Robert B. Drinan Correspondence
Author: Robert B. Drinan
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DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Drinan collection consists mostly of letters written by and to Robert B. Drinan during his years as an apprentice in the U. S. Navy. There are 70 letters and cards written by Drinan to his parents and siblings in Rhode Island; these range in date from 7 March 1897 to 13 May 1901, and include letters posted during his 1897 training cruise to Europe (4 items); his service aboard Columbia during the Spanish-American War (22 items, written from ports on the east coast of the U. S. and from Puerto Rico); and his service in the Pacific in 1899-1900 (11 items, written from Guam, Yokohama, and the Philippines). There are also many additional letters posted from naval stations in the U. S. While much of the content is family related, there are also accounts of Drinan's stations and ports of call, of life aboard ship and other naval news, and of Drinan's own progression in the apprentice program. The collection also includes 79 letters written to Robert Drinan; the majority of these are from his mother and other family members, but a significant number were written by friends and former shipmates (including one from China during the Boxer Uprising). The collection also contains a small amount of printed ephemera from Drinan's years in the Navy, including station billets, programs of shipboard musical entertainments, and business and tobacco cards. Also surviving are Drinan's binoculars, and his wooden naval ditty box.