This collection contains the life history of Lt. Commander Harold Stacey Burdick, who served in the Border War (1910s) and the Tampico Affair (1914), and World War I. It contains letters that he sent to his mother and father and a log journal detailing his accounts while on the USS Jouett. There are also news clippings and pictures of/about Harold Burdick as well as Annapolis and Naval ships like the USS Rhode Island. The collection also contains correspondence between his father, Daniel P. Burdick, and various associations and societies like Brown University, Columbia University and the U.S. Navy.
Lt. Commander Harold Stacey Burdick, also referred to as "Harold SB," "Jocko," "Stays'l," and "Mose," was born in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, on April 14, 1887, to Daniel P. and Annie E. Burdick. He also had two sisters, Annie P. and Ethel Burdick. He attended Hope High School and graduated in 1904. During his time there, he was known for being a track athlete. After graduation, he attended Brown University and became a member of Beta Theta Pi Fraternity. He also took a competitive examination in the hope of being appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He was appointed to the Academy in 1905 and graduated in 1909.
After graduation he was ordered to be a midshipman on the battleship USSRhode Island. Between 1909 and 1915, he served on the following ships the USSOlympia, the USSNew Jersey, the USSEagle, the USSJouett, the USS Monaghan, and the USSMacdonough. On the Eagle, he was assigned to do survey work off the coast of Cuba and Haiti, and while on the Jouett and Monagham, he served as the engineer officer. During most of his service, Harold served in the Border War and the occupation of Tampico. He also served in WWI.
Then in September of 1915, Harold Burdick was sent back to the Academy to take courses on steam engineering. He continued his course work at Columbia University in September of 1916. While attending, he met Golda M. Monroe and married her on March 17, 1917, in Annapolis, Maryland. In June of 1917, Harold graduated from Columbia University.
After graduation, he and his graduating class were called to active duty. He was placed in Philadelphia on the Beale. Then on September 4, 1917, he was ordered to preside at the naval station in New Orleans as the head of the engineering department of the 8th Naval District. On January 19, 1919, after contracting influenza, Harold Stacey Burdick died of pneumonia. He is buried at the U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis. After his death, he was given the Victory Medal and memorialized at the Memorial Gate on Brown University's campus and at the Army and Navy Club of America in New York City. He was also a member of the Mount Vernon Lodge No. 4.
Sources:
The Class of 1909 United States Naval Academy. The Lucky Bag: The Annual of the Brigade of Midshipmen. Accessed May 21, 2019. https://archive.org/details/luckybag1909unse/page/n9
Brown University. Brown University in the War: a Report of the War Records Committee. Accessed May 21, 2019. https://books.google.com/books?id=wiYVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=Lt.+Commander+Harold+Stacey+Burdick&source=bl&ots=BSfNXKc0wp&sig=ACfU3U1eSN24DFu5R-_NX4ZD32VellRRrg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiHhsLC-qziAhVFj1kKHZv3Cw4Q6AEwDHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=Lt.%20Commander%20Harold%20Stacey%20Burdick&f=false
The USNA Virtual Memorial Hall. "Harold S. Burdick, LCDR, USN." Accessed May 21, 2019. https://usnamemorialhall.org/index.php/HAROLD_S._BURDICK,_LCDR,_USN
This collection contains a couple of letters from Harold Stacey Burdick and his father Daniel P. Burdick as well as news articles, a log journal, invitation cards, booklets and a photo album that contains pictures and letters between Daniel Burdick and various associations and societies. This collection is organized into two boxes by date and material.
The letters from Harold Burdick to his father contain thoughts about the news on the Border War and the occupation of Tampico. With the collection of letters, there are news articles titled The Mexican News and Tampico Tamale Vol. 1, no. 1 -17. These news articles discuss the progress of the occupation of Tampico and the Border War, and list the dead and wounded. These reports date between April 27, 1914 and May 20, 1914. There is also one piece of naval humor news dated May 13, 1914. This piece of news gives directions on how to recover a lost torpedo.
In addition to the letters and news articles, there are pictures, a booklet and cards related to the Navy and Harold S. Burdick. The booklet is titled Annapolis… and the Naval Academy, written by The Albertype Company from Brooklyn, NY in 1909 and published by Geo. W. Jones from Annapolis, MD. This booklet contains pictures of Annapolis and the Naval Academy with captions underneath each photo. Two of the pictures in the collection are portraits of Harold S. Burdick in his naval uniform taken in 1905. The other two pictures are from an article. The first picture is titled "The Royal Visitor Taking the Salute at his Review with Secretary Daniels, of the Midshipmen at Annapolis." The royal visitor was Edward VIII, the Prince of Wales, and is dated November 1919. The second picture can be found on the back of the previous picture and is titled "The Sultan of Turkey takes Part in a Demonstration in Constantinople against the Partition of the Ottoman Empire by the Allies." The Sultan of Turkey at the time was Mehmed VI. The cards in the collection are Christmas cards. One of the Christmas cards dates to 1917 from the U.S. Receiving ship in New Orleans, Louisiana. Inside the card is a menu. The other Christmas card is a greeting from the Class of 1909 United States Naval Academy.
Along with the pictures, letters, and news articles, there is a log journal that was Harold's which he wrote in while on the Jouett. Harold describes his account of the Border War and the occupation of Tampico and the comings and goings of ships and refugees. The log starts in Pensacola, Florida, on April 20, 1914, and ends on June 12, 1914, in Norfolk, Virginia. The only other areas visited beside Pensacola and Norfolk are Tampico, Vera Cruz, and Lobos Island.
The photo album in the collection has various types of documents from pictures to letters. The pictures that can be identified or have captions are of Harold S. Burdick. These pictures date between 1892 and 1918. The other pictures that have captions are of U.S. naval boats, a naval station, and the U.S. Naval Academy. The U.S. Naval boats that are photographed are the USS Rhode Island (1910), the USS Holland, and the USS Chesapeake. The Naval station depicted is the Naval Station in New Orleans dated 1918. The Naval Academy photograph is dated 1922 and the Academy graduating class is from 1920. There are other pictures with no identifying markers of Navy men, Brown University's Memorial Gate, Harold S. Burdick's grave, Hope High School's track team, Beta Theta Pi, and family. The letters attached in the photo album are correspondence between Daniel P. Burdick and various associations and societies about the death of his son and the memorialization of him and the other men who died in WWI. The associations and societies that he corresponded with are Columbia Alumni Louvain Committee, Brown University, Columbia University, the International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, George Washington Memorial Association, the Navy and the Army and Navy Club of America.
In addition to the pictures and letters, there are also cards, pamphlets, news clippings, and architectural drawings in the album. The cards are of USS Rhode Island, La Porte Foy, and a Christmas greeting card from the Class of 1909 United States Naval Academy. The pamphlets collected in the photo album are from services attended by the family. The services attended were Brown University's memorial service and the Farewell Ball held at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. The news clippings detail Brown University's World War I memorial service, Harold's achievement in being chosen from among eleven candidates from the First Congressional District of Rhode Island for appointment to the Naval Academy in 1905, and his graduation in 1909. The first architectural drawing is drawn to scale by Harold S. Burdick of Room 429 in Bancroft Hall on the Naval Academy campus in December of 1905. The other drawing is of the 2nd floor of a building on 56 West Avenue and was drawn by Burdick in September 1905.
Purchased from Carmen D. Valentino, Rare Books & Manuscripts, Philadelphia, PA
Encoded by Jonathan Dembo, April 28, 2010
Processing completed June 3, 2019, by Corinne Taylor
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.