Series II. Naval War College lectures and lecture notes (1862-1904)
Scope and Contents note
The subseries includes notes, handwritten drafts, and final versions (mostly carbon typescripts) of lectures Goodrich presented at the Naval War College, as well as notes on other topics. Also included are a newspaper clipping and a list of personal items, perhaps from the Goodrich residence, found with the lecture materials. "The Problem of 96" is one of the annual examinations by College cadets of a challenge in coastal defense: the 1896 one looked at a specific part of nearby Narragansett Bay. This is an early precursor of the theoretical "war games" the College famously initiated.
The numbered lectures were delivered in order as part of a series on famous international naval encounters, from the Battle of Sluys in 1340 to Drake's destruction of King Phillip's fleet in Cadiz Harbor in 1587, Napoleon's Nile Campaign of 1798, and the 1827 Battle of Navarino during the Greek War of Independence. These form the backdrop for Goodrich's final multipart lecture on Dewey's engagement in Manila during the Spanish-American War, which had occurred only three years before these lectures. It is unclear if the material on the Army's landing in Cuba formed part of this presentation.
Arrangement
The lecture notes are arranged chronologically and the numbered lectures in order as noted on them and their original packaging. Some lectures' accompanying graphic materials (maps and photoreproductions probably used in the preparation of lantern slides) were pinned to the lecture text; these have been separated, numbered by page on which they appeared, and housed by lecture. The notes' original envelopes are in separate folders; they may date any time from the lectures in 1901 to the collection's donation to the Naval History Society in 1933.