Known widely as "the City by the Sea," Newport has a long history of maritime activity. Since the Colonial period, it has been an important seaport for the mercantile trade and a harbor of inestimable value for naval vessels. In 1869, the navy opened the Naval Torpedo Station on Goat Island in Newport harbor. The Naval War College on Coasters Harbor Island and the Naval Training Station soon followed. The navy's Newport presence expanded through two world wars; in the 1940s, the U.S. Naval Operating Base included extensive facilities on both sides of Narragansett Bay. Today, Newport remains a site of naval training, research, and development. The prestigious Naval War College, the Naval Education and Training Center, and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center have kept the navy a leading Rhode Island and southeastern New England employer.

In the late 19th century, at the site of an old asylum for the poor on Coaster's Harbor Island off the city of Newport, Rhode Island, local residents made a decision that would change American military history forever: they proposed that the 90-acre Island become a U.S. Naval Training Center. Postcards and other artifacts document physical changes over time, activities of enlisted trainees, and images of stationed ships. A detailed history unfolds through historical documents, 19th century newspapers, and detailed images. The metamorphosis of Newport, Rhode Island into today's vibrant city is revealed. Development of the Newport Naval Training Station, still in use as Naval Station Newport and The Navy War College, waxed and waned with political forces and both world wars. Postcard images show all facets of life on the base: from the mundane, like washing clothes, to the serious, like drilling, sham battles, artillery training, signal training, and life aboard the battleship USS Constellation.

Correspondence and subject files pertaining to administration, organization, mission, functions and buildings of the Naval Training Station and Naval Station, 1885-1974; historical subject files of Coasters Harbor Island, Fort Adams, USS Constitution, USS Constellation, visits of Presidents Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Nixon, 150th Anniversary of landing of General Rochambeau, 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Rhode Island, hurricanes, fires, Public Works Department, Tercentenary of city of Newport, Naval Air Station, Naval Torpedo Station, Naval Operating Base, and Goat Island, 1885-1974; command histories, 1958-1974; war diaries, 1941-1943; publications including Our Naval Apprentice, Newport Recruit, and Newport Navalog; photographs and photograph albums of the Naval Base, Naval Station, recruit training and special events, 1890-1963; picture book, log book, leave books, and organization and regulation books, 1885-1974.