This collection of photographs spans barely a decade between the years of 1939 and 1947. They depict aspects of training, award ceremonies, sports events, and other sights and scenes the Cadet Corps wished to preserve. As official photographs, they found their way into Polaris and publications related to the Cadet Corps during the Second World War. They offer a rare glimpse into the earliest years of Kings Point and the now-shuttered Basic Schools.
Many of the photographs are captioned; most are not. All captions will be transcribed in time.
1939-1941
These photographs are pre-Kings Point, when the Atlantic Coast Cadet Corps sojourned at Fort Schuyler, the home of the New York Merchant Marine Academy. The first photograph is particularly exciting since it shows the earliest award of the Scholastic and Company Award Ribbon.
1941-1944 numbered photographs
When I acquired the photographs, they were jumbled together with no regard to year, genre, or serial number. In sorting through the photographs, I found many had numbered captions and with the same penciled number on their backs. I separated these photographs from the bulk of the others, and offer them here.
1942
1942 was a year of flux for the Cadet Corps; it was forced to shed its peacetime raiment and become a military body. The photographs hint at the massive training organization underway and the student body ordering itself along hierarchic lines.
In December of this year, photographs began to be stamped “Official Photograph Credit To United States Merchant Marine Cadet Corps” – previously, the backs were either blank or stamped by commercial photographers.
1943
Both the Regimental system and training regimens were established at Kings Point and the Basic Schools; photographs from this period detail not only contemporary training activities, but also shows the Cadet Corps remembering cadet-midshipmen who were lost in combat.
1944
By 1944, the Academy and the Regiment were completely enveloped by the Second World War. Images from this year detail a preponderance of Kings Pointers who graduated and were serving in the U.S. Merchant fleet.
1945
By 1945, the old U.S. Maritime Commission Cadet Corps was no more and it called itself the U.S. Merchant Marine Cadet Corps; the change was a precursor to Kings Point becoming a tertiary institution dedicated to educating officers for a peace-time fleet; these photographs show the Academy investing itself in Alumni relations and intramural sports.
1946 & 1947
Sports and training activities make up the bulk of images for the years 1946 through 1947 – illustrating two core components of the three which made up the training strategy of the young United States Merchant Marine Academy: academics, sports, and the regiment.
No date
A number of photographs in the collection without captions or date stamps. After analysis they will be moved to other galleries; however, until then, they will remain here.
Col.: IW