Church newspapers, 1941

Correspondence, boyhood and early family letters sent and received during his naval career, 1899–1937; Correspondence of his wife, Julia Averill Belknap, 1897–1907, and reminiscences of a year in China, Japan and the Philippines, 1900–1901; Bound volume of RADM Belknap’s published articles; Lecture on Blue Orange Situation, 1915; War Plans, Their Form and Substance, 1913; NWC Long Course papers, 1913–1914; Principle and Practice of Tactics…;, Strategy, Principles and Practice...; Logistics, its influence on strategy ... suggestions for improving the War College Course; German newspaper with WWI news, 1914–1915; Pamphlets on WWI and participants and causes, 1914–1915, in English, German and French. Miscellany, including photographs, programs and imprints; Correspondence, family letters sent and received, 1866–1903, of RADM George E. Belknap; Correspondence of his wife, Frances G. Prescott Belknap, 1864–1912; Miscellany, including photographs, glass slides and clippings; Correspondence, court and military papers, speeches, poems and essays of George Washington Prescott, 1775–1816; Correspondence of George Washington Prescott II, 1830–1882, father of Frances G. Belknap; Correspondence of Prescott Belknap to his mother, Frances G. Belknap, and his aunt, Frances Lear Prescott, 1868–1912; Miscellaneous correspondence of other family members.

The collection consists of thirteen boxes of personal papers of both rear admirals as well as their wives, and it also includes the papers of George Washington Prescott, II, father of Frances G. Prescott Belknap, and naval agent at Pensacola, Florida, 1877-1880. The first segment, the George E. Belknap papers, consists of correspondence, writings, photographs, imprints, scrapbooks, and other miscellaneous materials.

Rear Admiral Belknap' s correspondence contains mostly personal letters sent to his wife which date from 1866, the year they married, until his death in 1903. They refer to family matters; their three sons, Prescott, Reginald and Grafton; and the Admiral's naval assignments. Letters received cover a thirty year period, 1873-1903, and were written by his wife, friends, and fellow naval officers, including Daniel Ammen, Alfred T. Mahan, and SecNav William Chandler.

Frances G. Prescott Belknap's correspondence is divided evenly between letters sent and received. She corresponded regularly with her parents, her children, her Aunt Fanny Prescott, and her Uncle Holmes Prescott. Most of her letters date from 1890 when she lived in Kobe and Yokohama, Japan, while her husband was Commander-in-Chief of the Asiatic Station; they give an interesting account of navy life, customs, and society in the Far East one hundred years ago. She received letters from her children, grandchildren, relatives, friends and from George P. Huntington and Rear Admiral Daniel Ammen.

Miscellaneous materials consist of glass slides of the interior of the Belknap's Victorian style home, obituaries of George E. Belknap, menus, imprints and reminiscences of their son Grafton, who died at age eighteen.

Reginald R. Belknap's correspondence contains both letters sent and received. His letters were of a personal nature, covering the years 1879-1953, and the majority were written to his mother. Many of these date from his four years at the Naval Academy and they give an excellent description of academy life and his reaction to it. Others were sent to his father, grandparents, and brothers, Grafton and Prescott. Letters received cover the years 1882-195 7 and again were mainly from family members, his father, brothers, grandmother and George P. Huntington, a friend. There are two rather interesting letters in the collection, one from Admiral William S. Sims, in which he announced his engagement to Anne Hitchcock, and a 1957 thank-you letter from World War II German Admiral Karl Doenitz. There is no official navy related correspondence in this collection.

Julia Averill Belknap' s letters are also of a personal nature and cover the period, 1897 -1907. They were written to her mother, Mary S. Field Averill, a descendant of the inventor Cyrus Field, and her grandmother; letters received came from her aunt, Emilia Ash burner, with whom she lived as a child, her mother, mother-in-law, cousins and friends.

The collection contains some of the schoolboy compositions written by Reginald Belknap while at the Columbian Preparatory School. Miscellany consists of programs, bills, imprints, photographs of friends and family, and genealogy of Field Elders, Madison, Connecticut, the Admiral's home in retirement, and an album of photographs of naval officers and drawings of the American rescue efforts at Messina, Italy, in 1908.

George Washington Prescott II was the son of the New Hampshire jurist of the same name and the father of Frances G. Prescott Belknap. His papers contain both "letters sent and received, encompassing the years 1830-1880. Over the years, he wrote regularly to his sister Frances L. Prescott, with whom he was especially close, to his sister Lydia, and his brother Holmes. All of these letters treat with family and personal matters. The letters covering his years in Ceylon in the 1860's and as a naval agent at Pensacola, 1877-1880, are especially interesting. All of the letters received are from his sister Mary and treat with family affairs.