Where to go — in person and online — to study Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. Places to visit come first, then the institutional archives that hold the documents everything else is built on, then a reading list and a list of namesakes.
Hours, admission prices, and reading-room policies change. Confirm details with the institution before you travel.
Places to Visit
National Museum of the Pacific War — Fredericksburg, Texas
If you visit one place connected to Nimitz, make it this one. The museum sits on a six-acre campus in his hometown, grew out of his grandfather’s old Nimitz Hotel, and holds the most comprehensive account of the Asiatic-Pacific theater anywhere in the country. It is a Smithsonian Affiliate, accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, and operated by the Admiral Nimitz Foundation in partnership with the Texas Historical Commission.
- Address
- 311 E. Austin St., Fredericksburg, TX 78624
- Hours
- Wednesday–Monday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Closed Tuesdays. The Pacific Combat Zone closes at 3 p.m.
- Admission
- Adults $26 · Seniors 65+ $20 · Military $18 · Students $12 · Children 9 and under free · WWII veterans and spouse free
- Online
- pacificwarmuseum.org · Plan Your Visit · Tickets
Details verified August 2026. Confirm with the museum before you travel.
Read our full guide: Visiting Fredericksburg and the National Museum of the Pacific War →
Other sites connected to Nimitz’s career
- Pearl Harbor National Memorial — Honolulu, Hawaii (National Park Service). The USS Arizona, Oklahoma, and Utah memorials and the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center. Nimitz took command of the Pacific Fleet here on December 31, 1941, aboard the submarine Grayling, because no surviving battleship was fit for the ceremony.
- Battleship Missouri Memorial — Pearl Harbor. Nimitz signed the Japanese instrument of surrender for the United States on Missouri’s deck on September 2, 1945. The spot is marked.
- Golden Gate National Cemetery — San Bruno, California. Nimitz is buried here, in a plot he arranged alongside Raymond Spruance, Richmond Kelly Turner, and Charles Lockwood — four admirals who asked to be buried together.
- Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy — Annapolis, Maryland. Named for him; home to his papers (see Archives below).
- War in the Pacific National Historical Park — Guam. Nimitz moved his advance headquarters to Guam in early 1945; the site is still known as Nimitz Hill.
Archives and Primary Sources
- Naval History and Heritage Command — official U.S. Navy records, photographs, and primary documents. Start here.
- U.S. Navy official biography: Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
- Nimitz “Graybook” — Command Summary of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, 7 December 1941 – 31 August 1945 (U.S. Naval War College Archives) — the single most valuable Nimitz source online. Roughly 4,000 pages of the CINCPAC running war diary: daily estimates of the situation, dispatches, and Nimitz’s own running commentary. Digitized in eight volumes and also mirrored on the Internet Archive.
- Chester W. Nimitz Papers, 1941–1966 (MS 236) — Special Collections & Archives, Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy. Finding aid online; materials on site.
- USNA Special Collections & Archives — research guides, digital collections, and contact for reading-room access.
- National Archives — Record Group 38 (Chief of Naval Operations) and RG 313 (Naval Operating Forces) hold the operational records behind the Pacific campaigns.
- Library of Congress — photographs, maps, and newspaper coverage; most WWII-era U.S. Navy images are public domain.
- Center for Pacific War Studies and its oral history collection — National Museum of the Pacific War. Thousands of veteran interviews, plus finding aids for the museum’s own holdings.
- Handbook of Texas (Texas State Historical Association) — concise, sourced entries on Nimitz, his grandfather Charles Henry Nimitz, the Nimitz Hotel, and the museum.
Recommended Reading
- E. B. Potter, Nimitz (Naval Institute Press, 1976) — the standard full-life biography, written with access to the family and to officers who served under him. Still the starting point.
- Craig L. Symonds, Nimitz at War: Command Leadership from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay (Oxford University Press, 2022) — the best modern treatment, built heavily on the Graybook. Focused on the war years and on how Nimitz actually made decisions.
- Walter R. Borneman, The Admirals (2012) — Nimitz alongside King, Leahy, and Halsey; useful for understanding the friction between Nimitz and Ernest King.
- Ian W. Toll, Pacific War Trilogy — Pacific Crucible, The Conquering Tide, Twilight of the Gods. The best narrative account of the theater Nimitz commanded.
- Chester W. Nimitz and E. B. Potter, Sea Power: A Naval History — Nimitz’s own contribution to naval history, and a window on how he thought about it.
- Thomas B. Buell, The Quiet Warrior — Spruance biography; essential context for Nimitz’s most important subordinate.
Ships, Memorials, and Namesakes
- USS Nimitz (CVN-68) — official homepage. Lead ship of the Nimitz class, commissioned 1975; see also the Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet page.
- Nimitz Hill, Guam — site of the CINCPAC advance headquarters, 1945.
- Nimitz Highway, Honolulu, and the Nimitz Freeway (I-880), Oakland, California.
- Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis.
- Dozens of public schools across Texas, Hawaii, and California — and the Admiral Nimitz Foundation, which operates the Fredericksburg museum.
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