Richard Dale

A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress

Prepared by Karen Linn Femia

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

1998

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2007

Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms007038

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

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Subjects:

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Administrative Information

Provenance:

Copyright Status:

Microfilm:

Preferred Citation:

Scope and Content Note

Arrangement of the Papers

Container List

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

Administrative Information

The papers of Richard Dale, British and American naval officer, were deposited in the Library of Congress in 1976 by the Naval History Division. The 1801 letter written by Dale to Eaton was purchased by the Library in 1917.

The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Richard Dale is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).

A microfilm on one reel was made of the 1787-1789 ship's journal. Consult a reference librarian in the Manuscript Division concerning availablity for purchase or interlibrary loan.

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Richard Dale Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Scope and Content Note

The papers of Richard Dale (1756-1826) span the years 1778 to 1918 with the bulk of the material dating from the 1770s to the 1820s. The papers consist of correspondence, commissions, a mathematics notebook kept while Dale was in Mill Prison, Plymouth, England, a journal/log of a voyage aboard a merchant ship to Canton, China, and New Guinea, 1787-1789 (available on microfilm), and a license and an appointment paper of two of Dale's descendants.

Dale was born in 1756 near Norfolk, Virginia. He served with the British Navy, 1776-1777, but joined the colonial cause in 1777. He served as John Paul Jones's first lieutenant on the BonHomme Richard in the battle with HMS Serapis. In 1801, Dale was sent to the Mediterranean to blockade Tripoli with a five-ship fleet at the outbreak of the Tripolitan War. He died in Philadelphia in 1826. One of the letterbooks contains copies of Dale's outgoing letters while in command of the United States frigate President in Tripoli, 1801-1802. Some of his correspondence during the Tripolitan War are in the other letterbook (letters numbered 19, 24, 25, 33, 40, 42). This letterbook includes letters written to Dale, many letters to Rear Admiral George Campbell Read (1787-1862), Dale's son-in-law, and letters to several others. The letters were placed in alphabetical order by name of correspondent, placed in a bound volume with a number assigned to each letter. The letters are from various naval officers and secretaries of the navy, including William Bainbridge, John Paul Jones, and Secretaries of the Navy John P. Kennedy, Robert Smith, and Benjamin Stoddert. Commissions and appointment papers are signed by John Adams, Millard Fillmore, John Hancock, George Washington, and Daniel Webster.

Arrangement of the Papers

This collection is arranged alphabetically by type of material.

Container List