Scope and Content Note
The papers of the Rodgers family contain the papers of Commodore John Rodgers (1773-1838), who fought in the War of 1812 and who for many years was the senior officer in the American navy; his son, Rear Admiral John Rodgers ((1812-1882), who fought in the Civil War; his grandson, Vice Admiral William Ledyard Rodgers, who fought in World War I; and a great-grandson, naval aviator John Rodgers (1881-1926), who commanded a submarine division during World War I. The Rodgers collection also contains some papers of the latter John Rodgers's father, John Augustus Rodgers, who commanded the USS Indianaduring the Spanish-American War. The collection is organized into four series by name of family member: John Rodgers (1773-1838), John Rodgers (1812-1882), William Ledyard Rodgers (1860-1944), and John Rodgers (1881-1926). Included are journals and notebooks; orders to duty; official, general, and family correspondence; a speech, article, and book file; and miscellaneous material. The papers span the years 1788-1944, but are concentrated in the period 1820-1930.
The papers of John Rodgers (1773-1838), consist of a letterbook Rodgers kept on board the USS North Carolina (chiefly copies of letters to Henry Clay), notebooks, family and general correspondence, and biographical and autobiographical material. Among the principal correspondents are William Bainbridge, Stephen Decatur, James Madison, James Monroe, Mathew Calbraith Perry, Oliver Hazard Perry (1785-1819), David Porter, Thomas O. Selfridge, Samuel L. Southard, and Thomas Tingey. Items of prominence include letters to and from Tingey during the period Tingey was Rodgers “second” in a proposed duel with James Barron; Rodgers's letter to President Madison rejecting his offer of the post of secretary of the navy; and correspondence with the Perry family, related by marriage to Rodgers.
Also in the first series are the papers of Matthew C. Perry and Perry's and Rodgers's nephew, Christopher Raymond Perry Rodgers, as well as letters to and from other naval contemporaries. Significant topics within this material are the Battle of Lake Erie affair and the Somers Mutiny. There are letters from William Henry Harrison and others to Matthew Perry supporting Oliver H. Perry against Jesse D. Elliott in the argument over Elliott's actions during the crucial Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812, and a letter from Charles Sumner to Alexander Slidell Mackenzie (Matthew C. Perry's brother-in-law) supporting Mackenzie's action in hanging the son of the secretary of war for mutiny on the brig Somers in 1842. Further material on the mutiny and Mackenzie's resulting court-martial is the miscellany section of Commodore Rodgers's papers and in the papers of Rear Admiral John Rodgers (1812-1882).
The second series in the collection, the papers of John Rodgers (1812-1882) include official correspondence documenting his long and varied service in the navy and a large group of family letters. Rodgers wrote frequently to his wife, Ann H. Rodgers, and his father-in-law, William Ledyard Hodge. In his letters to his wife he wrote detailed accounts of his surroundings and activities, including during the Civil War period. There are also letters to his mother, Minerya D. Rodgers, to his brothers and sisters, and to his sister-in-law, Theodosia M. Hodge. Among the correspondents are Louis Agassiz, Daniel Ammen, John M. Brooke, James Buchanan, Oscar Bullus, Charles H. Davis, Mrs. Samuel Francis Du Pont, David Glasgow Farragut, Ernest R. Knorr, John K. Luttrell, Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, John T. McLaughlin, Matthew Fontaine Maury, Lewis Warrington, and Gideon Welles.
The papers of William Ledyard Rodgers, grandson of the first John Rodgers and son of the second, include official orders, a journal, family and general correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings, and printed matter. The correspondence documents William's service as president of the United States Naval War College and in the Asiatic Fleet; his membership on the advisory council to the Conference on Limitation of Armament; his work as technical adviser to the Committee of Jurists on the Laws of War; and his participation in the Institute of Politics at Williams College. Also in the series are speeches, articles, radio broadcasts, and book reviews, as well as the notes, drafts, maps, and illustrations for his two published books. Significant correspondents include William Shepherd Benson, Josephus Daniels, William H. Gardiner, Harry A. Garfield, Charles E. Hughes, H. P. Huse, Dudley W. Knox, John Bassett Moore, William Snowden Sims, and George G. Wilson.
The last series consists mainly of the papers of aviator John Rodgers (1881-1926), but includes the orders to duty of his father, John Augustus Rodgers, from his enrollment at the United States Naval Academy in 1865 until his last order to muster out the naval units of several Boston area colleges in 1919. John Rodgers's papers include logbooks and correspondence relating to his service in naval aviation, in the submarine force, and as commanding officer of the Naval Air Station at Pearl Harbor, but most of the other material pertaining to him concerns an aborted flight to Hawaii from the West Coast of the United States in 1925 and his death in 1926 as a result of an airplane accident while en route from Anacostia, D.C., to Philadelphia. Among the correspondents are Paul M. Bates, Wallace R. Farrington, Stanford E. Moses, and James H. Strong.