Scope and Content Note
The papers of Elliot Snow (1866-1939) span the years 1790-1942, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1920-1930. The papers relate primarily to the restoration of the USF Constitution in 1906 and 1926 and to the history of the USF Constitution. Included are a logbook and journal, correspondence, writings, newspaper clippings, printed matter, and scrapbooks. Also included are papers of Horatio Davis Smith (1845-1918), an officer in the United States Revenue Cutter Service, and a small group of papers of Josiah Fox (1763-1847), a naval constructor.
An authority on the USF Constitution, Snow was designated as a consultant for the film Old Ironsides, which Paramount Motion Pictures released in 1926. Topics of research include the frigate’s steering wheel, figureheads, bell, battery, guns, sails, and rigging.
Prominent correspondents include William Alcott, Philip Andrews, George A. Bahn, James Barnes, Jouett Taylor Cannon, Henry T. Claus, William E. Foster, Letitia A. Humphreys, Constance Lathrop, Paul C. Nicholson, Haviland Hull Platt, Albert Sydney Snow, William F. Spicer, Karl Vogel, and Curtis Dwight Wilbur.
The miscellany in the collection contains the papers of Horatio Davis Smith and Josiah Fox. Smith’s papers include notebooks, correspondence, and four scrapbooks. Correspondents include Francis Martin, John McGowan, George Henry Preble, and Sidney D. Shattuck. In the papers of Josiah Fox are correspondence, receipts, estimates and description of timber, estimates of materials to be used in the construction of frigates and gun boats, and contracts. Fox’s correspondents include John Cassin, John Cock, Peter Gardner, William Hall, Jonathan Hopkins, and Henry L. Langdon