Scope and Content Note
The papers of William H. Littlewood (1924-2012) span the years 1904-2007, with the bulk of the material dating from 1955 to 1960. The collection documents Littlewood’s professional activities, particularly his involvement as chief oceanographer in the first United States Navy Deep Freeze expeditions to Antarctica beginning in 1955 and during the International Geophysical Year, 1957-1958. The papers are organized into the following series: Personal File, Correspondence, Fieldwork Files, Reference Files, Digital Files, and Oversize.
The Personal File primarily includes scrapbooks arranged by Littlewood that comprise photographs and clippings from various expeditions to Antarctica along with Littlewood's background notes and annotations. Also within this series, a transcript of Littlewood’s oral history interview for the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training provides details about his personal and professional life from his childhood in Michigan to his retirement from the United States Foreign Service in 1981.
The Correspondence series is limited in scope and documents Littlewood’s personal relationship with friends and family. Researchers may be interested in outgoing correspondence to family members that describe in detail his expeditons to Antarctica.
The Fieldwork Files mostly document Littlewood’s involvement as an oceanographer during various Arctic and Antarctic expeditions where he led research initiatives, supported logistics, and gathered data on hydrography, weather systems, glacial movements, and marine life. The documentation in the materials ranges from general observations to highly technical geophysical data. The bulk of the series relates to Operation Deep Freeze from 1955 to 1959 and includes daily plans, general operation plans, reports of oceanographic surveys, cables, memoranda, photographs, personnel lists, and newsletters from USS Glacier (AGB-4), USS Edisto (AGB-2), and USS Wyandot (AKA-92). Littlewood’s field journals include daily accounts of activities, discoveries, observations, and weather conditions during Deep Freeze. Other materials in the Fieldwork Files include documentation of the 1950 arctic mission Operation Nanook, the 1959 Operation Chiper mission, and the Japanese Antarctic Research Expeditions of the late 1960s.
The Reference Files consist of materials Littlewood maintained for reference or research purposes. These include publications of the United States Navy Hydrographic Office, general materials related to the United States Antarctic Research Program, maps, handbooks, manuals, and various articles and essays on topics related to oceanography.
The Digital Files primarily consist of scanned copies of cruise books, photographs, and reports related to the USS Edisto (AGB-2) and its involvement in Deep Freeze expeditions between 1955 and 1965.
Only a few files in the collection relate to Littlewood’s position as science attaché in Stockholm, Sweden and Tokyo, Japan. Aside from the oral history interview in the Personal Files, there is no documentation of his roles at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).