Navy Department Library

Subsequently, the Navy received departmental status in 1798 and the collection of materials relating to naval affairs were transferred out of the Philadelphia library and into that of a tavern in Trenton, New Jersey.

It was once the national capital moved to Washington that the Department of the Navy officially found refuge in Georgetown.

[3] The library's rare book room, a climate-controlled vault being renovated in 2013–2014, contains books written before 1600, and many more recent items such as John Paul Jones' calling card collection from when he was with the Russian navy, and documents captured on German submarine U-505 when Daniel V. Gallery boarded it in 1944.

[5] Another item is Captain John Smith’s treatise on the duties of sailing men, called An Accidence or Path-way to Experience (1626), a precursor to The Bluejacket's Manual.

Naval Hydrographic Office, features a bald eagle, an anchor, Neptune and Nereid, a seashell, and the USS Constitution, all nautical and national symbols.