Rear Adm. Alfred Thayer Mahan, born 27 September 1840 at West Point, N.Y., graduated from the Naval Academy in 1859 and served with the South Atlantic and western Gulf Blockading Squadrons during the Civil War. Later appointed President of the Naval War College, he served two tours, 1886-89 and 1892-93. His widely admired study, “The Influence of Sea Power Upon History,” and his many other well reasoned and scholarly books and articles have made a major impact upon geopolitical thought and modern theories of world strategy and have established Mahan’s place among history’s great thinkers. Having retired in 1896, he was recalled during the Spanish-American War to serve on the Naval Strategy Board. Among his many activities during the years which followed were service as a delegate to the First Peace Conference at The Hague; as a member of the Board of Visitors, Naval Academy, 1903; with the Senate Commission on Merchant Marine, 1904; as a member of the Commission to Report on the Reorganization of the Navy Department; and as a lecturer at the Naval War College. He died at Washington, D.C. 1 December 1914
Portrait courtesy of the Naval War College Museum. Donated by the United States Naval Academy