Scope and Content Note
The papers of John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren (1809-1870) span the years 1794-1889, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1826-1870. The collection includes correspondence, letterbooks, journals, ordnance records, reports, official memoranda, notebooks, nautical charts and calculations, design drawings, logbooks, scrapbooks, and printed matter and is organized in the following series: General Correspondence , Letterbooks , Naval Ordnance Records , Miscellany , and Oversize . The papers document chiefly Dahlgren's pioneering career in the development of ordnance for the United States Navy and as chief of the Bureau of Ordnance. Notable in the collection is correspondence between Dahlgren and his son, Ulric, journals kept by Dahlgren on early cruises as a midshipman, and ships' logs recording his activities in the South Atlantic during the Civil War. Correspondents include Samuel Francis Du Pont, Andrew H. Foote, Gustavus Vasa Fox, and Gideon Welles.