Naval War College personal letters received, A-D, 1937-1939

The collection consists of sixteen boxes of manuscripts that document the admiral's naval career from 1896 to 1953. The papers are important not only from the standpoint of tracing an officer's career path to flag rank, but they also provide insights into issues facing the Navy during the first four decades of the twentieth century and they chronicle events of the period.

Series I consists of biographical information and includes an official navy biography as well as Snyder's service record, while Series II contains all of his naval orders from 1900 to 1945.

The largest portion of the collection, however, contains Admiral Snyder's correspondence, which is divided into official Navy correspondence, personal correspondence, and Naval War College correspondence and contains both letters received and letters sent. Official correspondence, 1896-1947, contains requests for leave, transfers, appointments, meetings, assignments, applications, promotions, commissions, reports, fitness reports, medals, awards, requisitions, transportation and temporary duty. Personal correspondence, 1902-1953, contains letters to and from prominent naval officers and family members, including Edward E. Spafford, William A. Moffet, Ralph Earle, son Philip w. Snyder, James O. Richardson, William V. Pratt, Joseph K. Taussig, Chester W. Nimitz, Harris Laning, William H. Standley, Robert E. Coontz, William s. Sims, Joseph M. Reeves, Jonas Ingram and Walter Krueger regarding professional and family concerns. There are letters of congratulations regarding his promotions and letters of condolence upon the death of his wife, Cornelia, as well. The third segment of correspondence contains letters sent and received during his tenure as Naval War College president. These include letters sent to local civic organizations, heads of the various Navy Bureaus and prominent naval officers. Letters to the American Naval Mission in Brazil provide interesting commentary on that activity. There is an insightful letter on the 1938 Munich Crisis as well.

Speeches contain remarks by Snyder upon assuming and being relieved of command of the Battle Force as well as talks on naval topics by unidentified persons. The series contains speeches by Admirals Thomas c. Hart, David F. Sellers, James O. Richardson, William L. Rodgers, Chester W. Nimitz, Ernest J. King and Admiral of the Fleet Lord Keyes, RN, H. Struve Hensel, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy, on the United States Navy, seapower in the Philippines, the coordination of the Armed Services, World War II in the Pacific Theatre and Naval Power, as well as dedication and graduation addresses.

Snyder's 1925 Naval War College theses on policy and on command are included here as well as a paper on the principles of war as applied to naval warfare by an unidentified author. There are lectures on the development of international law by Payson S. Wild, Jr., 1938; on the mission a~d work of the Naval War College by William Veazie Pratt, 1926; on aviation in the Sino-Japanese War by LCDR Ralph Oftsie, 1938; and the function of the Naval War College in developing a sound naval character among officers of the Navy by William L. Rodgers, 1923.

Ships' rosters, lists of flag officers, Task Force and Fleet Organization, schedules and locators for ships and squadrons, Bureau of Navigation bulletins, ALNAV bulletins, press releases, fleet operations orders, notices of change of command ceremonies and crossing the line ceremonies, information on The Green Bowlers (a secret organization of naval officers), and ships' newspapers comprise the materials within the Naval papers series.

Miscellany contains a variety of career related ephemera, including reprints of U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings articles, editions of Our Navy, naval manuals, programs for concerts, dinners and ceremonies, invitations and menus, diplomas and certificates, place cards, business cards and Christmas cards, maps, career related newspaper clippings, newspapers treating the Spanish-American War and Dewey's victory at Manila Bay, 1898, scrapbooks of the voyage of the Great White Fleet, 1908, and the return of the remains of John Paul Jones to the United states in 1905, postcards, tourists brochures and guides.

Photographs include both family and career pictures. All of the photographs have been identified as far as possible, dated, and the approximate size recorded. There are a large group of photographs of Admiral Snyder throughout his naval career, including his assignment as superintendent of Midshipmen when he escorted Prince and Princess Takamatsu of Japan during their U.S. visit in 1931, of the Fleet's visit to Peru in 1936, of crossing the line ceremonies, of ships of the Great White Fleet, 1907-1908, and of the launching of USS PIKE in 1935 and the Submarine V-1 in 1924.