Although a majority of the files consist of between two to four pages, a few contain up to four linear inches of material. Materials continue to be added to these files.

Additional material consists of newspaper clippings, journal articles, change of command/retirement brochures, and biographies printed from the websites of the Navy Chief of Information and Arlington National Cemetery. Many of the files consist of individual officer biographies produced during the 1950s through the 1970s by the Navy Office of Information, Internal Relations Division the Navy Office of Information, Biographies Branch and the Division of Naval Records and History (OP 29). Also see Navy Personnel: A Research Guide. For biographical information from the late 18th through the early 20th centuries, see the Navy Department Library's ZB files and Officers of the Continental and U.S. Navy officers who served during the Second World War and the Cold War-era, though their contents range from the Interwar period (1919-1939) through the War on Terrorism. The files are particularly noted for biographical coverage of senior U.S. 1 April22 June 1945 Tennessee (BB-43) bombarding Okinawa with her 14/50 main battery guns, as LVTs in the foreground carry troops to the invasion beaches, 1 April 1945.

These files have been accumulated since the early 20th century by the Navy Department Library to provide historical information to US Navy personnel and other researchers, both official and unofficial. They are a combination of files collected by the Library and a ready reference collection of duplicate flag officer files formerly housed in the Archives Branch of the Naval History and Heritage Command. The Modern Biographical Files are located in the Navy Department Library's Rare Book Room.

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