Office of the Superintendent/Correspondence: Letters Received by Superintendent Frederick V. McNair, 1898-1900: 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 entry begins during the Superintendence of Rear Admiral Frederick V. McNair (1898-1900). McNair, an 1857 Naval Academy graduate and veteran of the Civil War, assumed the position of Superintendent during the Spanish American War. The Spanish-American War was the first conflict in which Naval Academy graduates held the U.S. Navy's chief commands. Every regular line officer at the battles of Manila Bay and Santiago de Cuba were alumni. Commander of the Spanish line at the latter, Admiral Don Pascual Cervera y Topete, and most of his surviving officers were captured and quartered at the Academy in a house on Buchanan Row. McNair arranged for the Spanish prisoners to be treated with every courtesy, granting them liberty of the Academy Yard and the city of Annapolis. Also during McNair's tenure began 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.

Description of Contents

This series contains letters received by the Superintendent chiefly from Navy Department officials, private individuals (including parents and sponsors of cadets), and businesses. The letters are mostly requests for personal intervention or assistance by the Superintendent in matters connected with the Academy. Some letters are marked "personal," or "confidential." It is probably because of their unofficial nature that these letters were not included in the main series of letters received in Entry 29: "Letters Received by the Superintendent, 1888-1906" (NAID: 2990063).

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically.

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.

Other Finding Aid(s)

National Archives Catalog entry available electronically at: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/2990066.

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

For earlier letters received from the same correspondents, see Entry 25: "Letters Received by the Superintendent, 1845-1887" (NAID: 2990043). For letters received from the same correspondents by later superintendents, see Entry 29: "Letters Received by the Superintendent, 1888-1906" (NAID: 2990063).

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: Letters Received by Superintendent Frederick V. McNair, RG 405.2.1 Entry 30

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

• Cervera y Topete, Pascual, 1839-1909
• Flagg, Ernest, 1857-1947
• McNair, Frederick Vallette, 1839-1900
• Naval education -- United States
• Spanish-American War, 1898
• United States Naval Academy
• United States Naval Academy -- History -- 19th century
• United States Naval Academy -- History -- 20th century
• United States Naval Academy. Superintendent

Genre Terms

• Correspondence