Highlighting the Past
Established in 1969 and located in Mahan Hall, the NHC's primary source material are of interest to naval historians, scholars, and students of American military and diplomatic history, Naval War College students, faculty and staff, and the general public.
Mahan Hall, home to NHC at the Naval War College, is temporarily closed from spring 2021 through 2023 to undergo a comprehensive renovation. To accommodate the extensive work involved, all archival collections have been relocated to an off-site storage facility and will remain off-site for the duration of the project which is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.
During this time, the NHC Archives is unavailable for research, digitization services are suspended, and there is no access to the building.
Although the physical collections are inaccessible during renovation, we encourage researchers to continue to use our online collections website to discover digital versions of documents and images from the collection.
Naval Historical Collection Archives Strategic Plan
The Naval Historical Collection Archives seeks to preserve the information and personal stories that address the critical issues of past and future naval warfare, joint planning at the strategic, operational, and tactical level, and the role of the U.S. Navy in the local, national, and global community.
Explore our Strategic Plan College Archives
Click to Open The Naval War College archives contain more than 3,000 linear feet of records documenting the administrative and curricular history of the institution since its founding in 1884. The archives is organized into record groups (RG) which contain the records of the departments and divisions of the Naval War College. Information in the archives includes administrative correspondence, curriculum items and publications, conference proceedings, library records, lectures, faculty and staff presentations, theses, World War II Battle Evaluation Group records, and a vast array of intelligence and technical source material pertaining to technological developments and strategic and tactical problems of interest to the Navy.
Manuscripts
Click to Open NHC’s manuscript holdings consist of more than 350 collections of personal papers from historical and contemporary figures. Significant naval warfare collections include papers of William McCarty Little, Henry E. Eccles, Joseph W. Prueher, Howard N. Kay, and Bree Fram, as well as former college presidents Stephen B. Luce, Alfred Thayer Mahan, William S. Sims, and Raymond A. Spruance. Additionally, NHC holds documentary evidence from the other local Navy installations including Newport Naval Training Station, the Newport Naval Base, the Quonset Naval Air Station, and the Naval Torpedo Station.
Published guides and finding aids to the collections are available.
View Finding Aids Oral Histories
Click to Open Oral histories (OH) documenting the life and career of flag rank naval officers, WAVES, Navy wives and civilians who made important contributions to the Navy are housed in the Naval Historical Collection. There are over 500 oral history interviews treating a variety of twentieth century naval warfare topics conducted by the staff of the Naval Historical Collection, the Naval Institute Oral History program, and the Columbia University Oral History Office.
Special Collections
Click to Open The Special Collections consist of historical newspapers, including the only extant run of the Newport Navalog (the Newport Naval Station's paper), pamphlets treating naval history topics, association books and Office of Naval Intelligence Monthly Information Bulletins.
Rare Books
Click to Open The Rare Books Collection includes more than 4,000 volumes dating from the sixteenth century to the present. The collection primarily focuses on maritime issues and the history of naval warfare, but significant works on myriad other topics, ranging from world history and politics to science, art, and literature, are also available for research. The Rare Books Collection can be located using the library's online catalog.