The Blue Bonnet was the shipboard newsletter for the USS Houston (CA-30) crew. This series includes Blue Bonnets from the ship for the years 1933 through 1941, although not all issues are available. The Blue Bonnets from the 1930s are very fragile, and most of them have been photocopied. Patrons in our reading room will be given photocopies of some issues to read rather than originals.

In the late 1940s, Otto Schwarz of the USS Houston Survivors Association revived The Blue Bonnet as that organization’s newsletter. Newsletters from the survivor’s organization include issues from 1960 through the present.

Between 1991 and 1997, a separate newsletter was put out by the Next Generation (a related association for the children and other family members of survivors). That newsletter was discontinued, and as of 1998, The Blue Bonnet has served as the organ for both the Survivors Association and the Next Generation. Recent copies of the Blue Bonnet can be found on the web site http://www.usshouston.org.