Scope and Content Note
The papers of Courtney Letts de Espil span the years 1925-1994 with the bulk of the material dating from the 1930s and 1940s. The papers are in English and Spanish and primarily consist of diaries, writings, correspondence, news clippings, and photographs.
The diaries form the centerpiece of the papers, in particular the eight notebooks of detailed writings covering de Espil's ten years as the Argentine ambassador's wife in Washington, D.C., 1933-1943. Many social events of political Washington are described recounting the food, the table settings, and the conversations. The Espils were friendly with many well-known politicians, reporters, State Department officials, and diplomats of New Deal Washington. There are numerous entries in the diaries concerning Adolf Augustus Berle and Beatrice Berle, Charles Evans Hughes and Antoinette Hughes, Cordell and Frances Hull, Harold L. Ickes, Arthur and Martha Krock, Carlos Saavedra Lamas, Henry and Elinor Morgenthau, Drew Pearson, Arthur H. Vandenberg and Hazel Vandenberg, Henry Agard Wallace and Ilo Wallace, and Sumner and Mathilde Welles. During these years, Courtney Letts de Espil was especially good friends with Mathilde Welles, wife of Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles, and with Frances Hull, wife of Secretary of State Cordell Hull. The long conflict at the State Department between Hull and Welles is documented from the perspective of the wives through conversations and impressions reported in the diaries and correspondence in the Correspondence series. An edited and typed version of the Washington diaries appears in the writings series as Courtney de Espil's memoirs, "Washington in the Time of Franklin D. Roosevelt" which has an index that can be helpful in finding entries in both the memoirs and the diaries.
The first three notebooks date from 1927 and describe the cruise Courtney and John Borden, her husband at the time, took to the Alaskan Arctic. These notebooks formed the basis of her 1928 book The Cruise of the Northern Light. After October 1943, the diaries recount the Espils's return to Argentina, other diplomatic assignments, and life in Argentina during the rule of Juan Perón.
The Correspondence series contains primarily incoming correspondence. Notable correspondents include George Bush, Frances Hull, Adlai E. Stevenson II (the prologue to "Washington in the Time of Franklin D. Roosevelt," in the Writings series, explains the relationship to Stevenson), Sumner and Mathilde Welles, and Edward and Wallis Warfield, Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
The Writings series includes "Washington in the Time of Franklin D. Roosevelt," with a prologue and epilogue written in 1994, other drafts, and some published material. La Esposa del Embajador is an abbreviated account of Courtney de Espil's ten years in the Argentine embassy in Washington. After leaving the United States to live in Argentina, Courtney Letts de Espil became interested in the history of United States-Argentine diplomatic relations, and most of her writings after 1943 reflect this interest.
In addition to photographs of the Espils, the Miscellany series and Oversize include photographs of Sumner and Mathilde Welles and Frances Hull. Many other photographs are in a scrapbook that also contains news clippings and correspondence.