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

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

Smith Thompson (1768-1843) --
6th Secretary of the Navy, 1 January 1819 - 31 August 1823

Smith Thompson was born in Dutchess County, New York, on 17 January 1768. He undertook a legal apprenticeship that ended in 1793, when he became partner to Gilbert Livingston, whose daughter, Sarah, he married in 1794. He served a term in the New York State Assembly in 1800-01 and became a Justice of the State Supreme Court in 1802. He was the New York Supreme Court's Chief Justice from 1814 to 1818.

President James Monroe nominated Smith Thompson to be Secretary of the Navy in November 1818, and he took office at the beginning of the new year. While he was Secretary, construction continued on new ships of the line, frigates and smaller warships. Measures were undertaken to supress piracy in the West Indies, and the Navy's regular cruising areas were extended to include the coasts of Africa and South America, with occasional commerce protection missions to the East Indies.

Smith Thompson became an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1823 and remained on the Court for the rest of his life. He died at Poughkeepsie, New York, on 18 December 1843.

USS Smith Thompson (DD-212), 1919-1936, was named in honor of Secretary of the Navy Smith Thompson.

This page features our only images of Smith Thompson.

For pictorial coverage of Smith Thompson's first wife, see: Sarah Livingston Thompson.


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 54618-KN (Color)

Smith Thompson,
Secretary of the Navy, 1 January 1819 - 31 August 1823

Portrait by an unidentified artist.

Courtesy of the Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 77KB; 570 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 54619

Smith Thompson
(1768-1843)

Portrait by an unidentified artist, showing Thompson as a younger man.
He served as Secretary of the Navy in 1819-1823.

Photograph presented by R.L. Nicholson

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 109KB; 655 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 54620

Smith Thompson
(1768-1843)

Portrait by an unidentified artist.
He served as Secretary of the Navy in 1819-1823.

Photograph presented by R.L. Nicholson

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 168KB; 650 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 66596

Smith Thompson
(1768-1843)

Engraved portrait after a sketch by Albert Rosenthal, Philadelphia, 1889, reproduced with a facsimile of Thompson's signature.
Smith Thompson served as Secretary of the Navy in 1819-1823 and as a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1823 until his death.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 115KB; 550 x 765 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.

25 March 2000