[Rarebooks] F/S Letter Book Brooklyn Navy Yard

[Garry R Austin]

-- We offer for your consideration the following, net to all & postpaid 
@ $195.
From
Austin's Antiquarian Books
PO Box 730
Wilmington, Vt. 05363
mail at austinsbooks.com
802 464-8438

(United States Navy). Letter Book Of The Supply Department, Brooklyn 
Navy Yard. Quarto; pp; 498 leaves of tissue, alphabetical index at 
front; three quarter black leather and pebbled green cloth; this letter 
blank book manufactured by Standard Blank Books, the attractive large 
illustrated commercial bookplate states, "the Tokio Letter Copying 
Book"; "Containing A Fine Japanese Hand Made Paper, Extra Strong Perfect 
Copier"; Leather spine is completely worn to the underlying cloth, edges 
bumped and worn, internally very good, clean and tight; letters dated 
1918 thru 1936, (mostly 1919-1922); Among the Ships mentioned; U.S.S. 
Tacoma, Des Moines, Galveston, Hannibal, Huntington, Leonidas, 
Mississippi, Michigan, Mayflower (the Presidential Yacht), North Dakota, 
Nevada, Oklahoma, Olympia (Admiral Dewey's Flagship, Battle of Manila 
Bay, docked today at the Philadelphia Waterfront), St. Louis, & the San 
Francisco; Most letters are of technical content, dealing with replacing 
parts, maintenance, etc.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard was not much larger than a few city blocks (219 
acres, plus 72 acres of water), but it was one of the most historically 
significant sites in America. It was one of the U.S. Navy's major 
shipbuilding and repair yards from 1801 to 1966. It produced more than 
80 warships and hundreds of smaller vessels. At its height during World 
War II, it worked around the clock, employing some 70,000 people. The 
yard built the Monitor, the world's first modern warship; the Maine, 
whose destruction set off the Spanish-American War; the Arizona, whose 
sinking launched America into World War II; and the Missouri, on whose 
deck World War II ended. On June 25, 1966, the flag at the Brooklyn Navy 
Yard was lowered for the last time and the 165-year-old institution 
ceased to exist. Sold to the City of New York for $22.4 million, the 
yard became a site for storage of vehicles, some light industry, and a 
modest amount of civilian ship repair.

"If you are looking at an image that contains multiple documents with 
unusually neat penmanship, you are looking at a letter book. Letter 
books are simply copies of original letters bound together in a book and 
usually organized chronologically. Making such hand written copies was 
the job of a clerk. Among many other qualities, clerks had to have good 
penmanship. That's why these letters are so easy to read.
There are numerous letter books in the Papers of the War Department 
collections. The letter books of Generals such as Anthony Wayne, for 
example, furnish us a picture of his Fallen Timbers campaign-both in 
terms of what he sent to the War Department and what he received from 
Secretary of War, Henry Knox. The letter books of accountants such as 
Joseph Howell and William Simmons have thousands of entries".


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