Series 4. Col. James Barnes (1906- 1926, undated)

The collection consists of Barnes's lecture notes and the program from his presentation "Through Central Africa from Coast to Coast;" a typescript outline with photographs on the subject of military tactics; a certificate of his membership in the U.S. Naval Institute; lyrics to "The Song of the Fighting Ship" published in "Ships and Sailors" by Frederick Stokes Co. in 1898; and various clippings, invitations, and postcards.

Biographical Note

The son of John Sanford Barnes (see Series 3), James Barnes (1866-1936) graduated from Princeton in 1891 and served in the Naval Reserve during the Spanish-American War. He was an editor for Scribner's Magazine, Harper's, Book Lovers Magazine, and on the staff of "The Photographic History of the Civil War," first published in 1910. At the outbreak of the Boer War he traveled to Africa as a newspaper correspondent, and early in 1914 conducted a photographic expedition there for the American Museum of Natural History. In 1917 he organized and headed the Princeton Aviation School and served in the aviation section of the Signal Officers Reserve Corps. He oversaw aerial photographic work at the front during the American involvement in World War I, returning to head the US School of Aerial Photography in Rochester, NY. The author of over 20 books of historical fiction, adventure, naval biography and history, he published his autobiography "From Then Till Now" in 1934, during his retirement in Princeton, NJ.

Barnes donated his father's collection of naval materials to the Naval History Society in 1915. He served as the Society's President from 1918 until his death, and on its Board of Managers. In 1931 he edited "The life of William Bainbridge, esq. of the United States navy," by H. A. S. Dearborn, 1816, based on manuscript materials in the collection (see Series 1), which was published by Princeton University Press and distributed to members of the Naval History Society in 1932.