The papers of Montgomery Sicard (1836-1900) span the years 1800-1948, with the bulk of the material falling in the years 1870 to 1898. The collection consists of official and general correspondence, a subject file, and miscellaneous items.

Sicard’s achievements in the field of ordnance are documented with his diagrams and memoranda for breech-loading howitzers and his plans for steel armor plate for ships. In his plans for steel plates are holograph and typescript notes, memoranda, letters, blueprints , and a corrected galley for Specifications for Armor for the United States Navy .

The official correspondence includes a few letters, but the majority of items are orders to duty. Correspondents include William E. Chandler, William Mayhew Folger, William H. Hunt, Charles O’Neil, and David D. Porter. The general correspondence consists largely of letters exchanged between Sicard and his wife, Elizabeth Floyd Sicard, and between the Sicards and their children, William F. Sicard, Montgomery Sicard, Jr., and Eleanor L. Sicard. Other correspondents are Ward Hunt, Jr., Kossuth Niles, and Asa Walker.

Sicard’s financial affairs are documented with letters of advice on investments; papers of profits, management of property, and purchase of household goods, and tax receipts. There are letters from his brothers, Stephen Sicard and George J. Sicard, and his brother-in-law, William Floyd.

Of interest in the miscellany are trade papers of Sicard’s father, Stephen Sicard, and papers on the management of the Floyds’ property in New York.