Scope and Content Note
The papers of Florence Jaffray Hurst Harriman (1870-1967) span the years 1857-1982 with the bulk of the material dating from 1910 to 1960. The papers are organized in the following series: Personal Correspondence, Oslo Correspondence, Subject Files (in two chronological sections), Speech and Article File, Miscellany, and Additions.
The Personal Correspondence primarily contains family correspondence. The Oslo Correspondence series, 1937-1940, pertains to Harriman's service as the United States minister to Norway, a post she had to abandon following the Nazi invasion of Norway in 1940.
The rest of the papers contain a wide variety of material reflecting Harriman's broad interests and activities throughout her long and vigorous life. She was a member of the U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations, 1913-1916, and chairman of the U.S. National Defense Advisory Commission's Committee on Women in Industry, 1917-1919. She worked on behalf of world peace organizations and for the League of Nations. She helped organize and then served as director of the American Red Cross Women's Motor Corps in France during World War I. She cofounded the Colony Club in New York City and the Woman's National Democratic Club in Washington, D.C. Harriman became one of Washington's great hostesses, regularly having Sunday evening dinner parties for the politically well-connected at her home. Late in life, Harriman worked on behalf of home rule for the District of Columbia. Material is lacking on her service, 1906-1918, as a member of the board of managers of the Bedford Reformatory for Women in New York.
Notable correspondents include Bernard M. Baruch, Irving Berlin, Albert Einstein, Duke Ellington, Helen Hayes, Cordell Hull, Harold L. Ickes, Estes Kefauver, Archibald Macleish, George C. Marshall, Claude Pepper, John J. Pershing, Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Oswald Garrison Villard, and Wendell L. Wilkie.
Addition I contains correspondence and an autograph album. The correspondence is primarily professional and pertains to Harriman's political activities and involvement in social reform movements as well as her service as minister to Norway. The autograph album contains notes signed by many notable people, including William Gibbs McAdoo, John J. Pershing, and Woodrow Wilson. Also in the album is a pencil drawing with watercolor by the Dutch cartoonist Louis Raemaekers.
Addition II includes a scrapbook, correspondence, speeches and writings, transcripts of radio broadcasts, news clippings, and photographs. The scrapbook, which documents Harriman's work in Woodrow Wilson's 1912 presidential campaign, is available on microfilm only. Correspondence from William Gibbs McAdoo and John J. Pershing document the close personal relationship Harriman had with both of these men. Other notable correspondents in Addition II include Franklin D. Roosevelt, Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, and Woodrow Wilson.