The Naval History and Heritage Command traces its lineage to 1794, when the Navy Department Library was established under the Naval Bureau, which was part of the War Department in Philadelphia. In 1800, President John Adams asked Benjamin Stoddert, the first Secretary of the Navy, to prepare a catalog of professional books best suited for a naval library. Today, the NHHC is the central resource for today’s operational Navy and acts as the service's institutional memory. Today, the NHHC is the central resource for today’s operational Navy and acts as the service's institutional memory. 

Headquartered on the historic Washington Navy Yard, D.C., the Command includes ten Navy museums nationwide as well as a detachment that maintains the Navy’s oldest commissioned warship, USS Constitution, in Boston, Mass.

The NHHC manages the official history program of the United States Navy, fulfilling its mission to strengthen the Navy’s effectiveness by preserving, analyzing, and interpreting the service’s hard-earned experience. A professional staff of historians, archivists, librarians, museum specialists, and naval personnel carries out historical activities and supports the fleet.