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Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm70050104
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 Albert Gleaves, naval officer and historian, were deposited in the Library of Congress in 1950 by the Naval Historical Foundation. A second installment was added to the original deposit in 1955. The collection was converted to a gift in 1998.
The papers of Albert Gleaves were arranged and described in 1967. The finding aid was revised in 2010.
In 1968 the Library published
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Albert Gleaves is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
The papers of Albert Gleaves 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, Albert Gleaves Papers, Naval Historical Foundation, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Albert Gleaves (1858-1937) span the years 1803-1946 with the bulk of the papers dating from 1877 to 1937. The papers are organized into the following series: Diaries, Journals, and Notebooks; Official Correspondence; General Correspondence; Records of the Asiatic Fleet; Speech, Article, and Book File; Scrapbooks; Newspaper Clippings; Photographs; and Miscellany.
Like all midshipmen of his time, Gleaves was required to maintain a professional journal of his duties and stations aboard ship. Gleaves continued this practice all during his career. Twenty-two of his personal diaries and journals, covering the years from 1902 to 1936, record his interests and activities in detail during that period.
Gleaves was an intensive reader and carried on extensive correspondence about his reading with friends and colleagues in and out of the navy. His four books, published between the years 1904 and 1925, document his interest in naval biographical research and historical authorship. In his diaries and journals are marginal annotations showing his reading habits formed during long passages at sea. Also noted are lists of reading material to be included in his personal "stores" before departing on a cruise or an anticipated tour of duty at an overseas station.
For the ten-year period after graduation from the United States Naval Academy in 1877, Gleaves served at sea in both the Atlantic and the Pacific Fleets. The collection contains official and personal correspondence as well as diaries and journals to document this period of his life. For the next decade he alternated between duties afloat and ordnance billets in various naval yards around the country. For the period from about 1885 to 1897 there is only minimum documentation. Only a few diaries, a scrapbook, and a file of correspondence with John Henry Gibbons cover his service for these years.
The beginning of the Spanish American War in 1898 found Gleaves in
command of the
After the war and a brief tour of duty as navigator on board the
battleship
Following duty in the presidential yachts, Gleaves assumed command of the Naval Torpedo Station, where his first reports to the secretary of the navy resulted in a review of torpedo ordnance. After a trip to Europe in 1907 to inspect foreign ordnance installations, Gleaves returned home to help persuade the Navy Department to establish its own facilities for manufacturing torpedoes independent of private or foreign sources. Typically, the details of his investigations in Europe and his part in the establishment of these facilities are incorporated in a small notebook labeled "Torpedoes, Mines, and Nets."
His activities and observations are recorded in a 1907 personal narrative-type diary. For his period as inspector of ordnance in Newport there is an exchange of letters in the correspondence files with the Navy Department.
After a tour of duty in the office of the assistant secretary of the navy with collateral duty as a member of the General Board, Gleaves was again ordered to sea in 1910. From 1911 to 1914 he was stationed ashore as commander of the Second and then the Third Naval District.
In 1916 Gleaves was promoted to flag rank and ordered to command the
Torpedo Flotilla and later the entire Destroyer Force of the Atlantic Fleet.
Material readiness reports from the squadrons, plus orders, dispatches, and
letters from his flagship, the
The war years and postwar period are documented by correspondence, diaries and journals, newspaper clippings, and magazine articles in his scrapbooks. Gleaves was promoted to vice admiral in 1918 and less than one full year later, to admiral. In September 1919 he was assigned to be the commander of the Asiatic Fleet.
Topics of importance in the Records of the Asiatic Fleet series concern the Japanese Army in Russia after the war, the Communist takeover in Siberia, the evacuation of Czechoslovakian troops from Russia, and the general state of affairs in Russia at the time of revolutionary unrest. The collection also includes firsthand observations on the status of the United States in the Far East and other intelligence information. His diaries, typed each day aboard his flagship, contain source material on the conditions in that part of the world between the wars. Correspondents for the years 1919 to 1922 include Norman E. Allman, Lee Yek Cheng, Ernest Batson Price, C.P. Sah, and T.K. Yaw.
Included in the papers are copies of most all of Gleaves's speeches, articles, radio broadcasts, lectures, and pamphlets. This material covers a variety of topics, usually naval, generally delivered or addressed to civic, patriotic or service groups. In the Speech, Article, and Book File is correspondence concerning his publications, especially the book
The scrapbooks and newspaper clippings in the collection relate mainly to Gleaves's career or to notable incidents in naval history. Correspondence concerning his decorations, awards, and promotions to flag rank, a file of biographical material, and poetry file completes the collection.
Correspondents include Harry Alexander Baldridge, W. E. Beard, William Shepherd Benson, Edward G. Blakeslee, John C. Breckinridge, Louisa P. Breckinridge, Willard H. Brownson, Paul Chack, French Ensor Chadwick, E. T. Constieu, Josephus Daniels, Richard C. Darby, Ernest M. Eller, Decoursey Fales, Charles Eli Fox, William Howard Gardner, Jules James, Hilary Pollard Jones, Dudley Wright Knox, Edith Rolfe Maxwell, V. C. Percy, W. W. Phelps, Frank L. Polk, Charles K. Post, Waldron Kintzing Post, George Haven Putnam, A. D. Rockenback, Raymond Perry Rodgers, David Foote Sellers, M. E. Shearer, Montgomery Sicard, Joshua Slocum, Clifford Hardy West, and Spencer Shepherd Wood.
This collection is arranged in nine series:
Writings, observations, and notes by Gleaves on naval and other subjects.
Arranged chronologically.
Orders to duty and other official correspondence.
Arranged chronologically.
Letters received and a few copies of letters sent, mostly of a personal and quasi-official nature.
Arranged chronologically.
Correspondence, memoranda, notes, general orders, interview records, printed matter, newspaper clippings, drafts of articles, maps, and a few photographs.
Arranged chronologically.
Drafts, typescripts, near-print, and printed copies of Gleaves's speeches, articles, radio broadcasts, book reviews, and personal narratives. Also typescript material for an autobiography and files concerning his published works.
Arranged by type of material and therein chronologically.
Newspaper clippings, printed matter, invitations and calling cards, memorabilia, and a few pieces of attached correspondence.
Arranged chronologically.
Clippings about Gleaves or subjects of interest to him.
Arranged chronologically.
Photographs pertaining primarily to Gleaves or his tours of duty.
Arranged chronologically.
Correspondence concerning awards and decorations, letters of congratulation, maps, a collection of anecdotes, biographical material, printed matter, copies of historical documents, a poetry folder, invitations and calling cards, notes, reports, memoranda, and other assorted material.
Arranged by type of material and therein chronologically.