Scope and Content Note
The papers of John J. Bayer (1887-1967) span the years 1928-1956, with the bulk of the items concentrated in the period 1928-1938. The collection is comprised of diaries, correspondence, autographs, newspaper clippings, and a photograph. It consists mostly of letters to Bayer from Richard Evelyn Byrd in the immediate aftermath of the first Byrd Antarctic Expedition, 1928-1930. The letters reveal a strong friendship between Byrd and Bayer. The papers also include correspondence between Byrd and Franklin D. Roosevelt relating to Bayer, an album of autographs of crew members who served with Bayer on the City of New York (flagship), and two leather-bound handwritten diaries kept by Bayer containing accounts of his daily activities as engineering officer of the ship and of members of the crew and environmental challenges encountered by the expedition.