User:Herbiederby/Navy Department Library

Publishing #1
Original:

On March 31, 1800, President John Adams wrote to Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert directing him to establish a library of "the best writing...on the theory and practice of naval architecture, navigation, gunnery, hydraulics, hydrostatics, and all branches of mathematics subservient to the profession of the sea."

Changes:

Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert received a letter from President John Adams dated On March 31, 1800 directing him to establish a library for the United States Department of the Navy. It was asked that the literature acquired and stored included works detailing the theory and practice of naval architecture, navigation, and naval combat. Additionally, the parameters for the written works origin was not to be limited to English but inclusive of any nation's success.

Despite the letter dating back to 1800, the library's origin can be dated back to the War Department in Philadelphia in 1794. Subsequently, the Navy received departmental status in 1798 and the collection of materials relating to naval affairs were transferred out of the Philadelphia library and into that of a tavern in Trenton, New Jersey. It was once the national capital moved to Washington that the Department of the Navy officially found refuge in Georgetown.