Scope and Content Note
The papers of Cornelius Marius Schoonmaker (1839-1889) span the years 1833-1931, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1860-1890. Correspondence, a letterbook, a night order book, scrapbooks, and a manuscript of a biography of Schoonmaker constitute the collection. The correspondence is official and covers nearly all of Schoonmaker’s orders to duty and cruises. Of interest in the correspondence is George M. Robeson’s letter of May 15, 1873, ordering Schoonmaker to cruise to Newfoundland and to bring the survivors of the Polaris (screw tug) to Washington, D.C.
Correspondents include William E. Chandler, John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren, Thomas A. Dornin, David Glasgow Farragut, Louis Malesherbes Goldsborough, John C. Howell, Richard W. Thompson, Issac Toucey, Gideon Welles, and William C. Whitney.
Schoonmaker’s biography, written by his father, Marius Schoonmaker, includes copies of letters to family and friends concerning Schoonmaker’s tours of duty, an account of his service in the Civil War, and a description of his death by drowning in a hurricane which also wrecked his ship, the Vandalia.