Creator: Anderson, Edwin Alexander, 1860-1933.
Collection number: 3387
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Abstract: U.S. Navy admiral from Wilmington, N.C., who retired in 1924. Personal correspondence, chiefly 1883-1903, and official naval papers, 1878-1939, of Anderson. Letters to his mother and to his wife, Mertie Lorain Anderson, discuss navy life and describe foreign ports in four continents. Official papers concern promotions, orders, recommendations, travel permits, and assignments, and include military writing and travelogues. Also included are Anderson’s social record and log as commander of the Asiatic Fleet, 1922-1923. There are few World War I items and no items dated 1903-1911.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: Letters pertaining to a visit to Liberia describe his meeting with slave-owning Africans and with former American slaves (1886) and discuss the native populace and religious customs of inhabitants of the Gabon River and Congo River Basin areas (1887). Note: Portions of Anderson’s papers are also available at Duke University.