"An Admiral's Yarn," Chapter 19, undated

The collection consists of six boxes as well as folio size materials that document his naval career. It is divided into five series.

Series I, correspondence, contains several letters sent, but, by far, the bulk of the material consists of letters received during the years 1902-1941. Most of the correspondence is of an official nature; there are a few personal letters from family members, however. Congratulatory letters on his retirement were received from Admirals Harold Stark, H. Kent Hewitt, Reginald R. Belknap and Richard L. Conolly as well as from Herbert Lehman, Eugene Wilson and Arthur Hays Sulzberger. Naval orders, thank you letters and correspondence regarding his funeral complete the series.

Speeches form the second series and contain an address given at Laning's High School graduation in Petersburg, Illinois, in 1890 and one at his retirement dinner in 1937. The rest were given by Laning on various occasions, including a commencement speech at Peekskill Military Academy, his alma mater, in 1936, and at various navy events.

Writings, Series III, contain a cruise journal which Laning kept aboard the MONADNOCK in 1898, an article on the navy he had published in Nayy Day, and both a holograph and typed version of his unpublished autobiography entitled "An Admiral's Yarn." The latter will be published as part of the Naval War College Historical Monograph series.

Series IV contains photographs of naval career situations and is one of the largest segments of the collection. Photos of most of Laning's ships, the U.S. Navy Rifle Team at the Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden, the USS PENNSYLVANIA in Australia and New Zealand, change of command ceremonies, the visit of Marshal Petain to the Naval War College in 1931, ship launchings, the U.S. battle line, and portrait shots of Laning can be found here. There are photographs of Admirals William D. Leahy and Joseph M. Reeves as well. Laning's fitness reports are stored with the folio photographs.

Miscellany, Series V, contains a potpourri of souvenir programs, dinner menus, invitations, citations and awards, imprints on navy topics, scrapbooks of cruises, newsletters, identification cards and other printed material which Laning collected during his forty-six year naval career. Newspaper clippings are another large portion of the collection. The clippings cover major events in Laning's naval career and are stored in folio envelopes.

This is an important collection of a peacetime naval officer and president of the Naval War College. A surface line officer, a tactician, an expert shot, a sportsman, and an educator, Laning only saw action in the Spanish-American War, and that at the very beginning of his career. His papers reflect the career pattern of a flag officer who held vital battleship and shore commands and high naval academic posts during the first three and a half decades of the twentieth century.