RIAMCO

Rhode Island Archival and Manuscript Collections Online

For Participating Institutions

Anne Sims Hopkins collection of Sims family papers (MSC-352)

Naval Historical Collection, U.S. Naval War College

686 Cushing Road
Newport, RI 02841-1207
Tel: 401-841-2435
email: nhc@usnwc.edu
Website: https://usnwcarchives.org/

Scope & content

This collection consists of letters, photographs, invitations, a wedding gift registry, and other papers relating to the Sims family, particularly Admiral William S. Sims and his wife, Anne Hitchcock Sims. The papers detail the Sims family’s personal life and relationship as well as Admiral Sims’s career in the Navy.

Correspondence includes letters sent and received by Anne H. Sims, with the majority written to her husband and members of her family. Mrs. Sims wrote to her husband almost daily, keeping him abreast of the family matters, health, social life, financial matters, and diaries of their children’s activities while he was stationed on duty. She also wrote to her husband about current events and her thoughts on naval affairs, Sim’s naval career and legacy. Some of these letters found within this collection are handwritten copies or typewritten transcriptions, such as the letters written by Theodore Roosevelt in 1905 to Sims passing on his well wishes on their engagement.

Photographs consist of loose photographs of members of the Sims and Sowden families, with the majority being of Admiral Sims throughout his career. A photograph album titled, “Album of Snapshots,” and inscribed “To Willie from Anne and Elting – December 1954” was a gift from Sim’s daughter and son-in-law, Anne and Elting Morison to their brother William (son of Admiral Sims) documenting the schools, homes, and beaches they enjoyed while living in Newport, Rhode Island during their father’s tenure as President of the Naval War College.

Also found within this collection is a poem written by Admiral Sims and recited a dinner in 1922, his passport, commission as ensign signed by Chester Arthur, invitations to Buckingham and Windsor Castles, and calling cards. The couple’s wedding register book is also included and lists the gifts, letters, and flowers the couple received for their wedding, including a gift from Roosevelt.