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Here we see plans of four different types of 6in gun used by the US Navy and developed between 1883 and 1899.
The first three guns are all variations of the same basic design, which entered service in 1885. They used gunpowder or brown powder, and weren't considered strong enough to use the newer smokeless powder developed by 1898.
The fourth gun was developed in 1898 and entered service in 1903 and was used on the Maine class and Virginia class battleships and on several types of cruiser and armoured cruiser. They remained in use throughout the First World War, but most of the ships they were carried on were scrapped soon after the war, and their guns moved to coastal batteries.