Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm79012443
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of William Shepherd Benson, naval officer and public official, were deposited in the Library of Congress in 1962 by Benson's son, Howard Hartwell James Benson. Between 1963 and 1966, Howard Hartwell James Benson gave additional papers to the Library and in 1969 converted the deposit of 1962 to a gift. Other papers relating to Benson were transferred to the Library by the Naval Historical Center in 1977.
The papers of William Shepherd Benson were arranged and described in 1977. The finding aid was revised in 2011.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of William Shepherd Benson in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.
The papers of William Shepherd Benson are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, William Shepherd Benson Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of William Shepherd Benson (1855-1932) span the years circa 1791-1952, with the bulk of the material dating from 1915 to 1928. The papers consist of family papers, correspondence, reports, dispatches, telegrams, memoranda, speeches, orders, appointments, printed matter, newspaper clippings, maps, photographs, broadsides, and miscellaneous related material and are organized into the following series: General Correspondence, Subject File, Speeches, Miscellany, and Oversize.
General Correspondence pertains primarily to Benson's naval duties from 1915 to 1928, except for considerable correspondence concerning various activities of the Catholic Church. The greater part of the collection concerns Benson's service as chief of naval operations, 1915-1919; as member of a commission appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to confer with the Allied and Associated Powers in Europe, 1917-1919; and as member of a special mission abroad as naval representative in drawing up naval terms of armistice with the Central Powers, and naval adviser to the American Commission to Negotiate Peace, 1918-1919. The remaining material chiefly concerns Benson's service on the United States Shipping Board, 1920-1928; his term as president, National Council of Catholic Men, 1921-1925; the Naval Conference of 1917; and his service as commandant of the Philadelphia Naval Yard, 1913-1915. There is little material concerning Benson's career preceding 1913 and after 1928.
Among the prominent correspondents in the collection are Bernard M. Baruch, Reginald Rowan Belknap, Tasker Howard Bliss, William Banks Caperton, Michael Joseph Curley, Josephus Daniels, Duncan Upshaw Fletcher, Guy Despard Goff, Edward Mandell House, Edward N. Hurley, Harry Shepard Knapp, John La Farge, Robert Lansing, Albert Davis Lasker, Peyton Conway March, Samuel McGowan, C. J. Peoples, John J. Pershing, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Hugh Lenox Scott, William Sowden Sims, Joseph Nathan Teal, Benjamin R. Tillman, and Henry B. Wilson. The Subject File is organized within three major headings: Armistice, Allied Naval Council, and Peace Conference, 1918-1919; Naval Conference of 1917 (Edward Mandell House Mission); and naval matters (miscellaneous), 1917-1926. Correspondents of note at the Paris Peace Conference include Norman H. Davis, Joseph C. Grew, Woodrow Wilson, and Admirals Philip Andrews, William Hannum Grubb Bullard, and Albert P. Niblack.
The Miscellany series includes material concerning the Army and Navy Country Club, transcripts of congressional hearings on the Navy Department, a bound volume of letters and miscellaneous items from a testimonial dinner in honor of Benson, scrapbooks, broadsides, and other printed matter.
Additional Benson papers received by the Library in 1963-1977 include letters received, transcripts of congressional hearings, speeches, orders, scrapbooks, and miscellaneous printed matter. Much of the correspondence pertains to letters of congratulations on Benson's various naval appointments, but there is also considerable information on the Versailles Peace Commission, on naval disarmament, and on the United States Shipping Board. Two additional topics of importance in this segment of the papers are the 1920 Senate Naval Affairs Committee hearings regarding naval operations in World War I, and Benson's extensive involvement in Catholic religious and fraternal organizations. Correspondents include Charles Francis Adams, Newton Diehl Baker, Montague C. Browning, James Gibbons, Herbert Hoover, Edward Mandell House, James D. Phelan, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson.
This collection is arranged in five series:
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm79012443
Letters sent and received.
Arranged in two groups, one chronologically, 1874-1952; the other, alphabetically, 1920-1928.
Letters, reports, memoranda, dispatches, telegrams, notes, printed matter, newspaper clippings, maps, charts, and miscellaneous related material.
Arranged alphabetically by subject.
Handwritten, typewritten, and near-print copies of speeches.
Arranged chronologically.
Early family papers, financial papers, memoranda, miscellaneous writings, newspaper clippings, orders and appointments, photographs, printed matter, material concerning the Army and Navy Country Club, transcripts of congressional hearings on the Navy Department, bound volume of letters and miscellaneous items from a testimonial dinner in honor of Benson, scrapbooks, and broadsides.
Arranged by type of material.
Certificates, pamphlets, and scrapbooks.
Arranged and described according to the series, containers, and folders from which the items were removed.