Content Description

Naval War College Theses, Senior Class, 1934; Naval War College curriculum materials including solutions in International Law, Operations and Tactical Problems, 1933–1934; Jutland Cruiser Warfare presentations, 1933–1934; Correspondence, letters sent to his mother, Margaret Sampson Smith from China, the Philippine Islands, Japan and Singapore, 1925–1927, including commentary on family life, China’s political troubles, ship trials and repairs, missionaries, crossing the line ceremony and comments on places visited. Photograph of four generations of Smiths and Smith family naval officers, 1937.

Content Description The papers of Captain Roy Campbell Smith, USN, were presented to the Naval War College in two separate lots: the first accession, composed primarily of U.S. Navy Department official orders, was given in 1941 by Commander Roy C. Smith Jr., his son, and the second accession, comprising the bulk of the collection, was donated through the Naval War College Foundation in 1983 by Mrs. William T. Sampson Smith, his youngest son's widow and second wife.The papers focus on Roy Campbell Smith's naval career, which spanned the last two decades of the nineteenth century and the first quarter of the twentieth century. The collection contains documents relating to his early service with the Naval Torpedo Station in Newport, R.I., his association with the Naval War College as a staff member over the years, his experiences as a naval attache in F ranee and pre-revolutionary Russia, his participation in the occupation of Vera Cruz in 1914, and his governorship of Guam. In addition, the papers shed light on navy personnel and promotion policies and efforts to reorganize the Navy Department after the turn of the century. The twenty-four box manuscript collection measures ten linear feet and is divided into four distinct series and is further divided into subseries. Series I, Correspondence, consists of letters both sent and received. It is composed of four subseries: personal, family, official, and miscellaneous correspondence.Subseries I, personal...