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FOREWORD.

2733 N735C2

FTER serving with great distinction throughout the

AF

Civil War, Captain John Sanford Barnes, U. S. N., a graduate of Annapolis of the Class of '53, resigned the Service and took up the business career in which he was to prove himself so eminently successful.

In the spare moments of a very active life he began forming the collection of books, manuscripts, autograph letters, prints and other memorabilia that are recounted in this catalogue. At first he merely sought a recreation in gathering together the nucleus of this library, but in his later years the extending and enlarging of it became no longer a pastime but a life work. In November, 1911, death interrupted this labor of over forty years to which Captain Barnes had given such devoted care and forethought.

No more fitting memorial could be imagined than that this collection should be kept together in the possession of the Naval History Society, to form, again, the nucleus of a still larger and more important library and collection. Captain Barnes was the Society's first President and one of its founders; it was his great desire to see it realize its aims and ambitions and attain a permanent position.

In presenting to the Society the "Barnes Memorial Library," his eldest son, James Barnes,-acting in complete accord with the other surviving children and heirs of Captain Barnes-has felt that he was but carrying out the wish that lay nearest to his father's heart.

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