Series II: Correspondence (1909-1943)

The Society's correspondence includes incoming and carbon copies of outgoing letters, primarily to and from Secretary Robert Neeser and librarians Alice Kyte (Naval History Society) and Dorothy Barck (New-York Historical Society). Also represented are Col. James Barnes when he was active as President of the Society, Treasurer Grenville Kane, and attorney Herbert Satterlee. The correspondence documents all aspects of the Society's functions, including membership dues notices, publication of Naval History Society editions by The DeVinne Press and others, cataloging of Naval History Society publications by the Library of Congress, payment for or receipt of publications by members, research requests, and payment and other banking transactions. Contact with the New-York Historical Society begins in 1915 with formation of a Building Committee and discussion of a possible move of the collections from rented space in Aeolian Hall to the Historical Society's location, culminating in the move in 1925. Among that correspondence is a letter signed by Franklin Roosevelt. A November, 1936, letter to the membership announces the end of the publication program due to insufficient monies in the Naval History Fund.

Arrangement

Most of the correspondence was originally bundled in multiple envelopes for each year, usually organized alphabetically by last name of correspondent. Exceptions included envelopes for 1909, which were arranged chronologically in one envelope; 1917, which began as an alphabetical run but sometimes included correspondence dating to 1923; 1920, which was bundled together with 1924; and various years for which there was only one envelope containing all correspondence, especially later in the Society's history. Some large runs of correspondence to one recipient or on a particular subject were labeled as such and stored together. Those divisions have been retained, but folders have been arranged in chronological order.