Z 0493.000 Leigh (Richard Henry) Collection

Memoirs and personal items of Richard Henry Leigh (1870–1946), of Batesville, Admiral of the U.S. Navy and Commander in Chief of the U.S. Fleet from 1932–1934. Admiral Leigh served as chief of staff to Admiral Sims during World War I, chief of staff of the U.S. Fleet, chief of the Bureau of Navigation of the Navy Department, Commander of Battle Force, U.S. Fleet, and Commander in Chief until his retirement for physical disability in 1934. He served as a delegate to the Disarmament Conference at Geneva in 1933 and at London in 1934.

The collection includes twelve of Leigh's appointments, from his rank of Naval Cadet at Annapolis on October 10, 1887, to his title of Commander in Chief of the U.S. Fleet on August 24, 1932. Ten of these appointments were by presidents of the United States, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. The following items are among those in the collection: diplomatic passports of Admiral and Mrs. Leigh to the Geneva Conference, September 11, 1933; the Doctor of Science Degree from the University of Southern California, June 3, 1933; two photographs of Leigh; certificates showing membership in the American Society of Naval Engineers, the International Adventurers, and honorary membership in the Vagabond Club; certificate of appreciation from the city of Long Beach, California; certificate of the Cross of Military Service from the United Daughters of the Confederacy; a Time magazine cover portrait of Admiral Leigh, February 13, 1933; fourteen invitations and place cards including several from the White House, the Prime Minister of England, and the American Embassy; twenty-seven miscellaneous photographs; one letter from his brother, Townes Randolph Leigh, dated November 23, 1939.