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 MASS 



PREFACE 



This biography is based chiefly upon the Maury Pa- 

 pers, comprising letters, diaries, scientific notebooks, and 

 other manuscripts, which were presented to the United 

 States Government in 1912 by Maury's only living child, 

 Mrs. Mary Maury Werth, and other descendants, 

 and then deposited in the Division of Manuscripts, 

 Library of Congress. Other valuable sources are the 

 letter books, numbering many volumes, in the Office of 

 the Superintendent of the United States Naval Observa- 

 tory in Washington, and the official papers relating to 

 Maury in the Navy Department Library. Miscel- 

 laneous Maury letters are to be found in the New York 

 Public Library, the Public Library of the City of Boston, 

 the United States Naval Academy Museum, the Peabody 

 Institute Library of Baltimore, the Virginia State Li- 

 brary, the Virginia Historical Society Library, and the 

 Yale University Library. Mrs. C. Alphonso Smith, 

 Raleigh, North Carolina, has one Maury letter and some 

 fifty others, written by contemporaries in reference to the 

 Maury Testimonial which was presented to him in Eng- 

 land after the Civil War. Of great importance, also, are 

 Maury's own voluminous writings, and the numerous 

 references to him in the periodicals and newspapers of 

 his time. 



For assistance in gathering material for this biography 

 I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to various mem- 

 bers of the Maury family. In the first place, I wish to 

 mention the "Life of Maury" by his daughter, Diana 

 Fontaine Maury Corbin, which was of considerable help 



