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[Box Number, Folder Number], MS-6, Commander Horace Elmer Collection, Book Arts, Archives, & Rare Books, Boatwright Memorial Library, University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia.
Purchased from
This collection was purchased with the Beverley Lyle Britton Fund.
Processed by Charlotte Hawkins and Luci Ortiz.
The collection is divided into two series:
Series I: Commander Horace Elmer
Series II: Edith Elmer Wood's Scrapbook
This collection includes journals, scrapbooks and photographs belonging to U. S. Naval Commander Horace Elmer (1846-98) that cover the important period of naval expansion from 1864 to 1900. His family created the collection, which follows his early naval career until his death, as evidenced through the newspaper clippings.
Elmer was an American Navy Commander, born in 1846. Having graduated from the Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1864 (aged 18), he began his naval career on the flagship for the East India Squadron, the U.S.S. Hartford, on which he sailed to the Pacific, via Cape Town (1865-69). He went on to have a successful career, serving on the U.S.S. Terror from 1870-1871; the U.S.S. Vandalia 1871; the U.S.S. Ossippee 1871-1873; and the U.S.S. Kearsarge 1878-82. In 1883 he was promoted to the rank of Commander and in 1886 he was awarded the head of the department of seamanship at the United States Naval Academy. His career, as the collection shows, gave him the opportunity to navigate across the world, visiting places such as South Africa, China, Peru, and San Domingo. The height of his career was when he was commissioned to organize and command the Mosquito Fleet in the Spanish - American War, March 1898. Unfortunately, he contracted a cold that turned into pneumonia and died one month later.
His journals reflect his time at the end of his career at the naval academy and important technical notes, but most significantly his time spent at sea. His writing style is casual and, because of the journal-like style, his personality as well as his cultural and geographical background shine through.
One of the photo albums was curated by Horace Elmer's daughter, Edith Elmer Wood, who was a healthcare and housing reformer during the progressive era into the mid twentieth century. Aged twenty-two, she married to Naval Officer Albert Norton Wood and she travelled with him to Puerto Rico around 1906. There, her interest in healthcare flourished, becoming the head of the Anti-Tuberculosis League. Some of her significant publications include:
The Horace Elmer Collection covers a short but important period in U.S. naval history from the end of the American Civil War to the beginning of the Spanish-American War at the eve of the twentieth century. Personal journals, scrapbooks, photo albums, and loose photographs are from the years 1864 to 1900.
Series I, Commander Horace Elmer, contains journals and materials relating directly to the life and career of Commander Elmer as described below.
The first journal, written chronologically but sporadically, illustrates a young Elmer's final years at the Naval Academy until his assignment on the U.S.S. Hartford. Notable entries include him witnessing Henry Ward Beecher, a prominent preacher and abolitionist, giving a sermon in Plymouth, 9 May 1865, and his 5 July 1865 entry where he describes the Fourth of July celebrations. Most significantly, this journal also includes his detailed sketching of the U.S.S. Monitor and engines of the U.S.S. Hartford, along with technical notes of how the student understood it. Personal and class notes show the kind of knowledge and naval procedures the academy required of its students.
The second journal details Elmer's time on the Asiatic mission for the East India Squadron from 17 July 1865 to 24 February 1866. At the back of the journal there is a table showing the periods he spent in each different country that they visited. While this list includes the years up to 1868, Elmer's entries in the diary end in 1866. Places include Brazil, Africa, China and Japan. As it is a diary, this journal is useful in depicting what life was like on board for Elmer and the kind of things he enjoyed but also the cultural and colonial opinions at the time. In February 1866, for example, he writes of the uncivilized and demoralizing nature of people he encountered in Hong Kong.
Now risen to the rank of lieutenant commander and the navigator aboard the U.S.S. Ossippee, this volume contains Elmer's notes on navigation, surveying, and "memoranda" recounting the cruise of the U.S.S. Ossippee from Peru to New York. It also includes a section of notes labelled "miscellaneous," which is filled with random factoids, many of which relate to torpedoes or explosions.
This book includes neat and detailed notes that Elmer, as Navigator, presumably had on board in both vessels to help handle different situations. These include roll calls, sea routines, forecasts, losing a sail, and navigation. It also includes a Miscellaneous section.
Contains clippings from many different periodicals relating to naval procedures and maritime subjects. These depict the mechanical and technical changes of the navy during these years, but also its growth. Some articles from the U.S Army and Navy Journal from these years are included.
Presumably put together by Elmer's wife or daughter, this scrapbook contains periodical clippings pertaining to his last assignment on the Mosquito fleet, 1898. It also includes loose telegrams of condolence sent to her and her application to increase her pension. It is primarily composed of obituaries, each neatly labelled and organized by newspaper and date. Elmer caught pneumonia which was brought on by exposure while he was on duty. Each clipping pertains to the death of a great naval officer, and in some cases, the first loss of the Spanish-American War. (Evening Journal) Strong patriotic language is used, as well as great sadness of the passing of the "courageous" and "best known naval officers" is illustrated.
7. Collection of Nine Loose Photographs (mounted on card) 1870- 1891.
Collection of photographs spanning twenty years, divided into Elmer's time in Santo Domingo and Edith's personal photos. The shots from Santo Domingo include a group shot of Commander Elmer with several other important men, including the President of Santo Domingo. Edith's photographs are primarily personal and family portraits, including a picture of Adele Wiley as a young woman, Edith Elmer Wood as a baby, and then another later shot of her as a young woman.
Series II, Edith Elmer Wood Scrapbook, contains a single album containing photographs from her daily life, including trips she made with her husband.
Edith Elmer Wood's photograph album contains two large photos of the U.S.S. Kearsarge, one being of the officers and another of the crew being inspected, both dated 1890; several snapshots of interiors of family residences, including one of her mother in a rocking chair, and a photo of Commander Elmer working at his desk in the Ordnance Office; ten photos, five quite large, of the Chicago World's Fair in 1893; and ten large photographs taken on the campus of the United States Naval Academy, two of them featuring Mrs. Wood and her husband. Other scenes from the Naval Academy include cadets being drilled and the Tripoli Monument.