Special Collections: Primary Resources in Politics, Policy and Government Research Guide

Diplomatic and professional papers of George S. Messersmith (1883-1960). Consists of correspondence, memoranda, and official dispatches written during Messersmith's tenure with the U.S. Department of State, as well as during his subsequent business career. The extensive typescript of an unpublished memoir is also present. The papers include extensive discussions of political and economic matters regarding Europe during the 1930s and Latin America in the 1940s and 1950s.

The Robert Underwood Johnson Collection comprises 2 linear feet of correspondence, manuscripts, personal papers, printed material, photographs, and realia of American poet, editor, and diplomat R.U. Johnson (1853-1937). In addition to his literary and diplomatic pursuits, Johnson, together with naturalist John Muir, instigated the movement which resulted in the creation of Yosemite National Park.

The George Handy Bates Samoan papers comprise correspondence, documents, memoranda, clippings, photographs, and other material relating to George Handy Bates' tenure as a special investigator into Samoan affairs beginning in 1886, and as a commissioner to the 1889 Berlin Conference on Samoan Affairs. With more than 140 photographs of persons and scenic views of Samoa, Pago Pago, Fiji, and Hawaii, these papers are valuable for studying the culture and history of the South Pacific, particularly during the 1880s. The issues of colonialism and foreign intervention are chronicled in these papers.

Reverend George F. Kettell letters to his daughters, while he was serving as the U. S. Consul to the Grand Duchy of Baden in Karlsruhe, Germany from 1866-1869.

George Gray (1840-1925) was a politician and judge from New Castle, Delaware. A member of the Democratic party, he served as a United States Senator from Delaware from 1885-1899. He was later appointed to the U.S. Circuit Court, Third District from 1899-1914, and served as a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. Records in this collection include correspondence and legal papers, primarily documenting his career as a judge and arbiter. An index of papers in the collection is included.

Peter Strickland (1837-1922, of Connecticut) was a shipmaster, merchant, and U.S. consul in the French colony of Senegal. The 13 volumes of diaries and letter books in this collection, 1857 to 1912, vary in content but largely document his life as a merchant, both on the sea as well as in Senegal. Issues of two French colonial weekly newspapers contextualize events of the French colony during Strickland’s time in Senegal. The collection documents West African trading by Europeans and Americans.

Kay Boyle, born in 1902, is best known for her work and accomplishments as a poet, short story writer, novelist, journalist, teacher, and political activist. One of the prominent American expatriates during the 1920s and 1930s, much of Kay Boyle's work reflects the influences of that literary circle. The Kay Boyle papers relating to the Citizens' Mission to Cambodia, spanning from 1960-1979, consists of diaries, correspondence, books, periodicals, news clippings, reports, speeches, audio recording tapes, a photograph, and poems, documenting controversial aspects of the ground war in Vietnam and its possible expansion into Cambodia through the recorded thoughts and actions of Kay Boyle and the Citizens' Mission to Cambodia. Additional items capture the evolution of political Cambodia well into the 1970s through various publications and articles.