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Collection William Speiden Journals

Related Resources

A bibliography of print and electronic resources related to the William Speiden, Jr., Journals, 1852-1855, and Commodore Matthew C. Perry’s U.S. Naval Expedition to the China Seas and Japan.

Primary Materials

For information on recommended Manuscript Division collections of primary documents and other Special Collections resources at the Library of Congress, please see The Naval Historical Foundation Collection and Related Primary Resources.

Documentary edition of the Speiden Journals

The journal entries of William Speiden, Jr., 1852-1855, have been published in a one-volume documentary edition:

John A. Wolter, David A. Ranzan, and John J. McDonough, editors. With Commodore Perry to Japan: The Journal of William Speiden, Jr., 1852-1855. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2013.

This edited book contains full transcription of the two Speiden journals which are housed in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress and presented digitally in this web site, along with historical annotation.  It also includes three appendices with transcriptions of documents that Speiden inserted in the journals or wrote in annex to his journal entries:

  • Appendix A contains transcriptions of the general orders for the U.S. steam frigate Mississippi, 1852-1853, which Speiden included in his first journal as inserts.
  • Appendix B presents related selected documentation, including the letter written by Millard Fillmore as President of the United States to the Emperor of Japan explaining Commodore Perry’s mission, the benefits of free trade between the countries and other matters desired of negotiation; the compact between the United States and the Kingdom of Lew Chew (Ryukyu Kingdom/Okinawa) signed at Naha, Great Lew Chew, 11 July 1854, and other items.
  • Appendix C  provides a transcript of Speiden’s handwritten ship’s roster of officers who were attached to the USS Mississippi, including their rank and information regarding detachment.

Books

  • Auslin, Michael R. Negotiating with Imperialism: The Unequal Treaties and the Culture of Japanese Diplomacy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.
  • Bennett, Frank M. The Steam Navy of the United States: A History of the Growth of the Steam Vessel of War in the U.S. Navy, and of the Naval Engineer Corps. Pittsburg: W. T. Nicholson, 1896. Electronic copy available from HathiTrust http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001622859 External
  • Clunas, Craig. Chinese Export Watercolours. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1984.
  • Endacott, G. B. A Biographical Sketch-Book of Early Hong Kong. Singapore: D. Moore, Eastern Universities Press, 1962.
  • Heine, Wilhelm. Reise um die Erde nach Japan/With Perry to Japan: A Memoir. Translated by Frederic Trautmann. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990.
  • Hibata, Ōsuke, Beikoku shisetsu Peruri Teitoku raichō zue. (A picture scroll of Commodore Perry's arrival in Yokohama in 1854). Tōkyō : Yoshida Ichirō, Shōwa 6 [1931]. Special Collections, Library of Congress Asian Division.
  • Houchins, Chang-su. Artifacts of Diplomacy: Smithsonian Collections from Commodore Matthew Perry’s Japan Expedition (1853-1854). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995.
  • Johnston, James D. China and Japan: Being a Narrative of the Cruise of the U.S. Steam Frigate Powhatan in the Years 1857, ’58, ’59, and ’60 including an Account of the Japanese Embassy to the United States. Philadelphia: Charles DeSilver, 1860.
  • Keene, Donald. Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
  • Lewis, John Redman Coxe. Bluejackets with Perry in Japan: A Day-by-Day Account Kept by Master’s Mate John R. C. Lewis and Cabin Boy William B. Allen. Edited by Henry F. Graff. New York: New York Public Library, 1952.
  • McCauley, Edward Yorke. With Perry in Japan: The Diary of Edward Yorke McCauley. Edited by Allan B. Cole. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1942.
  • Morrow, James. A Scientist with Perry in Japan: The Journal of Dr. James Morrow. Edited by Allan B. Cole. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1947.
  • Nimura, Janice P. Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey from East to West and Back. New York: W.W. Norton, 2015.
  • Nish, Ian and Yoichi Kibata, editors, The History of Anglo-Japanese Relations, Vol. 1, The Political-Diplomatic Dimension, 1600-1930. Baskingstoke, England: MacMillan, 2000.
  • Perry, Matthew Calbraith and Francis L. Hawks. Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan: Performed in the Years 1852, 1853, and 1854, Under the Command of Commodore M.C. Perry, United States Navy, by Order of the Government of the United States. Washington: A.O.P. Nicolson, 1856. Electronic copy from HathiTrust http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007702205 External The Library of Congress holds a physical copy of this edition in its Rare Book and Special Collections Division.
  • Perry, Matthew Calbraith. Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, Performed in the Years 1852, 1853, and 1854,Under the Command of Commodore M.C. Perry, United States Navy, by Order of the Government of the United States. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 2000. A modern edition of the original published Washington, D.C.: B. Tucker, 1856.
  • Perry, Matthew Calbraith. The Japan Expedition, 1852-54: The Personal Journal of Commodore Matthew C. Perry. Edited by Roger Pineau. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1968.
  • Schroeder, John H. Shaping a Maritime Empire: The Commercial and Diplomatic Role of the American Navy, 1829-1861. Westport, CT and London: Greenwood Press, 1985.
  • Sewall, John S. The Logbook of the Captain‘s Clerk: Adventures in the China Seas. Bangor, Me.: Charles H. Glass, 1905. Electronic copy from HathiTrust http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002709687
  • Spalding, J. Willett. The Japan Expedition: Japan and Around the World; and Account of Three Visits to the Japanese Empire, with Sketches of Madeira, St. Helena, Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, Ceylon, Singapore, China, and Loo-Choo. (The Japan expedition under Sydney Smith Lee).  New York: Redfield, 1855. Electronic copy from HathiTrust http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002600013 External
  • Statler, Oliver. The Black Ship Scroll: An Account of the Perry Expedition at Shimoda in 1854 and the Lively Beginnings of People-to-People Relations Between Japan & America. Tokyo: John Weatherhill, Inc., 1963
  • U.S. Navy Department. Message of the President of the United States . . . . Correspondence & etc. Relative to the Naval Expedition to Japan. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Senate, 33d Congress, 2d Session, Senate Executive Document 34, 1855.
  • Walworth, Arthur C. Black Ships Off Japan: The Story of Commodore Perry’s Expedition. Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1966.

Articles

  • Boone, Terry. “Preserving Pith Paintings.” Library of Congress Bulletin 62, no. 5 (May 2003), online at http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0305/conserve.html
  • “Diary of an Official of the Bakufu.” Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan 2d series, 7 (1930): 98-119.
  • Finnegan, Toby. “Encounter at Vung Lam: New Hampshire Businessman Edmund Roberts and America’s First Diplomatic Negotiation with an Asian Country” Historical New Hampshire 70, no. 1 (Spring 2017): 2-35.
  • Macleod, Julia H. “Three Letters Relating to the Perry Expedition to Japan.” The Huntington Library Quarterly 6 no. 2 (February 1943): 228-237.
  • Sakamaki, Shunzo. “Japan and the United States, 1790-1853.” Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan 2d series, 18 (1939: 1-204.
  • Sakamaki, Shunzo. “Western Concepts of Japan and the Japanese, 1800-1854.” The Pacific Historical Review 6 no. 1 (March 1937): 1-14.
  • Sewall, John S. “With Perry in Japan: Personal Recollections of the Expedition of 1853-54.” Century Magazine 70, no. 3 (July 1905): 349-360.
  • Shaw, Renata V. “Japanese Picture Scrolls of the First Americans in Japan.” Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress 25 (April 1968): 134-153.
  • Speiden, William, Jr. “How the United States Opened Japan to the World.” Japan and America 2 (December 1902): 15, 22-29.
  • Williams, Samuel Wells. “A Journal of the Perry Expedition to Japan (1853-1854).” Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan 37 (1910): 1-261.

Web-based and Electronic Resources