Selling is a 1936 magazine article about:

ANNAPOLIS

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Title: ANNAPOLIS, CRADLE OF THE NAVY

Author: Lieut. Arthur A Ageton U.S.N.

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Quoting the first page "To be a midshipman at the United States Naval Academy is the ambition of many an American youth. But it takes dogged persistence to become one.

I remember vividly my excitement as I stood looking through the grilled iron bars of the Main Gate at the enticing greenness of the clipped lawns and the tall trees of the Yard. For even though I had my midshipman appointment from my Congressman and had passed a searching mental examination, I was not sure that I could weather the storm of the "Physicals."

Behind me was colonial Annapolis and some 3,000 miles of travel from my home in Pullman, Washington. I had passed the previous day in the lovely Anne Arundel city, absorbing something of its fascinating atmosphere-narrow streets radiating spokelike from the tree-shaded circles where Washington, Jefferson, Lafayette, and other Revolutionary figures once roamed; Peggy Stewart House, where was conceived Annapolis' own "Tea Party"; the Maryland Statehouse, where Washington resigned his commission as Commander in Chief of the Revolutionary Armies and where the peace treaty with England was ratified; and St. John's College, one of the oldest in this country.

From every State and territory of the United States come the young men who aspire to commissions as naval officers. As I waited, a number of my future classmates joined me-lads from Massachusetts, Arkansas, Hawaii, and even one from the Philippine Islands.

After a thorough examination by Navy medical officers, we reported to the Executive Officer of Bancroft Hall.

"Fall in, gentlemen!" And we made a feeble attempt to form a line.

He directed us to raise our right hands and repeat after him the solemn oath of allegiance. "I, Arthur A. Ageton, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies ... "

It was a simple, impressive ceremony.

"Now I'll assign you to companies." "French or Spanish, mister?" he asked the new-born midshipmen in turn. As each made his choice of one of the two foreign languages then taught at the Academy, the officer assigned company numbers-even for Spanish, odd for French. When he came to me, I answered quite jauntily, "Spanish."

He glanced at me and said, "Well, my lad, I'm sorry, but we just filled the last Spanish company. You'll have to struggle along with French."

"And another thing," he continued sternly. "You might just as well begin to learn now. Stand up when an officer addresses you. And tack a 'sir' onto what you have to say. Savvy?"

"Yes, sir," I answered meekly, and I assumed what I considered to be a position of attention.

It was my first encounter with Naval Academy discipline. But as I stood in my Spartanlike room a few moments later, I felt elated that at last I was a midshipman and a small unit in our Navy.

Before 1845, midshipmen were educated solely by experience at sea and by such "book learning" as the individual chose to acquire, with the aid of ship "school masters." George Bancroft, Secretary of the Navy under President Polk, early recognized the desirability of establishing a naval school ashore, but opposition within and without the Service was strong.

Eventually Secretary Bancroft obtained transfer to the Navy Department of Fort Severn, an outmoded Army fort near Annapolis, and founded there the Naval School. Commander Franklin Buchanan, the first Superintendent, had about forty students and seven instructors in his charge.

From this slender beginning, the Naval Academy has gone splendidly forward, training officers for the Naval Service. The original Naval School has disappeared, but the present group of sixteen imposing buildings, begun in 1898, has risen on the foundations of the old. Now there are nearly 2,000 midshipmen at the Academy, and about 260 will receive commissions and shiny new shoulder marks this June.

I had hardly stowed the mass of gear issued to me at the midshipmen's store, and shifted to my new white uniform, when I prevailed upon my roommate to guide me around the Yard. From his vast experience of three weeks at the Academy he could explain everything!

We strolled across Farragut Field to the..."

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7” x 10”, 12 pages, 4 pages of text plus 13 color photos

These are pages carefully removed from an actual 1936 magazine. 

36F4

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