On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, adopted Richard Henry Lee's resolution declaring "that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." On Thursday, July 4,... Read more
The U.S. Naval Academy’s class of 2026 that graduated and commissioned last week became the one hundredth class to receive some form of required aviation training. This does not mean that 1926 was the beginning of Naval... Read more
On the afternoon of March 3, 1776, a force of 234 American marines and 50 sailors from Commodore Esek Hopkins's Continental Navy fleet splashed ashore on New Providence Island in the Bahamas to seize the British king's gunpowder and... Read more
Naval Academy midshipmen and alumni are no strangers to the Olympics. The Naval Academy Athletic Association lists 85 midshipmen and graduates who have participated in the Olympics over the years. Almost all of them -... Read more
For George Washington's 294th birthday (celebrated on February 16 this year thanks to the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1971), we feature several illustrations from the Reverend John Frederick Schroeder's two-volume Life and... Read more
The 126th Army-Navy Game will take place on December 13, the day on which, 250 years ago, the Second Continental Congress approved the construction of 13 frigates for the fledgling Continental Navy. That navy was born on... Read more
On September 2, 1945, in a formal ceremony aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, a Japanese delegation representing the Emperor of Japan, the Japanese Government, and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters signed their... Read more
In 1815, the USS Franklin was commissioned bearing a figurehead carved by William Rush depicting the ship’s namesake. Pauline A. Pinckney in American Figureheads and Their Carvers, devotes a chapter to Rush whose influence,... Read more
George Washington, newly appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, arrived at the American camp in Cambridge, Massachusetts on July 2, 1775 and, according to tradition, took command of the troops in a ceremony on July 3 that... Read more
On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress, which had been meeting in Philadelphia since May 10, resolved to raise ten companies of riflemen to join the New England militiamen surrounding Boston in the aftermath of the battles of... Read more
Amos Doolittle's engraving of the battle on April 19,1775 at North Bridge, Concord, Massachusetts. Photogravure from the autograph centenary edition of The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Boston,... Read more
In 1875, the Naval Academy Library acquired a newly published facsimile of a pamphlet originally published in 1825, entitled History of the Battle at Lexington, on the Morning of the 19th April, 1775. On the verso of the... Read more
"Listen, my children, and you shall hear / Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, / on the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; / Hardly a man is now alive / Who remembers that famous day and year." These lines form the opening... Read more
To celebrate Washington's Birthday last year, we featured Chief Justice John Marshall's biography of the nation's first president, part of the original 1845 library of the Naval Academy. This year, we highlight another early... Read more
To commemorate the reopening of the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris on December 7, 2024, this post features illustrations from Louis Gonse's L'Art Gothique, part of the Harry F. Guggenheim Collection. Louis Gonse... Read more
For the first time in Naval Academy history, there will be no classes on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. To mark the occasion, this post features some Thanksgiving menus and hop cards from the archives. ... Read more
From September 5 to October 26, 1774, delegates from twelve colonies (New Hampshire to South Carolina) convened in Philadelphia to prepare a united response to the Coercive Acts, a series of laws that Parliament... Read more
On this day (October 1st) one hundred years ago, a boy named James Earl Carter Jr. was born in Plains, Georgia. This boy would go on to be (among many other accomplishments) the governor of the state of Georgia, winner of the Nobel... Read more
Have you ever wondered about the origins of the document that today serves as a physical representation for completing one’s academic studies? While academic institutions and the tradition of granting degrees have existed for... Read more
Mid-nineteenth century designers of fortifications, especially those defending harbors and waterways, had a problem: Advances in ordnance and shipbuilding allowed naval vessels to deploy the same guns used by land-based forts while the... Read more
"Every man, woman, and child who fancies him or herself to possess an 'idea' feels called upon … to give that idea to the public. It is amusing, and yet much to be lamented, for we are rapidly becoming a nation of scribblers,... Read more
Musicians of the Plebe Dance Band play tunes for an informal hop held in 1945.
In case you missed it, part one of the history of dancing at the Naval Academy addressed the establishment of dancing instruction and annual... Read more
On January 13, 1852, U.S. Naval Academy Superintendent Cornelius K. Stribling ordered noon recitations canceled "to enable the Students to visit Louis Kossuth." Today's midshipmen most likely never have heard the name Kossuth,... Read more
In a previous post, we discussed the unrealized vision for the development of the Naval Academy put forth by the Moreell Commission and architect Edward Durell Stone in the 1960s. Today, we will take a look at another unrealized vision... Read more
Dancing instruction in Dahlgren Hall from the 1925 movie, "The Midshipman," available online.
In case you missed it, part one of the history of dancing at the Naval Academy addressed the establishment of dancing instruction... Read more
Hop Committee drawing
"Show me the man who can’t dance, and you point to a man who is not up in all branches of his profession.” Rear Admiral Edward Simpson included the above statement during a... Read more
In this year, which marks the 175th anniversary of the United States Naval Academy and the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims' arrival at Plymouth Rock, the Brigade of Midshipmen will have no Thanksgiving holiday... Read more
The Japanese Bell in front of Bancroft Hall, 1981
The Japanese Bell seen above has a long and storied history. The bell was cast in 1456 from ore mined at Haneji Village, in northern Okinawa, for the... Read more
The Naval Academy as it appeared in 1845.
On October 10, 1845, the Naval School (renamed the Naval Academy in 1850) opened its doors on the grounds of a former army post in Annapolis, Maryland. Secretary of the Navy... Read more
For nearly seven decades since the founding of the republic, naval and political leaders such as John Paul Jones, Alexander Hamilton, and Matthew C. Perry had advocated for a formal institution for the education and training of... Read more
May 14, 1771 eruption of Mount Vesuvius from Voyage Pittoresque Ou Description Des Royaumes De Naples Et De Sicile (Paris, 1781).
In our previous post on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, we left Pliny the Elder on the... Read more
Map of the Bay of Naples (Golfo di Napoli) from Naples and the Campagna Felice (London, 1815). Campania is a region of southern Italy that in ancient times extended from the Volturno River to the Sorrentine... Read more
The above photograph features a scene familiar to those who visit or attend the Naval Academy. The figurehead of the USS Delaware (1820), brought to the Naval Academy in 1866, gazes stoically across T-Court at... Read more
Ask your average passerby to name a Civil War battle or theater, and you are likely to get a response like Gettysburg, Antietam, or Fort Sumter. Restrict that same passerby to naming a naval battle or theater, and the response... Read more
Plebe Summer will soon be upon us at the U.S. Naval Academy. Plebes, derived from the Latin plebs, is the traditional name given to the incoming students through their first year at the school. The designation seems... Read more
The history of hospitals that served midshipmen is another relatively unknown, but interesting, part of Naval Academy lore. Throughout their history, the buildings outfitted as sick quarters and hospitals on the yard have... Read more
It was 142 years ago this May that Albert Abraham Michelson published the results of his first experiment to measure the velocity of light in The American Journal of Science and Arts. Born in Strelno, Prussia on December 19,... Read more
Color Ceremony with Color Girl Eleanor Thomson, 1907.
Normally, this would be Commissioning Week when a series of yearend festivities culminate in the graduation and commissioning of the Naval Academy's first class... Read more
This week marks 158 years since the Union's Civil War victory at the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip. These names might not conjure the same images as names like Gettysburg, Antietam, or Bull Run - if they conjure any... Read more
Today marks the 500th anniversary of the death of the Italian High Renaissance painter and architect Raphael. Born in Urbino in 1483, Raphael is best known for his paintings of the Madonna and for his decoration of the papal... Read more
Professor Arsene Girault
The study of foreign languages at the Naval Academy goes right back to its beginnings. In 1845, the first organization of the academy provided for six professorships including Arsene N. Girault as... Read more
A lot has been written lately about Bill the Goat and his reign at the Naval Academy, but this post will focus on the Naval Academy's other mascot. "Other mascot?" you ask. You would be forgiven for thinking that the Naval Academy had... Read more
George Washington was born on 22 February 1732 in Westmoreland County, Virginia. His birthday became a national holiday in 1885 during President Chester Alan Arthur's administration.
In 1968, the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill, which took... Read more
On January 19, 1840, Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, USN, commander of the United States South Seas Exploring Expedition, claimed for his country the discovery of Antarctica after sighting land from the sloop-of-war USS Vincennes, the... Read more
A recent post looked at the Navy's mascot, Bill the Goat, during the 1930-50s and how the numbering of these goats got off track during these decades. A 1934 article in the Baltimore Sun was the first in Special Collections &... Read more
The first mention of football at the academy in the December 2, 1857, Journal of the Officer of the Day.
If you have watched any of 2019's college football games you may have noticed the "150" patch on the players' uniforms... Read more
As the United States Naval Academy moved into the latter half of the twentieth century, it was becoming evident that its physical plant was rapidly becoming inadequate. The academy, as designed by Ernest Flagg at a time when the... Read more
The United States Naval Academy Band is the oldest band in the U.S.Navy. Although instrumental music at the academy can be traced back to the school's founding in October 1845, the band was officially founded on November 22,... Read more
William Chauvenet
Today is Founders’ Day at the Naval Academy - the 174th anniversary of the school’s establishment. Those wishing to learn more about the academy’s early... Read more
As the United States entered World War I in April 1917, questions swirled as to just what role the U.S. would play. With the Battle of Jutland already a year in the past and only a single division of American battleships... Read more
Football season is upon us, and Navy fans once again are treated to the familiar sight of Bill XXXVI and Bill XXXVII patrolling the sidelines. However, based on the articles and other documents in Special Collections &... Read more
On August 8, 1924, the airship USS Shenandoah (ZR-1) successfully executed its first mooring at sea to a mast affixed to the oiler USS Patoka (AO-9). The U.S. Navy's first rigid airship, Shenandoah was christened on October 10,... Read more
Pictured here are two pages from the Officer of the Day's journal from 1851. One of the duties of the Officer of the Day during this period was documenting the candidates arriving at the academy to be examined for admission. These... Read more
Despite centuries of exploration in high northern latitudes, the Arctic Ocean remained a puzzle in the late 1800s. What lay above latitude 71° north? An open polar sea? A land mass to correspond... Read more
Paging through a box of documents that would come to be known as the Mary A. Marshall Papers, you eventually, and altogether unexpectedly, come across the caricature of a woman smiling up at you while dangling an Army mule from... Read more
The Battle of Bunker Hill, the first major battle of the American Revolution, occurred on June 17, 1775. In April, colonial militia and British regulars had clashed at Lexington and Concord, bringing Great Britain and her... Read more
Today is the seventy-fifth anniversary of D-day, the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France during World War II. In commemoration, presented below is a portion of a hand-drawn map of the landing beaches at Omaha Beach - specifically... Read more
On June 3, 1769, Lieutenant James Cook (1728-1779) of the Royal Navy and astronomer Charles Green (1735-1771) of the Royal Society measured the transit of Venus from an observatory set up at the north-east end of Matavai Bay,... Read more
May 31, 2016 marked the 100th anniversary of the largest naval engagement of World War I. In the North Sea off the coast of Denmark, the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet, 250 ships... Read more
In the late summer of 1973, the US Naval Academy achieved a major milestone when Professor Rae Jean Goodman joined the Economics Department, becoming the first woman civilian faculty member at the academy.... Read more
Students of naval and Naval Academy history are probably familiar with the story of the alleged mutiny aboard the US Brig Somers, which served as a rallying point for the founding of the academy. On November 26, 1842,... Read more
On the morning of July 29, 1846, 175 years ago today, sloop-of war USS Cyane, Commander Samuel Francis Du Pont, anchored in the harbor of San Diego, California. On board were Captain John C.... Read more
Two months prior to the USS Cyane’s arrival at San Diego, Congress had declared war on Mexico after fighting broke out along the Rio Grande, the disputed boundary between Texas and Mexico. On June 7, news of... Read more
As the fall semester gets into full swing and the librarians at Nimitz Library take the library's newest instructional space, the Nautilus Room, out for its shakedown cruise, let's take a moment to look back on the founding of the... Read more
Applied Science Department Professor Frederick A. Skove teaching a computer science class, ca. 1978
As one of the nation's leading public schools, the United States Naval Academy offers a rigorous science and technology... Read more
As has been discussed in previous posts entitled "The New Naval Academy That Never Was" and "The New Naval Academy That Never Was, Revisited," by the latter half of twentieth century, the Naval Academy's physical plant, its academic... Read more
With sailing's prominence at the Naval Academy, it seems only fitting that the schooner yacht America, arguably the most famous racing sailboat of her day, became inextricably linked to the school. The America was laid... Read more
The Naval Academy has a long history of appearance on film and television. Part one of this history begins during World War I and after as production studios began filming Yard scenes and movies.
During World War I,... Read more
October 7, 2021 marked the 450th anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto, the greatest naval battle in early modern history and the last major combat between galley fleets. The forces of the Holy League, under the command of Don... Read more
Last year, the Naval Academy set the record straight for one of the most prominent landmarks on the Yard, the sculpture traditionally known as "Tecumseh," when it officially identified the figure as the Native American leader... Read more
Nestled on the southwest corner of Eucalyptus and Gage roads in the Naval Support Activity Annapolis’s North Severn Village residential community sits a small, rectangular, wood-frame chapel capped by a four-sided... Read more
Nimitz Library's Special Collections & Archives has acquired a large collection of manuscripts and other documents related to Admiral Richard Harrsion Jackson (USNA 1887), one of the academy's longest lived graduates who... Read more
On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, adopted Richard Henry Lee's resolution declaring the thirteen American colonies "free and independent states," absolving them from "all allegiance to... Read more
Mahan Hall Bell, 1970.
The familiar chimes ringing the hours from the Mahan Hall clock tower provide a harmonious atmosphere to the grounds of the United States Naval Academy. Turning 100 years old in 2022,... Read more
From the today's mysterious pianist in Mahan Hall to the midshipman musical clubs of old, music lovers of all backgrounds continue to find a home at the Naval Academy.
Naval Cadet Musical Club, 1897
When the Naval... Read more
On September 8, 1522, a decaying and weather-beaten carrack limped to its mooring in Seville, three years since leaving that Spanish port on the Guadalquivir River. The Victoria was the only remaining vessel of the... Read more
Rear Admiral Boon officially receives Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.
While Queen Elizabeth II never visited the Naval Academy, her mother, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother paid the midshipmen a formal visit on... Read more
Within the Rear Admiral Paul H. Wiedorn Collection are numerous popular periodicals of the nineteenth century, including Graham’s Magazine, Godey’s Lady’s Book, and the Columbian Magazine; and it... Read more
A couple years ago, when the Army-Navy Game was not played at a neutral site for first time since World War II, a blog post talked about the 1942 and 1943 games when Annapolis and West Point took turns hosting the game. Wartime demands... Read more
Last year, a generous donation from the class of 1980 allowed Special Collections & Archives to digitize a number of videotape recordings in the obsolete formats of U-matic, BetaCam, and... Read more
Although it's common for students to dislike their professors, Naval Academy midshipmen took their antipathy for one instructor a little too far in 1848 when the academy was known as the Naval School. March 22 marks the 175th... Read more
In 1907, the Naval Academy library began a subscription to a new periodical that debuted in Paris on January 10. Published fortnightly, La Vie maritime et fluviale (Maritime and River Life) promised to justify its title. “It... Read more
The granite Japanese pagoda, sometimes called the Saitō Monument, standing in front of Luce Hall has received renewed attention lately. Naval History magazine recently published an article... Read more
In 1856, the Naval Academy library purchased an American edition of George Grote's 12-volume History of Greece, first published in London between 1846 and 1856. Grote's history represented the latest... Read more
"To conduct an energetic fluid to the general seat of all impressions; to distribute its influence to the different parts of the nervous and muscular systems; to continue, revive, and, if I may be allowed the expression, to... Read more
Among the books in the Harry F. Guggenheim Collection are first editions of Charles Dickens's Christmas books, published between 1843 and 1848. These are A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, the Battle of... Read more
Among the books in the original 1845 library of the Naval Academy is John Marshall's five-volume Life of George Washington. Published in Philadelphia between 1804 and 1807, the work is what today... Read more
On Thursday, April 22, 1847, the homeward bound USS Jamestown, a Navy ship with a civilian captain and crew, slipped past Cove [Cobh], having discharged about 8,000 barrels of supplies for the destitute and starving Irish. An... Read more
Gouge is one of the Naval Academy’s contributions to the slang lexicon of the larger U.S. Navy. The website of the Navy’s Chief Information Officer explains that gouge means the heart of the matter; or outstanding... Read more
For the 80th anniversary of D-Day, we feature a selection of photographs from the Edward J. Steichen Collection. Edward Steichen (1879-1973) was a prominent art and commercial photographer who headed the Naval Aviation... Read more
