This series consists primarily of black and white images with a small quantity of color prints of United States Coast Guard Cutters. To enforce the Tariff Act of 1789, Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, wrote that boats were needed for the enforcement of the Act. These boats would help collect the revenue imposed on the tonnage of vessels and goods imported into the United States. In 1790, when Congress authorized the money for the ten boats that Hamilton requested, the vessels were called "Revenue Cutters".
The records in this series were maintained by the Historian's Office and document the vessels used by the United States Coast Guard. Since its in inception in 1790, the role of the Revenue-Cutter Service, now United States Coast Guard, has expanded to include relief, military readiness, port security, and weather patrol. Photography of the cutters depict construction of vessels; christenings; launching ceremonies; ice breaking; gathering of meteorological information; search and rescue missions; ships at sea; and many views of the vessels' kitchens, bathrooms, engineer rooms, and other interiors of the cutters.
A few of the photographs are actually black and white photographs of paintings of historic cutters. One historic cutter shown through photography is the U.S. Revenue Cutter Mssachusetts. The Massachusetts was the first U. S. Revenue Cutter, active between 1791 and 1798. The original is an oil painting by Hunter Wood who was a Chief Boatswain and combat artist in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II. Also, there are two photographs of paintings of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear. One depicts the cutter "caught in ice in arctic waters". The other, showing the Bear in Alaska, is a photograph of an oil painting by John D. Wisinski, USCG (Retired).
The U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear, is also shown "in jammed ice off the northern coast of Alaska" in a modern photograph of an image originally made in 1890. The caption reports "she was the first vessel the Service used as an icebreaker." There is another modern view of the Bear's officers during a relief expedition for stranded whalers at Point Barrow, Alaska, 1897-98.
President Harry S. Truman is shown coming aboard the U.S.C.G.C. Courier. At that time, the Courier was a "State Department-sponsored 'Voice of America' floating transmitter for the ceremony of welcome held March 4, 1952, at Washington, DC."
The Courier become "the first American ship to visit Kastellorizo, Greece in the Island's history." Kastellorizo, in the Greek Dodecanese Islands, is in the south Aegean Sea, southwest of Turkey. The vessel carried CARE food and school supplies. Also, "His Excellency, the Governor of the Dodecanese Island, Mr. Anreas Ioannu and His Holiness, Rhodes Spiridon, Archbishop of the Dodecanese", are shown aboard the Courier
The Courier was a powerful floating radio relay station which transmitted Voice of America programs. Shown among the photographs is a rubberized, fabric balloon which is used to raise the transmitting antenna. The Courier was stationed in Kastellorizo from September 1952, until June 1964.
Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, USN (Retired) was photographed at Castles Island, Boston Massachusetts during ceremonies before the departure of the U.S.C.G.C. Eastwind for the Antarctic in November 1955. The Eastwind was traveling to the Antarctic for "Operation Deep Freeze I, 1955-56."
The Eastwind was also photographed as a part of the U. S. Naval Support Forces for Antarctic Deep Freeze Operation-1961, for scientific projects. "Her tasks included breaking ice for Navy cargo ships supplying scientific stations and bases at McMurdo, Cape Adare, Cape Hallett, and Little America; carrying cargo and personnel; towing ships; and acting as guard in mid ocean for planes flying in supplies and equipment from New Zealand to McMurdo."
"Operation Deep Freeze, 1963" allowed the Eastwind to make its fifth annual trip to the Antarctic with the U.S. Naval Support Forces for U.S. scientific stations and bases. Only five prints depict the 1963 operation.
Photographs relating to the Eastwind's involvement in meteorologic observations show the preparations for launching a weather balloon and two crew members holding hand anometers. A hand anometer is a device for measuring the velocity of surface winds.
On the U.S.C.G.C. Chautauqua, a crew member is seen with a RAWIN balloon, while another crew member checks a psychrometer to determine relative humidity. RAWIN observations are a means of taking measurements of the strength and direction of winds aloft. These observations are made by tracking a free balloon with a radar reflector target attached by means of the ship's air-search radar.
Another photograph documents the launching of a weather balloon-borne radiosonde transmitter by crew members from the U.S.C.G.C. Owasco. "The radiosone, a small box containing a radiometeograph, transmits data on upper atmospheric pressures, humidities, temperatures, and wind velocities to the ship's radiosonde receiver. These observations are used in weather forecasts from land stations, and in providing accurate weather data from the ocean station vessel to ships and aircraft crossing the ocean" [circa 1961].
Weather balloons relating to U.S.C.G.C. Northwind's activities during Operation Deep Freeze II, Antarctic, 1956-57, also are depicted. In addition, there are photographs representing the Northwind's "Alaskan Patrol" whereby transportation of U. S. Public Health Service personnel is provided to assist the natives in Alaska during 1966. This health mission phase of the "Alaskan" Patrol" was formerly known as the "Bering Sea Patrol". The Coast Guard started transporting doctors to Alaskan villages before the turn of the century.
President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon Johnson are shown aboard the U.S.C.G.C. Eagle on August 15, 1962.
A photograph of Congressman Burt Lacklen Talcott is in this series. However, it is not captioned or dated. Congressman Talcott was a republican member of the 88th through the 94th United States Congresses. From Salinas, California, he served in the House of Representatives January 3, 1963, until January 3, 1977.
There is very little caption information or inadequate captions on most photographs, and a small percentage of them have dates.
