Alfred Thayer Mahan was born at West Point, New York, the son of Professor Denis Hart Mahan, who taught at the United States Military Academy. The atmosphere of his family home undoubtedly played a role in his future work, and helped to mold his later interests. Although his father hoped that Alfred would pursue a civilian career, the boy joined the Navy after only a year at Columbia University.
As a line officer in the U.S. Navy, Mahan had a rather uneventful career, but saw active service in the Civil War and went on to command three ships. In 1885, Rear Admiral Stephen B. Luce selected him as an instructor in naval history and tactics at the Naval War College. Having served nearly 25 years in the Navy at this point, Mahan found a new direction and new purpose in his life at the age of 45. Building on the vision that Luce had laid out for him, Mahan went on to a remarkable career as a naval historian and propagandist, writing more than 20 books, 160 journal articles and 100 newspaper articles. His work was translated into a variety of languages, including Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, French, Spanish, Italian, Swedish and Dutch. Throughout the world his work had immense influence in the development of navies and in laying the ground work for the development of naval theory and strategy. His works continue to be read and republished today. His first sea power book,
Access is open to all researchers, unless otherwise specified.
Material in this collection is in the public domain, unless otherwise noted.
Author, "Title," Page or Date. Alfred Thayer Mahan papers, MSC-017, Box number, Folder number. Naval Historical Collection, U.S. Naval War College, Newport, R.I.
This collection consists of letters Mahan sent primarily to his daughter, Helen E. Mahan, copies of Mahan family photographs, and research notes and materials compiled by Mahan from 1897-1914 on a variety of subjects including the Spanish American War and the War of 1812. Also of note are two sets of lectures written by Mahan that he delivered at the Naval War College as well as a journal and some writings he kept while serving on the U.S.S.
This collection is arranged in alphabetical order by folder title.
The grandson of Alfred Thayer Mahan, Alfred T. Mahan, II, donated these materials to the Naval War College Foundation in 1971. Since then, this collection has been on indefinite loan to the Naval Historical Collection by the NWCF.
These materials were retained by the Mahan family after Mahan's daughters donated the bulk of his papers to the Naval Historical Foundation Collection in the Library of Congress.
This collection was originally processed and described by Dr. John Hattendorf and Evelyn M. Cherpak in 1990. In the time following, portions of the collection were sent to the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) for preservation and conservation treatment. While at NEDCC the collection was microfilmed and parts were cleaned, repaired, and housed into acid free folders and additional archival boxes. Following this work, the 1990 register was not updated.
In 2019, Elizabeth Delmage reprocessed this collection to address the disparities between the 1990 register and the contents of the 8 boxes that comprised the collection. In most cases, the old box and folder numbers from the 1990 register can be found on the reserve side of the folders and in a note in the updated finding aid to assist researchers using superseded citations.
This finding aid supersedes the "Register of the Alfred Thayer Mahan Papers, Compiled by John B. Hattendorf, D. Phil. Ernest J. King Professor of Maritime History, Manuscript Register Series, No. 15," 1990.
A.T. Mahan papers, MSS31062, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Please search the NHC online catalog for additional materials relating to Alfred T. Mahan.