Hermann C. Raebel Jr. (1848-1869) was born in Leipzig, Germany. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy (1866). While on maneuvers off the coast of Brazil in 1866, received a commission as ensign. He painted watercolors and wrote letters home while serving on several U.S. Navy ships along the west coast of South America (1866-69). The collection contains 46 about 10 x 6 watercolors of scenes from the east coast of South America, along with color photocopies.

Hermann C. Raebel Jr. was born in 1848 in Leipzig, Germany; at age 9, he came to the U.S. with his family; graduated from high school in 1862 in Cleveland, Ohio at age 14, then entered the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1866; while on maneuvers off the coast of Brazil in 1866, received a commission as ensign; painted watercolors and wrote letters home while serving on several U.S. Navy ships along the west coast of South America, 1866-69; died on June 25, 1869 in the hospital ship Illinois in New York Harbor after contracting yellow fever in the Caribbean.Hermann C. Raebel Jr. was born in Leipzig, Germany, in 1848 (exact date unknown). His family emigrated to the United States in 1857, when he was 9 years old. In 1862, at the age of 14, Raebel graduated from high school in Cleveland, Ohio. That same year he entered the U.S. Naval Academy, and graduated from there in 1866. On November 1, 1866, aged 18, and whilst on maneuvers off the coast of Brazil, Raebel received a commission as Ensign in the U. S. Navy from President Andrew Johnson. Reputedly that made him the youngest officer in the Navy at the time. Raebel painted his watercolors and wrote the letters that are recorded in the collection by his father whilst serving on several U. S. Navy ships up and down the coast of South America between 1866 and 1869. In 1869 Raebel caught yellow fever in the Caribbean and on June 25 died in the hospital ship Illinois in New York harbor. He was 21 years old.

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