There are name indexes in volumes 93 and 98. There are name and subject indexes in volumes 87, 137, 138, 126, 131A, 127, and 141-160.

Access and Use

Access

Access is unrestricted.

Copyright and Permission

Generally, materials produced by Federal agencies are in the public domain and may be reproduced without permission. Any non-government publications held herein may still be subject to copyright. For further information, consult the Head, Special Collections & Archives.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Some of the volumes are illegible.

Other Finding Aid(s)

National Archives Catalog entry available electronically at: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/2990014.

Acquisition and Appraisal

Custodial History

RG 405 Records of the United States Naval Academy is the property of the National Archives and Records Administration. The materials are housed at the United States Naval Academy, William W. Jeffries Memorial Archives, an affiliated archive, as per a Memorandum of Agreement between the National Archives and Records Administration and the United States Naval Academy.

Related Materials

Related Archival Material

Volumes 93, 94, 98, 137, 138, 126, 131A, 127, 141, 142, 144, and 145 are registered in Entry 2: "Registers to Parts of Press Copies of Letters Sent and Letters Received by the Superintendent, 1888-1906" (NAID: 2965666). For letters sent after January 1908 see Entry 3: "Press Copies of Letters Sent by the Superintendent, 1865-1911" (NAID: 2980540). Letters for the period June 1884 through January 1885 are copied in Entry 21: "Letters and Memorandums Sent by the Superintendent to Academy Officers, Instructors, and Cadets, 1881-1885" (NAID: 2990013).

Materials Cataloged Separately

No materials have been removed from this collection and cataloged separately.

Processing and Other Information

Preferred Citation

Office of the Superintendent/Correspondence: Press Copies of Letters and Memorandums Sent by the Superintendent to Academy Officers, Instructors, and Cadets, RG 405.2.1 Entry 22

Special Collections & Archives Department

Nimitz Library

United States Naval Academy

Selected Bibliography

The following sources were consulted during preparation of the historical note:

Sweetman, Jack. The U.S. Naval Academy: An Illustrated History. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute Press, 1979.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Samuel Limneos in April 2019. Finding aid written by Samuel Limneos in April 2019. Historical Sketch and Scope and Content Note adapted in part from Inventory of Records Group 405 by Geraldine N. Phillips and Aloha South, 1975.

Subject Headings

Name and Subject Terms

• Badger, Charles Johnston, 1853-1932
• Brownson, Willard H. (Willard Herbert), 1845-1935
• Cooper, Philip Henry, 1844-1912
• Flagg, Ernest, 1857-1947
• McNair, Frederick Vallette, 1839-1900
• Naval education -- United States
• Ramsay, Francis Munroe, 1835-1914
• Sampson, William Thomas, 1840-1902
• Sands, James Hoban, 1845-1911
• Spanish-American War, 1898
• United States Naval Academy
• United States Naval Academy - Students
• United States Naval Academy -- History -- 19th century
• United States Naval Academy -- History -- 20th century
• United States Naval Academy. Superintendent
• Wainwright, Richard, 1849-1926

Genre Terms

• Correspondence