Scope and Content Note
The papers of Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914) span the years 1779 to 1970, with the bulk of the material dated 1890-1914, after the publication of Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783. The collection reflects Mahan's naval career, family background, influence as a naval historian, and the work of W. D. Puleston, Mahan's biographer. The Mahan Papers have been arranged into Family Papers, Subject File, Speeches and Writings File, Biographer's File, Printed Matter, and Miscellany.
The Family Papers provide insight into Mahan's close family ties and early naval career. Mahan's correspondence with his family describes his education at the United States Naval Academy, Civil War service, and navy cruises to the Far East, South America, and Europe. Mahan's letters to his wife and daughter, Ellen, during the cruise of the Chicago (cruiser), 1893-1895, record his controversy with Rear Admiral Henry Erben and his reception and honors in England. Letters of condolence following Mahan's death and other family correspondence are also in the file.
The impact of Mahan's writings is indicated in the files of foreign correspondence in the Subject File. Anecdotes and documents from the relatives of Admirals Horatio Nelson and James Saumarez and others are included in the British correspondence files. Much of Mahan's correspondence with American naval officers, historians, diplomats, and public figures can be found within several chronological correspondence files. The Subject File also contains information relating to Mahan's views on armament, international arbitration, shipbuilding programs, the immunity of commerce in war, and his controversies with Erben and with Frederick William Holls regarding the International Peace Conference at the Hague in 1899. Other correspondence of interest includes Mahan's 1866 letter to Stephen Bleeker Luce outlining his conception of his first book on the influence of sea power; confidential letters from Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924) on foreign policy; and correspondence with Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919).
The Speeches and Writings File includes Mahan's lectures on naval warfare at the Lowell Institute, speeches on women's suffrage and religion, and drafts, notes, notebooks, and research materials for some of his books, articles, and unpublished works on Horatio Nelson, United States naval history, and foreign affairs. The publishers' correspondence files include discussions on proposed writing topics and document the progress and profitability of Mahan's works. There is also correspondence with Joseph Pulitzer and William Gibbs McAdoo concerning Woodrow Wilson's censorship order of 1914 and Mahan's rebuttals to Norman Angell's book, The Great Illusion (1911).
The Biographer's File contains the correspondence and personal recollections of Mahan's children and sister, his classmate, Samuel Ashe, scholars such as John Bassett Moore and Seth Low, and other contemporaries. The acquisition by W. D. Puleston of Mahan's correspondence with various persons and publishers, which he added to this collection, is documented in the file. Information concerning Mahan's family background, education, religion, naval career, and influence on Kaiser Wilhelm II, as well as copies of various government documents and periodicals, is also in the file.
The Printed Matter file contains copies of periodical articles by or about Mahan, 1896-1914, and others concerning naval history, foreign affairs, and religion. Mahan's scrapbooks of newspaper clippings include notations and short drafts. Other material of interest are Mahan's obituaries, Hague Conference reports, and a 1940 address on Mahan by John Bassett Moore.
The Miscellany series contains information about Mahan's awards and honors, his dinner with Kaiser Wilhelm in 1893, an inventory of his papers, and other items. Disbursing claims include information about his service and temporary active duty on various commissions and at the Naval War College following his retirement.
Additional correspondents in the papers include John Hay, Hilary A. Herbert, William Kirkland, John Davis Long, Elihu Root, and Winfield Scott Schley.