Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Online Library listing

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo #  NH 66247:  Captain Henry L. Howison, photographed circa the later 1880s or the early 1890s

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- PEOPLE -- UNITED STATES --

Rear Admiral Henry L. Howison, USN, (1837-1914)

Henry Lycurgus Howison was born in Washington, Indiana, on 10 October 1837. He was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy in September 1854 and graduated in June 1858. During the next three years he served in the steam frigate Wabash, gunboat Pocohontas and sloop Pawnee. From September 1861 to May 1864, Lieutenant Howison was Executive Officer of three South Atlantic Blockading Squadron ships: the cruiser Augusta and the monitors Nantucket and Catskill, all of which were engaged in wartime operations off Charleston, South Carolina. He then spent nearly a year in the Gulf of Mexico with the cruiser Bienville, acting as her Commanding Officer during some of this time.

Following promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Commander in March 1865, Howison was assigned to ordnance inspection duty at the Washington Navy Yard, D.C. until August 1866, when he returned to sea as Navigator (and later Executive Officer) of the steam sloop Pensacola, Flagship on the Pacific Station. During 1868-1872, he served again at the Washington Navy Yard and at the U.S. Naval Academy. In 1873-75, Commander Howison commanded the gunboat Shawmut. Further duty followed at the Naval Academy and in Washington, D.C., during the later 1870s and well into the 1880s, broken by a brief assignment as Commanding Officer of the gunnery training ship Minnesota in 1881-82.

Promoted to Captain in 1885, he continued his service in the Nation's Capital until taking command of USS Vandalia in February 1886. In June 1888, Captain Howison became President of the Steel Inspecting Board and two years later was transferred to the Lighthouse Board. He was Commandant of the Navy Yard at Mare Island, California, during 1893-96 and in July 1896 became the first Commanding Officer of the new battleship Oregon, which at that time was the Navy's most important west coast warship. Commodore Howison was Commandant of the Boston Navy Yard from May 1897 until March 1899 and was promoted to Rear Admiral in September 1898. Following several months as the commander of the South Atlantic Station, in October 1899 he reached the legally-mandated retirement age of 62 and left active duty. Rear Admiral Henry L. Howison died in Yonkers, New York, on 31 December 1914.

This page features all views we have related to Rear Admiral Henry L. Howison, USN.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the "Online Library's" digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 48916

Lieutenant Commander Henry L. Howison, USN


Photographed circa 1865-1872.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 69KB; 605 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 66247

Captain Henry L. Howison, USN


Photographed circa the later 1880s or the early 1890s.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 73KB; 470 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 78462

Rear Admiral Henry L. Howison, USN


Halftone reproduction of photograph taken circa the late 1890s.
Copied from "Records of Living Officers of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps", Seventh Edition, 1902.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 123KB; 610 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 61

USS Vandalia (1876-1889)


Ship's officers on the gun deck, just forward of the port side quarterdeck ladder, at the New York Navy Yard in the summer of 1886, while Vandalia was preparing for service on the Pacific Station. Her Commanding Officer, Captain Henry L. Howison, is standing at left.
Probably photographed by E.H. Hart, 1162 Broadway, New York City.
Note tropical uniforms, with white pith helmets.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 137KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 91970

USS Vandalia
(1876-1889)

Ship's officers posed on deck, while she was flagship of the Pacific Station, circa 1888. Photographed at Honolulu, Hawaii.
Those present are identified in Photo # NH 91970 (complete caption).

Collection of Lieutenant Edward Moale, Jr.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 115KB; 740 x 550 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 42290

USS Vandalia (1876-1889)


Ship's Commanding Officer, Captain Henry L. Howison, seated in his cabin, 1886.
Probably photographed by E.H. Hart, 1162 Broadway, New York City.
Note the fancy oil lamp, binoculars on the table, and silver service on the chest behind Capt. Howison.
The original print is a letterpress reproduction.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 119KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 42293

USS Vandalia (1876-1889)


Scene in the ship's after cabin in 1886, when Captain Henry L. Howison was Commanding Officer.
Probably photographed by E.H. Hart, 1162 Broadway, New York City.
Note the fancy oil lamp above the table, pictures and other items on the chest of drawers, and Japanese fan and extensive book shelving on the bulkheads. The large set of identically-bound volumes on the top shelf at left is "The American Encyclopædia".

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 108KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the "Online Library's" digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

Page made 6 April 2002